Ch. 1 - Roots, Context, and Culture: American Government

ORIGINS OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT

• New inhabitants of North America

  • Brought Disease, warfare, and displacement to the Native

• Many ethnicities came (English, Dutch, Spanish, German, Finnish, etc.)

  • These different colonies set up their own different governments

    • Different in form, role, and function

• With movements such as The Enlightenment, colonies began to seek independence from the monarchy

FUNCTIONS OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT

• Founding Fathers set up the government to best serve citizen’s interests by:

• ESTABLISHING JUSTICE

  • A system of laws and principles states must follow, therefore, congress may control lower courts to better dispense justice.

• ENSURE DOMESTIC TRANQUILITY

  • The government may take extreme measures to contain a threat. (From withing the U.S and abroad)

  • Police force, National Guard, Army, etc.

• PROVIDING FOR THE COMMON DEFENSE

  • President is the commander in chief of the army, Congress may raise an army with a considerable budget.

• PROMOTING THE GENERAL WELFARE

  • Social Security, Welfare Checks, Highways, Funding for local public schools, etc.

• SECURING THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY

  • Citizens may critique, protest, assemble, etc. as long as it doesn’t infringe on anybody’s rights.

THE CHANGING AMERICAN PUBLIC:

• The characteristics of Americans determine our government

• RACIAL COMPOSITION

  • Many races make up the U.S; makes citizen’s interests harder to define