Introduction to Government

Introduction to Government

Do Now:
Copy the question and add your answer:

1. Does society depend on there being a government, or does the government depend on there being a society.  Explain your thoughts by using some examples to illustrate your view.

2. An alien has just landed.  Explain to that alien what the purpose of government is.

What I would tell the alien is....

The alien would understand that government is...

Trying to explain to an alien about government makes me confused about government than I was before because....

3. What ideas about the relationship between government and society does the conversation between the alien and the human try to get us to think about?

EXIT TICKET

Explain the meaning of this political cartoon:

2. 






2. If you already know how to drive, explain why you would need a license to drive.

3. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.  Explain, in your own words, what this statement from the Declaration of Independence means to you.

4. If the majority of people, in a democracy (a government that is ruled by the people) make a mistake about what laws are good or bad, would they admit it?  Can a majority ever admit it was wrong?

5. I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe— "That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.  Explain, in your own words, what this statement from Henry David Thoreau’s 1849 essay “Civil Disobedience” means to you.  

6. With the abolition of private property, then, we shall have true, beautiful, healthy Individualism. Nobody will waste his life in accumulating things, and the symbols of things. One will live. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.  ― Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism

What is Oscar Wilde saying and do you think he is right or wrong?  Please explain.

7. What is Law?  Is Government necessary for Law?  Can there be Law without Government?





8. What is the ironic message the cartoonist is trying to get you to think about?