Lecture Notes

 Government

o Government decides who gets what, when and how for society

o Takes value “inputs” from society and makes policy

o Based on what we (as a society) value

o Every government (whether democracy or dictatorship) must perform 3

basics functions

 Defense

 General welfare

 Order

o Different societies value different functions/roles

 How did the Government affect you today?

o Government affect your commute

 Seat belt and airbag regulations

 Maintains the roads

o Who pays the full cost of tuition at SCC?

 Taxpayers pay more than ½ of tuition

o Govt sets working conditions, minimum wage, maximum hours

 Government Has a Huge Impact on Our Lives

o Affects almost every aspect of our lives

 Daylight savings time tells you to wake up

 Regulations on water and breakfast cereal

  Student loans and Pell Grants

 Healthcare

 Obamacare allows you stay on your parents healthcare plan

until age 26

 Regulations on the Internet

 3 Functions of Every Government

o Maintain strong Defense

 US focuses on this and has the best military in the world

o Promote General Welfare

 US does much less than European countries (but has lower tax rates)

o Maintain Order

 Politics

o 2 Parts of definition

 Who gets what

 Making choices over competing values

 Limited resources: we have to decide what we care about the

most

 How

 Rules/process for voting and passing laws

 How we do something can affect the outcome

 Changing the rules can lead to different results

 Priorities

o Government sets priorities, reflecting the will of the people

 o Elderly benefit the most from gov’t programs

 Elderly (retired) was poorest age group in the 1930s (stock market

crash took away savings)

 Today they are the wealthiest, and poorest are children

o Government programs have helped elderly

 Priorities: as a society, we agreed that people who worked their whole

lives should not be homeless

o The US is the ONLY democracy in the world to NOT guarantee paid

maternity leave

 How Does “Politics” Reflect the Debate on Voting?

o Both Dems and Repubs know that people who are less educated and poorer

are more likely to vote for Republicans

 They are also more likely to stay home if voting is a hassle

o Why did Republicans want to make it harder for poor and urban residents

(who are less likely to have a driver’s license) to vote?

 These groups overwhelmingly vote for Democrats

o Dems also know that these groups tend to vote for them, so what do you

think they do?

 Democratic politicians make it easy for these people to vote

 Democrats Try to Make It Easier to Vote

o Democrat Bill Clinton signed Motor Voter Act

 Made voting registration easier to reduce “hurdle” to voting (make

voting easier)
 o 2016: Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe (Dem) restored voting rights to

13,000 ex-convicts

 Virginia is a swing state Obama barely won in 2012

 The “How” of Politics

o While voter fraud is essentially non-existent, everyone agrees Voter ID laws

help Republican politicians and hurt Democratic ones

 Similarly, Democrats know that making it easier to vote means that

more poor people (who are less likely to vote) would vote

 Rules of Impeachment Shaped the Outcome

o Impeachment in the House only requires a simple majority (50% +1)

 Democrats won control of the House of Reps in 2018 and controlled

the process in the House

 Trump was impeached in December 2019

o constitution requires 2/3 vote to convict (remove)

 Republicans control the Senate (53 to 47)

 Repub created rules to help Trump

 Ex: Repubs prevented witnesses from testifying

 Who Gets What and How in Practice?

o We make choices based on what we value

 Tax breaks versus spending cuts

o Laws also change the rules of voting (“how”) can affect the outcome

 Questions
o How does the clip on the school lunch program reflect the fight over “who

gets what”? How does this illustrate how our budget reflects our values?

 The clip about the school lunch program reflects the fight in the “who

gets what”? based off these reasonings.

 1. During the video, the presenter states how Americans visit a

Starbucks or a fast food restaurant and we spend $5 there, but

the lunches that are presented to the kids at these schools are

lunches that cost between 90 cents and a dollar – this entirely

reflects based off of what circumstances based off what

Americans value more than that of the other – we would rather

spend more money out of pocket than that of actually spending

on lunches, or even government programs, that to some

Americans, may not found as much as valuable than that of

others. Something that I may value, may not equal as to what

someone else may not find as valuable as I do.

 2. This illustrates our budget of what we may find an essential,

but it is Not essential in the long run. Such as buying a $500

Louis Vuitton belt, instead of paying for a less expensive,

everyday belt for $20. Who Gets What depends on the

individual of what they may find as a limited resource and can

afford it, while others may not have the same lifestyle and

spending as that other individual.

 o As an example: Someone buys an expensive pair of

Jordan shoes, that person is considered either wealthy,

“has money”, or just has the money to overall afford it.

An individual that does Not have the money to afford

Jordan shoes is looked at as broke and or does not have

a job when, that person just does not like those types of

shoes.

o Explain how Harold Lasswell’s definition of Politics illustrates “how” we do

something can affect the outcome

 Harold Lasswell’s definition of “how” can be defined as changing a

single rule in game for a different outcome in the end – such as the

rules being changed in the NFL a while back and the teams being able

to easily make a goal from the 2-yard line and it eventually changing

the success rate of the goal and moving it back to a 15-yard line,

dropping the success rate of it being scored – both the Eagles and the

Patriots missed that goal back in 2017

 Use the example of voter ID to explain why Democrats and

Republicans have different policies regarding voter ID laws

 For Republicans, the way they see it, if you can prevent a

person from voting Democrat, or not showing up at all, more

than likely you will win that vote and this tends to happen in

poorer areas and communities across the country, proving that

ideology
  Democrats make the voting system easier for others that

cannot hold so accordingly as like others, therefore Bill Clinton

implementing the Motor Voter Act to reduce the hurdle of

non-voters and making it more efficient for others to do so –

along with having convicts having the right to vote for who

they would like to vote for

o The US is an indirect democracy – we don’t vote directly for laws; we vote

for representatives who vote on the laws

 John Locke and the Social Contract

o State of nature is dangerous

 No laws, no courts, no police

 “Purge” movie reflects this

 Our rights are not truly protected

o We leave state of nature in order to protect our property

o Social Contract

 Agree to submit to govt in exchange for govt protecting our rights

(property)

 Collective consent: will of majority

o Framer’s borrowed heavily from Locke’s ideas of collective consent

 Government could not function if every person had to consent to

every tax (or other taking of property)

o The US Constitution sets limits on the power of govt

 Prevents the arbitrary taking of property (including person)

 Constitution Set Up to Protect Liberty

o Framers mistrusted human nature

 Believed that govt is made up of people who are corruptible

 Wanted strong vote, but limits on governmental power

o Lord Acton:

 Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely

o John Locke – Natural Rights

 Social Contract Theory

 Protection from the arbitrary power of the state

 Declaration of Independence borrows from Locke