What is Civics?

Why study it?

Why do we need governments?

What type of governments exist?

• Civics is the study of the rights and duties of citizens.

• Citizens have rights and responsibilities. Citizens agree to accept the government’s authority and follow its rules. In return, the government looks out for their citizens.

• What would we have without governments?

So what do governments do?

• A government is the ruling authority for a community.

• What they do has some PEPP?– Provide laws. Settle disputes, keep order.– Enforce laws. – Provide services. – Plan for the future.

• Governments set public policy-course of action set achieve community goals.

So how many governments do we have in the United

States today?

In the US today there are over 87,000 different governments.

• How can that be?

Levels of Government

• Many levels of government may exist within a country.

• We have three levels in America.– The highest level is national or federal.– State Governments – Local Governments

• County• City • Administrative levels. School boards, etc.

So what is the highest authority in the United States?

The United States Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land. All citizens must follow it including government officials.

FORMS OF GOVERNMENT

• A dictatorship is a government controlled by one person or a small group.– Form of autocracy-one ruler

• Aristocracy-form of government where power is held by a small number of individuals from an elite or from noble families. Similar to monarchies-Kings,etc.

• Oligarchy-rule by the few.

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENTS

• A democracy, a government in which the people rule, rule by many. – direct democracy –all citizens meet to

debate government matters and vote firsthand. Athens.

– representative democracy –The United States form of government.

Representative Democracy

In a representative democracy, citizens elect, through free elections individuals to govern on their behalf.

Close

Read the following words from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address:

“Government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

Give an example of how citizens carry out the principle of democracy expressed in each phrase.