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Politics

Politics. (Sometimes) giving people what they want. What is the point of government?. People want stuff! Healthcare Security Education Cat food Shelter Orange juice. Two faces of politics. Descriptive Collecting facts Making models Predictions Normative How politics should work

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Politics

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Presentation Transcript

  1. Politics (Sometimes) giving people what they want

  2. What is the point of government? • People want stuff! • Healthcare • Security • Education • Cat food • Shelter • Orange juice

  3. Two faces of politics • Descriptive • Collecting facts • Making models • Predictions • Normative • How politics should work • How society should be organized • Who should get what • What is the best/worst form of government? • What is “best,” “fair?”

  4. Politics is very political • Honest, rational debates are not always possible, because vested interests have a stake in the arguments out come • Hot, flashy, political terms lose meaning from misuse • Conservative, republican, liberal, democrat, pinko, flip-flopper, mormon, environmentalism, national security, abortion, gay rights, gay marriage, teen pregnancy, vaccination, the second ammendment, gun control • Marx: “I am not a Marxist anymore!” (paraphrase)

  5. Governments are rule makers • You must pay a portion of your salary to the government (taxes) • You must wear clothes in public places (indecent exposure) • You must not yell “fire!” in a crowded theatre (constraints on free speech) • You must not kill others (manslaughter, homicide) • You must not drive your car too fast or too slow! (traffic laws) • You can’t drive you’re car one day/week (Beijing traffic law)

  6. How do governments enforce laws? • Fines • Jail time • Beating • Humiliation • Execution

  7. Life without government • Perfect freedom or perfect chaos? • Hobbes social contract: “…that a man be willing, when others are so too … to lay down this right to all things; and be contented with so much liberty against other men, as he would allow other men against himself.” • Do you gain more than you give up? • A move away from the state of nature, where violence is a legitimate means of acquiring things, and only the strongest (or most ruthless) survive, as all others fear that person or persons • A very unequal set of circumstances – are we better off when a government alone holds the power of violence, and its authority makes outside violence “uninteresting,” or not to the advantages of the people. Does this give us safety, harmony?

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