Purpose of Government by dstayton

Ideas from John Locke

dstayton — 2014-03-12 13:51:04 UTC

dstayton — 2014-03-12 13:56:25 UTC

What is Right to Revolution

dstayton — 2014-03-14 12:41:41 UTC

The real purpose of the Second Amendment, is to guarantee the right of revolution. If the government ever becomes too oppressive, the American people are able to rise up and overthrow it. There are limitations to what oppressive government is

Vocab

dstayton — 2014-03-19 12:58:30 UTC

dstayton — 2014-03-19 13:20:05 UTC

Republic A state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch. Social Contract An implicit agreement among the members of a society to cooperate for social benefits, for example by sacrificing some individual freedom for state protection. Direct Democracy Is a form of democracy in which people decide (e.g. vote on, form consensus on, etc.) policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then decide policy initiatives. Representative Democracy Is a variety of democracy founded on the principle of elected officials representing a group of people, as opposed to direct democracy. Limited Government In a limited government, the power of government to intervene in the exercise of civil liberties is restricted by law, usually in a written constitution. Checks and Balances Counterbalancing influences by which an organization or system is regulated, typically those ensuring that political power is not concentrated in the hands of individuals or groups. Federalism The distribution of power in an organization (as a government) between a central authority and the constituent units.

Link to the Declaration of Independence

dstayton — 2014-03-19 13:25:01 UTC

Difference Between a Republic and Pure Democracy

dstayton — 2014-03-19 13:29:13 UTC

The difference between the to is that a republic is when the government has the the most say in laws when the people are only able to vote on some laws. A pure democracy is when the government is the people where they vote on everything and the majority wins. For example is when a criminal is caught and the people vote to kill him. If it was a republic then a sheriff would stop the vote and take the criminal to prison to be judged by the government. If it where a pure democracy then when the people vote, the majority would win and there would be no laws to stop them.

dstayton — 2014-03-19 13:53:20 UTC

John Locke ideas for a pure democracy was the ground work for the U.S. government. He believed that if people voted on everything then there would be a perfect alliance between all humans. He said that if humans worked together they accomplish more then by themselfs.

Reasons of the Declaration of Independence

dstayton — 2014-03-19 14:15:16 UTC

The three main points in the Declaration of Independence are the following:

All men possess certain unalienable rights. These rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
King George III had violated colonists' rights by passing unfair laws including taxing the colonists without their consent.
The colonies had a right to break free from Britain because King George had broken the social contract.

Reason for Bill of Rights

dstayton — 2014-03-19 14:18:55 UTC

The most important reason for the Bill of Rights was, and remains, to constrain the government. What it means is that it protects individual rights and freedom. It says that the people themselves--or at least white male landowners of a certain age--could vote for their own representatives, and hold those representatives accountable on a regular basis. This meant that the people had nothing to fear from an unaccountable monarch. If they didn't like the policies their representatives were implementing, so went the theory, then they could choose new representatives to undo the bad policies and write better policies.