Government Quiz 1

Government: “The organization, machinery, or agency through which a political unit exercises authority and performs functions and which is usually classified according to the distribution of power within it.”

Purpose of Government varies between governmental types:

• Citizen: “A native or naturalized person who owes allegiance to a government and is entitled to protection from it.” (someone who has input into their government)

• Subject: “One who lives in the territory of, enjoys the protection of, and owes allegiance to a sovereign power or state.” (someone without input in their government)

The idea of a citizen comes from a time known as the Enlightenment (Age of Reason)

The ultimate responsibility of a government is to bring order to the people.

• In the USA, an additional responsibility of our government is to protect the citizens.

What is USA’s type of government?

• Representative Democracy: representatives make decisions, not people

In a democracy, every single person has to vote

True or false? Our world has never had an actual democracy

Kings have divine right from God - ancestral

Dictators eliminate opposition - not ancestral

What are the three branches of government?

• Executive

• Legislative

• Judicial

Who Governs?

• The elected officials in our branches of government

• Politics is how a society makes their collective decisions

How American government works?

• Our expression of politics: Ideas, Institutions, Interests, and Individuals

What our government does?

• Protect the people through social programs, such as Medicare, and provide infrastructure, like roads

• 75% of the federal budget goes to: Military spending, Social Security, Medicare, & Medicaid.

Who are we?

• Nation of Immigrants

• Nation who are politically vocal and occasionally use violence

• People who believe in American Exceptionalism

American Exceptionalism: the view that the U.S. is unique in its ideas like equality, self-rule, and limited government

Freedom: in relation to protecting your life, liberty, and property rights, has two primary components, positive and negative freedom.

Positive freedom: the idea that you can pursue your own ideas and goals with government intervention.

Negative freedom is the exact opposite, that you can do what you want without the government interfering.

Self-rule represents the idea that people may govern themselves through clearly defined procedures like elections

Limited Government: If power for the government comes from the people, it makes sense that the government should represent all the people. The only way it can represent everyone is if it is limited in its ability to have direct control over the daily lives of the citizens.

Individualism is the idea that the individual person, not the government, has responsibility for their own self-worth and is responsible for their own prosperity.

American Dream is a concept which states if you work hard and are talented then you should grow wealthy and be prosperous.

Equality allows each citizen to enjoy the same rights, responsibilities, and privileges under the law.

Religion cannot be separated from America; it exists within our government in the Constitution

Diversity: Embracing individual culture or promote homogeneity between differing cultural groups.

We are a nation of ideals: We are a nation of ideals, specifically eight that we will explore in this class. These ideals are Freedom, Self-rule, Limited government, Individualism, The American Dream, Equality, Religion, and Diversity.