1. Kristopher Bryant, Lisa Harrison, Kathy Schreiber, & marlenemendoza (group three) Summary of Lesson One: Theories of Government

2. What is a government & what does it do? Government is the institution in a society that enforces public policies which are all the things a government decides to do like health care, criminal and civil law, defense, ect. Government is also when all states are politically organized with a central authority so that anarchy doesn’t occur. There are all types of governments from dictatorships, parliamentary, federal, confederate, unitary and many more. No two governments are exactly alike and all function in different ways.

3. Why did governments form? There are various theories like the force theory (that people were forced to submit to a group because they were overpowered), Evolutionary (that the state developed out of family units), Divine right theory(that the right to rule cam directly from God) and the social contract( A theory that people consented to give up some of their rights so that they were protected).

4. Basis of our government… The ideas that our forefathers used came from a guy named John Locke. He was a English Enlightenment philosopher that came up with idea of natural rights after imagining life in a state of nature. These rights included Life, Liberty, and Property (Thomas Jefferson changed property into “Pursuit of Happiness”) and those natural rights are in the United States Constitution. Our constitution and all constitutions state a countries laws, customs, and traditions that set a foundation for how the government is supposed to operate and a type of higher law.

5. About US Government The US now has a representative Democracy (confederacy was first tried but was unsuccessful). Basically there are three branches in our government the Legislative(which make public policies and laws), Executive (execute laws as well as enforce and administer them), and Judicial (they interpret and determine laws meanings…ex Supreme Court). The US government also uses a system of checks and balances to ensure that not any one branch can gain to much power.

6. Other Types of Governments… Presidential- executive and legislative branches are independent and coequal Parliamentary- Members of the executive branch are also members of the legislative branch (the parliament) Dictatorship- Participation in government is limited to the individual or group who rules Direct Democracy-All people participate directly indecision making Representative Democracy-A small group of people chosen by the people make decisions