Government

What is a citizen?Huh? Huh?

What is a citizen?

A citizen is more than someone who is born in a land and its people (or who, like me, wants to be part of it).

A citizen is someone who gives loyalty to the government and it is provided with protection in return.

Protection

Protection refers to:

The protection the nation provides from foreign and internal enemies, through the military and various institutions.

It refers to protection from injustice. (being robbed, cheated or harmed by others).

What is loyalty?Is it agreeing with everything the government does?

Is it agreeing with everything the military does?

Is it agreeing with what the majority of the people of the country believe in?

Is it agreeing with your political party?

Is it believing that your country cannot make mistakes?

Loyalty

Loyalty means that citizens obey the law, it means that they pay lawful taxes, it means that people assist in the defense of the nation and refuse to aid the enemies of the nation.

Disagree!

The United States of America believes firmly that disagreeing with the government DOES NOT mean being disloyal.

Participate!

Loyalty isn't the only thing expected of citizens of a republic.

Participation is also expected.

How?

How do you participate in your republic?

Participation

There are no real repercussions for breaking with participation, but there are punishments for breaking with loyalty.

Rights

Citizens in a republic are entitled to certain rights.

Rights are freedoms guaranteed by the constitution.

Can rights be taken away?

What do you think?

Only some...

A United States citizen can lose some of his or her rights by being convicted of a crime.

Principles

These rights are not taken away thoughtlessly, though. There are strict principles tied to this act, for example:

There must be a law. The act that leads to a suspension of a right must be against a law.

There must be a reason for the law.

Ex post facto

It cannot be an ex post facto law. That is, people who committed a crime before the law existed cannot be convicted for it.

Why do you think we cannot allow punishment ex post facto?

Trial

There must be a fair trial.

What is the object of a trial?

Is it for a person to prove he or she is innocent?

Guilty and 'not guilty'

In a trial, it is the government's task to prove the person is guilty.

It the government can't accomplish this, two things happen:

1.) The person is released by the court.

2.) The person is promised by the government that he or she won't take him or her to trial for the same crime.

Punishment

The punishment must be one allowed by the law. There are base parameters that match crimes with sentences, in order to keep similar crimes punished similarly. Cruel and unusual punishments are not allowed.

Exile

Can citizens lose their citizenship?

Jurisprudence

Afroyim vs. Rusk (1967) set the precedent, held by the fourteenth amendment, that people cannot be deprived of their citizenship, except in case of treason and denaturalization.

Treason

Treason, as we said before, refers to citizens aiding enemies of the republic or people attempting to overthrow the government.

Denaturalization is when a naturalized citizen loses his citizenship because the person became a citizen through fraud or lied in the oath of allegiance.

Democratic participation

Participation

Referendum: A yes or no vote open to the public in order to approve a law before it goes into effect.

Though some laws are brought to the public via referendum, most decisions are made through elected public officials (representative democracy).

Why elect officials?

Responsibility: Elected officials are accountable for their performance, giving the opportunity to the people to not reelect officials. This in turn prevents absolute governments.

Peaceful Succession: It prevents violent struggles when rulers die.

Why?

Consideration for public opinion: elected officials have to consider the wishes of the majority and the opinions of the minority.

VotingFor a significant amount of time, there were lots of restrictions to voting:

Slavery and racism: Slaves and afro descendants could not vote.

Women could not vote.

Voting age was 21.

People had to pay a "poll tax". Those were taxes that had to be paid in order to be eligible to vote.

Evolution of voting rights

Before 1870- Only white males.

After 1870- All males over 21.

After 1920- All males and females over 21.

After 1971- All males and females 18 and over.

Fundamental Rights

Freedom of speech: citizens are free to express their opinions and join

Freedom of press: citizens are free to publish their opinions.

Freedom of Assembly: citizens are allowed to meet and create organizations.

Rights

Freedom of petition: People have the right to ask from the government to do or not do something, or do it differently.

These four rights are the first amendment rights.

What is protected under the first amendment?

Protected

Public expression must not violate the rights of others.

An individual may express his public opinion on politics, but he is not legally allowed to spray paint slogans on private property.

Political Parties

Political Parties can be viewed as teams of citizens that compete with other teams in order to get as many of their members into public office as possible.

The goal of this is to win elections in order to gain control of the government and determine public policy by majority.

The Divide

These 'Teams' differ in various issues, one of the main being the role that government should play in people's lives.

This disagreement has existed since the creation of the American constitution in 1787.

Origins

In a way, the history of political parties can be traced all the way to England, but more directly to the presidency of George Washington.

Thomas Jefferson, then secretary of state, felt that Washington was taking on too much authority as president.

Direct origin

On the other hand, Alexander Hamilton, then secretary of the treasury, felt that Washington needed to take on greater authority in his presidency.

Parties began to form around these two figures and their ideas.

The Two Party System

It is a system used in many democracies around the world.

In it, two strong parties hold most of the control over the government.

The Two Party System is not a part of the constitution, it is a natural event.

Two parties

1. The Two parties are over 100 years old.

2. They represent the most constant features of American politics.

3. Most threats to the two party system have not survived.

Why not more parties?

Many people today feel strongly about changing the current system.

A consideration in favor of opening up to more parties is to 'freshen' the ideas of how to govern.

A consideration against is that the constitution requires a majority in order to be elected.

Majority and Plurality

Majority: one candidate receives more than half the votes cast.

Plurality: a candidate receives more votes than any other candidate.

Plurality can be less than majority if more than two candidates are running for office.

Third Party

Since 1860 every American President has been either a Democrat or a Republican.

Politics in America, since the beginning, have worked on two parties: Federalists vs. Democratic Republicans; DEmocratic-Republicans vs. Whigs; Democrats vs. Republicans.

Third party

Many times, people fall out of the interests of both groups, and they form a THIRD PARTY.

Third Parties

Third parties in the US have been historically not very strong and supported by many.

The Republican Party itself was once a third party, and has been the only one in the history of the US to completely replace one of the two major parties.

Bull Moose

in 1912, Republican president and major 'bad behind' Theodore Roosevelt left the Republican Party. No party was manly enough for him, so he created the 'Bull Moose' party (its less manly name being the Progressive party).

Roosevelt

Roosevelt came in second for president by gaining more votes than the Republican candidate.

Wallace

In 1968, Governor George Wallace of Alabama formed the American Independent Party.

This party won most votes in five states and received more popular votes than any party in history.