Chapter1-The Study of American Government Flashcards
Authority
Rightful use of power
Authorized official power
Bureaucratic view
- Max Weber(German scholar, founder of sociology)
- All institutions are under control of bureaucracies
- Capitalists/workers/coalition of elites may come to power of government and legislative process enacted are under bureaucrats who operate the government
- power is appointed officials unknown to elites and citizens
- bureaucrats make government suit their own interest
Democracy
“Rule of the many” Aristotelian ideal
Government by the people
Both directly or indirectly with free and frequent elections
Direct(participatory) democracy
- Government in which citizens vote on laws and select officials directly
- Citizens directly participate in policy making and office holding
Elite
Group of people with unequal share of political power
Legitimacy
-political authority guaranteed by legal document
Marxist view
- Karl Marx(modern socialist thought)
- even under democratic principles, the government reflects economic forces
- two economic classes that struggle for power:capitalists and workers
- the one that dominates the economy will also dominate government
- government: device for giving legal effect to lower classes
Power elite view
- C. Wright Mills(mid-twentieth century American sociologist)
- politics&gov=corporate leaders, top military officials, elected officials
- American democracy is dominated by a small group of top leaders mostly not involved in government directly and are wealthy or with status/position
- Top communications media and labor unions officials may be added
Pluralist view
- important resources are widely dispersed in society that no single group has monopoly on anything.
- so many groups with power(ex:state, city) that no one dominates
- mass public opinion also affect gov
- interest have a chance to affect outsome
Power
Ability to influence other people’s actions
Representative democracy
- Joseph Schumpeter
- Elitist theory of democracy(impractical in effort but practical in decision making)
- “Republican form of government”(Constitution)=representative democracy
- Framers of Constitution believed that government should mediate, not mirror views(favored rep dem)
Plato
- Ancient Greece
- “The republic”
- Believed in a structured political society
- The ideal society consists of three main ideas of people(producers, warriors, guardians
- each group must perform its appropriate function and only that function
- Philosopher king is ideal ruler
- born into a social class and will stay
Thomas Hobbes
- Born in England
- Book:Leviathan
- life in the state of nature is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”
- Best government is ruler with absolute power
- thought people gave up freedom to a ruler to be safe(“social contract”)
John Locke
- English philosopher
- “two treatise on government”
- people are naturally reasonable
- born with natural rights
- basic rights: life,liberty, property
- people have rights to rebel against the govern If it didn’t protect their natural rights
- governments power comes from the “consent of the governed”
Charles Montesquieu
- France
- separation of powers(lej)
Jean Jacques Rousseau
- French Philosopher
- “The Social Contract”
- “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains”
- believed that civilized societies caused people to behave badly
- “General Will”=shared values, customs
- favored rules of maj
Francois Voltaire
-French Enlightenment Writer
-defended “civil liberties” including
“freedom of Religion”
“right to a fair trial”
“free speech”
“I do not agree with a word you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”-Evelyn Beatrice Hal
