Politics is a process by which a group of people, whose opinions or interests might be divergent, reach collective decisions that are generally regarded as binding on the group and enforced as common policy.

Politics is a process by which a group of people, whose opinions or interests might be divergent, reach collective decisions that are generally regarded as binding on the group and enforced as common policy. Political life enables people to accomplish goals they could not realize as individuals. Politics necessarily arises whenever groups of people live together, since they must always reach collective decisions of one kind or another.

Government is the formal institutions of a society with the authority to make and implement binding decisions about such matters as the distribution of resources, allocation of benefits and burdens, and the management of conflicts.

 Differing assumptions about the proper relationship between civic and private life influence ideas about the purposes of government. Differing ideas about the purposes of government have profound consequences for the well-being of individuals and society. For example, if one believes that the activities of government should be restricted to providing for the security of the lives and property of citizens, one might believe in placing severe restrictions on the right of government to intrude into their private or personal lives. On the other hand, if one believes that the moral character of the individual should be a public or civic matter, one might support a broad range of laws and regulations concerning private behavior and belief.

 Differing ideas about the purposes of government have profound consequences for the well-being of individuals and society.

 Citizens need to understand competing ideas about civic life, politics, and government so that they can make informed judgments about what government should and should not do, how they are to live their lives together, and how to support the proper use of authority or combat the abuse of political power.

1. Defining civic life, politics, and government.

1. Be able to explain the meaning of the terms civic life, politics, and government.

 To achieve this standard, students should be able to

 ◦distinguish between civic life--the public life of the citizen concerned with the affairs of the community and nation--and private life--the personal life of the individual devoted to the pursuit of private interests

◦describe politics as the process by which a group of people, whose opinions or interests might be divergent,

 ■reach collective decisions that are generally regarded as binding on the group and enforced as common policy

■seek the power to influence decisions about such matters as how their government will manage the distribution of resources, allocation of benefits and burdens, and management of conflicts

■accomplish goals they could not realize as individuals

[Without government:] No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

 Thomas Hobbes (1651)

◦describe government as the formal institutions with the authority to make and implement binding decisions about such matters as the distribution of resources, the allocation of benefits and burdens, and the management of conflicts

 ■define political authority, identify its sources and functions, and differentiate between authority and power without authority

■identify examples of formal institutions with the authority to control and direct the behavior of those in a society, e.g., tribal councils, courts, monarchies, democratic legislatures

1.Necessity of politics and government.

2. Students should be able to explain the major arguments advanced for the necessity of politics and government.

 To achieve this standard, students should be able to

 ◦explain why politics is found wherever people gather together, i.e., it is a process by which a group of people reach collective decisions generally regarded as binding on the group and enforced as common policy

We hold these Truths to be self- evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights...That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men.

Declaration of Independence (1776)

◦explain several major arguments for the necessity of politics and government, e.g., because human beings

■cannot fulfill their potential without politics and government

■are sinful or depraved by nature

■would be insecure or endangered without government

■working collectively can accomplish goals and solve problems they could not achieve alone

◦describe historical and contemporary examples of how governments have reflected these major arguments

1.The purposes of politics and government.

3. Students should be able to evaluate, take, and defend positions on competing ideas regarding the purposes of politics and government and their implications for the individual and society.

 To achieve this standard, students should be able to

 ◦explain competing ideas about the purposes of politics and government, e.g.,

■improving the moral character of citizens

■furthering the interests of a particular class or ethnic group

■achieving a religious vision

■promoting individual security and public order

■enhancing economic prosperity

■protecting individual rights

■promoting the common good

■providing for a nation's security

A purpose of government is to inbreed and cherish in a great people the seeds of virtue, and public civility. John Milton (1641)

◦describe historical and contemporary examples of governments which serve these purposes

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. James Madison (1788)

◦explain how the purposes served by a government affect relationships between the individual and government and between government and society as a whole, e.g., the purpose of promoting a religious vision of what society should be like may require a government to restrict individual thought and actions and place strict controls on the whole of society