Summary
PLSI Chapter 1 Summary
- Course
- PLSI 2
- Institution
- California State University - Fresno
Detailed Chapter 1 Summary for PLSI 2. All for YOU!!
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Kristen Scheidt10/17/18
Poli Sci 1
Chapter 1 Outline
Why Government? Why Politics?
1. What is government?
a. institutions and processes that make decisions for society as a whole
b. On the city, county, state, or country level
c. Create laws and regulations people must follow
d. U.S National Government
i. Congress, president, federal courts, and many federal
bureaucracies
ii. Includes 50 state governments and all local governments
2. Why Government?
a. Values of freedom, equality, security and morality central to govt.
b. Freedom vs. Order
i. Individual rights as well as laws to promote public safety
ii. Zero-sum relationship: one decreases, the other increases
3. Power Problem - give the government enough power to create laws and order in society
while also limiting power so that the government can be held accountable not to control
the people
a. Weak govt. / failed states - gathering place for criminals
4. Politics
a. Democratic political system
i. Conservatives and liberals often take different sides
b. Not much in Constitution about government power during emergency
c. A lot of the government left up to opinions
i. How much power the government should have
ii. What is the role of the govt.
d. Seems we argue about size of govt. But really we argue about the role of the
govt.
5. Justice - treated fairly
a. Has a moral or ethical component
b. We often fight for justice even if acts don’t seem just to others
c. John Rawls - Justice is most important in social and political circles
i. Theory of Justice - m
akes sense to give up some of our liberties and
submit to authority
d. Political Science
i. Justice - A person will get what he or she deserves (good or bad)
e. Retributive Justice - punishment for wrongdoing
i. Criminal justice system
ii. Law of retribution - punishment should fit the crime
, f. Restorative Justice - restoring someone to a better person (rehab)
i. Also used in criminal justice system
g. Distributive Justice - the distribution of valuables among people in society
i. Material (money, housing…) and nonmaterial (respect, power…)
ii. Distributed equally based on what is earned
6. State of Nature: Life Before or Without Government
a. Explains the origin of govt.
b. Thomas Hobbes
i. Being in a state of nature was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”
because people are selfish
ii. Human nature for strong to take advantage of weak
iii. Social Contract theorist - trade individual freedoms in order to keep order,
security, justice….
iv. Leviathan - s trong government to keep order
c. President Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address - people lead by “the better
angels of our nature.”
7. John Locke
a. An Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government
i. People within their freedoms make decisions as they see fit within the
laws of nature and without the consideration of any other man
ii. No one should harm another in their life, health, liberty, or possessions
iii.
b. Law of nature rules
8. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
a. The Social Contract
i. People are born free so why do they choose to live under govt.
ii. Why do we need govt.?
9. Influences of the American Founders
a. Locke believed people should live in a state of nature under the govt. because
the govt. protected their freedoms
b. Natural rights greatly influenced writers of Declaration of Independence
i. DOI - Revolution was necessary to help establish those unalienable rights
10. The Social Contract Theory of Government
a. Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau
b. people create governments by entering into written or unwritten agreements to
live together under a particular form of government
i. Contract binds them to those rights in social community
c. Our social contract is the Constitution
d. Popular sovereignty - belief that the people are their own rulers,and the people
are the main source of govt.
i. Authority is based on the consent of the people
e. John Stuart Mill
i. On Liberty
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