Do Now

1. Do Now Do you believe too much power will make one person abusive? What about yourself? Why? • Prepare for the vocab quiz • No vocab charts due next week!!!

2. Objective: Explain Montesqueiu’s concept of a separation of powers and analyze its application to the U.S. government Guiding Question: Where did we get the ideas for the U.S. government? Montesquieu

3. Agenda • Do NOW • Vocab quiz • Vocab quiz grading • Project Intro • Montesquieu notes • Montesquieu reading • Discussion • Montesquieu Brainpop video • Exit ticket-Montesquieu

4. Reminder • If you miss days, it is your responsibility to come in to find out what you missed • You will need to complete the classwork you missed and schedule a time to make up the exit ticket

5. Vocab Charts due Monday 8/19 • Secede • First Great Awakening • Second Great Awakening • Missouri Compromise • Compromise of 1850 • Kansas-Nebraska Act • Dred Scott Decision • Nullify • Civil War

6. Montesquieu: Background • Montesquieu was a political thinker who lived in France During the Enlightenment • He was born in 1689 and died in 1755

7. Separation of Powers: His Big Idea • Montesquieu believed in a separation of powers • Separation of Powers means that the state is divided into different branches, with independent powers • No one branch can have more power than the others Montesquieu believed deeply in independence

8. Separation of Powers: His Big Idea • He believed that the government has three jobs: making laws, carrying out laws, and judging disagreements about the law • He thought these three jobs should be separated into three branches of government What are the names of these three branches in our government today?

9. Connection to the U.S. Government • The U.S. government was built around this idea to prevent any one branch from becoming corrupt or getting too much power Montesqueiu’s idea was like a balancing act

10. Discussion TPS (in notes) • If there is a Democratic president, a Democratic majority in Congress, and justices selected by a Democratic president, does Separation of Powers fail? No TPS • Does Separation of Powers work better or worse with two parties? • Can you think of a situation where not separating power might be a good thing? • Is mankind better in “medium or extremes?”

11. Obama and deadlock • The most recent example of a deadlock was during Obama’s first term. • Healthcare, gun legislation, gay marriage etc. First Turn, Last Turn Considering what we have just learned about deadlocks and SoP, do you think power should be concentrated or separated among different branches? • I believe power should be separated (or concentrated) because…

12. PCoD Who is GWB? Who is being excluded? Is this Separation of Powers as Montesquieu imagined it? Why?

13. Exit Ticket (5-8 sentences) • Mild option: Explain the idea of Separation of Powers. Do you think it is better to have a Separation of powers or a dictatorship? Why? • Spicy option: “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” What would Montesquieu think about this quote? Connect this quote to the idea of Separation of powers.

14. Exit Ticket rewrite • How are Locke and Hobbes different in terms of their views on government and its use of power. How does it connect to the state of nature. Whose views do you agree with more? • Use a quotation from both Locke and Hobbes • Check to make sure you used it correctly and followed the rules of quotations • Explain your quotation

15. Do NOW • Should people meet a certain educational requirement to vote in our Democracy? Why or why not? Note Tomorrow, you will work on your Political Thinkers Dialogue. Come in with an issue or event to discuss.

16. Daily Objective • Explain and debate the merits of Rousseau’s Social Contract Theoryscoring a 2.7 or higher on an exit ticket paragraph.

17. Agenda • Do NOW • Rousseau Notes • Rousseau Reading • Individual vs. Majority Video • Exit Ticket

18. Rousseau’s State of Nature • In the state of nature, humans are blank slates, without ideas or notions of morality. • We enjoy the physical freedom of having no restraints on our behavior. • By entering into the social contract, we place restraints on our behavior, which make it possible to live in a community.

19. Social Contract • The Social Contract is the belief that the government only exists to serve the will of the people, and they are the source of all political power enjoyed by the government. • The will of the people as a whole gives power and direction to the state. • The Social Contract is between you and the government. You exchange natural freedoms for protection. In this case, the government consists of individuals.

20. A real contract? • The contract is not affirmed by each individual separately so much as it is affirmed by the group collectively. Thus, the group collectively is more important than each individual that makes it up. The sovereign and the general will are more important than its subjects and their particular wills.

21. Quote Analysis • “by each giving himself to all, each gives himself to nobody.” • Is it easier to corrupt an individual or a group?

22. Discussion • Are people truly free under the Social Contract? • What if the majority wants to take away the rights of the minority? • Racism

23. Malleable ‘Where the individuals are not corrupt, conflicts and other crises do no harm; where they are corrupt, the best planned laws are useless, unless the laws are imposed by someone who uses ruthless methods to make people obey him, until the individuals themselves become good’ (76) ‘But men change as they grow older, even if their circumstances do not’ (83) Constant ‘Men are by nature envious’ (59) ‘Men do not feel secure in the possession of their property unless they are constantly acquiring more’ (68) ‘for men […] are born, live, and die in the same way as they always have done’ (73) ‘…that the world is always in the same overall condition’ (82) ‘Human appetites are insatiable. It is in man’s nature […] to want to desire all things’ (83) Human Nature