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Power, Authority and Legitimacy

Power, Authority and Legitimacy. Don’t forget: “President Obama on Iraq” tonight at 8. Parable of the Isms. ANARCHISM: You have two cows. You steal your neighbor's bull and ignore the government.

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Power, Authority and Legitimacy

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  1. Power, Authority and Legitimacy Don’t forget: “President Obama on Iraq” tonight at 8

  2. Parable of the Isms • ANARCHISM: You have two cows. You steal your neighbor's bull and ignore the government. • BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows. • CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. • DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. A vote is held, and the cows win. • DICTATORSHIP: You have two cows. The government takes both cows and drafts you. • LIBERTARIANISM: Go away. What I do with my cows is none of your business. • NAZISM: You have two cows. The government takes both and then shoots you. • SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes one of them and gives it to your neighbor. • UNITED NATIONISM: You have two cows. France vetoes you from milking them. The United States and Britain veto the cows from milking you. New Zealand abstains.

  3. Who governs, and to what ends? • What determines who governs in a society? • What is power? • How do people exercise power? • Who do you think has power in our society? • Who “really” governs? • In a democracy, what is the right to use power based on? • What makes democratic governments legitimate? • According to Locke, what is the sole purpose of a legitimate government?

  4. How far can “legitimate” government go? But though men, when they enter into society, give up the equality, liberty, and executive power they had in the state of nature, into the hands of the society, to be so far disposed of by the legislative, as the good of the society shall require;…the power of the society, or legislative…, can never be supposed to extend farther, than the common good; but is obliged to secure every one's property, by providing against those three defects (of the SoN, i.e., lack of settled laws, executors of the law, and impartial judges) above mentioned, that made the state of nature so unsafe and uneasy. - - Locke’s 2nd Treatise

  5. Which might be considered legitimate uses of governmental power? • Limiting the amount of gas you can use during a fuel crisis? • Requiring every person to carry a national ID card? • Banning smoking in restaurants and bars? • Requiring higher fuel economy standards on cars produced in 2011? • Providing health care to children? To adults?

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