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LESSON 10
Applied Government
In this lesson you will be given an opportunity to apply the political science knowledge and skills you have developed in this course to a real-life assignment.
It will be your assignment to create a new form of student government in your school. It is important that you have a knowledge of the following models of government:
dictatorship, republic, democracy, federal, communist, socialist, totalitarian, monarchy, oligarchy, confederation, anarchy, and parliamentary
We will begin your assignment with a review of the function and purpose of government.
Government is defined as an organization or body through which the control or administration of a school, city, county, state, or nation is exercised.
How will you answer the questions listed below as you develop the new student government?
Who has the authority to make the rules?
How did they get that authority?
Why do we need rules?
Government serves many purposes. In order to achieve its goals, a government must enact laws.
Laws are the means by which a government compels or forbids certain acts of its citizens. In order to accomplish the goals and functions of government, laws are enacted to encourage certain behaviors and punish others.
Please consider the reasons why governments have to be created as you move on to your assignment.
It is important to review the types of governments we have discussed thus far.
|
Dictatorship Republic Democracy Federal Confederation Parliamentary |
Communist Socialist Totalitarian Monarchy Oligarchy Anarchy |
Government Systems
The systems of governments can be placed into several categories including the following:
1. Who can participate in the government;
2. How power is distributed;
3. The economic system the government employs.
However, there are three major categories of government:
autocracy, oligarchy, and democracy
An AUTOCRACY is a government that is ruled by one person. There are several ways an autocrat can come to power:
If the autocrat inherited the rule, the government is a monarchy.
In a constitutional monarchy, the ruler shares governing powers with an elected legislature or parliament. Some constitutional monarchs are strictly figureheads who have no real governing powers.
Great Britain and Japan are constitutional monarchies.
Another form of autocracy, in which power is taken by force, is a dictatorship.
In a dictatorship, a leader and a close group of allies take a government by military force or by manipulating political elections. The dictator has control of the people in all aspects of their social and economic lives.
Another kind of government in which only a few people rule is an OLIGARCHY.
A small group of people control an oligarchy, getting their power from wealth, social position, military strength, or a combination of those things.
Usually a communist country is actually an oligarchy.
The third major form of government is a DEMOCRACY.
The people rule and hold sovereign power in a democracy.
There are two types of democracies:
direct and representative.
Citizens elect people to represent them in the seat of government. These representatives are given law-making authority and the ability to conduct government for the people whom they represent.
In the United States, most governing bodies, from city councils to the U.S. Congress, are formed by representatives elected by the people. A representative democracy is also a republic.
Governments can be categorized in the distribution of power to different governmental bodies within a nation.
There are three basic government models that have a distribution of power:
We will also review how the powers are distributed at the national level in a parliamentary and presidential form of government.
Unitary Government
(UNITGOVT)
Federal Government
In the United States, the Constitution specifies which powers belong to the central government and which go to the states.
Neither the central government nor the states may change the Constitution unless the states and national government agree.
(Geographic Distribution of Power in a Federal Government : fedgovt)
(Geographic Distribution of Power in a Confederate Government : confgovt)
(Parliamentary Model of Government : pargovt)
(Presidential Model of Government : presgovt)
Applied Government Assignment
In a bold experiment, the Board of Education in your local school district has announced a plan for a new student government at your high school.
This new student government must have an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. The students will be allowed to determine the framework for their new government. The students can use any part of an existing student government, such as a Student Council.
The new student government must obey all state and federal laws and the policy and procedures of the local Board of Education, including the length of the school day and the number of days that school must be in session.
In addition, all of the graduation requirements must be met.
What will the students be allowed to do?
The students will be able to determine the following items:
Applied Government Assignment
A reminder that this new student government must have an executive, legislative, and judicial branch. Please consider the following questions:
How will the students create this new student government?
How much of the current student government would you include in the new government?
Who will make the decisions?
How would all of the different student organizations and activities be represented?
Would you spend more on classroom equipment or athletics?
How would you regulate classroom behavior so the rights of all students are protected?
Who will decide the punishment for students who break the rules?
How will you make changes to the new student government plan?
What process will you use to accept the new student government?
How will you change the new student government?
Will the changes be made by the representatives of the three branches of government or will every student have an opportunity to vote on new proposals?
How will you organize the executive branch?
Would you elect just one person or have a group of students run the school?
Would you have a group of students with representation from all grades run the school?
Should there be an age restriction on who should head the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the student government? For example, should only seniors be allowed to head the executive branch?
What about transfer students? Should there be a restriction on office holders in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches that addresses how long they have been at your school?
What will you do if the persons in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches do not follow the rules? How would you remove them from office?
How would you organize the legislative branch?
Would you have a representatives from the band, athletic teams, choir, and academics, including all of the core subjects?
Should the football team have more representatives than the basketball team because it has more players?
How will you determine the students who will represent the academic classes?
Should you spend the same amount of money on English, Science, Social Science, Mathematics, and the elective classes?
What procedures will you propose as to the decision-making process that will be used to determine how the money will be spent?
What procedures will you use to pass new resolutions, such as a change in a school rule or the dress code?
Who will vote on these changes?
Will all students vote or only representatives of the different groups in the school?
How will you organize the judicial branch? Will the purpose of the judicial branch be to make sure everything is being done according to rules of the new student government?
Will the members of the judicial branch be selected by a vote of all students or be appointed by the executive or legislative branch?
What process should be used to monitor the relations among all of the classes or among the extracurricular groups?
You may consider all of the different types of governmental models that have been discussed in the previous lessons.
As you begin to think about the formation of your student government, consider the problems that faced the 55 delegates at the meeting that was held in 1787.
Do you have anything in common?
In the summer of 1787, 55 delegates from 12 of the 13 states met in Philadelphia. The purpose for this meeting was to review and possibly change the Articles of Confederation.
The delegates quickly determined that the Articles of Confederation should be discarded and a new form of government should be created.
On September 12, 1787, the delegates completed their discussions and signed the United States Constitution.
We must remember that the Constitution was created by men who lived over 200 years ago. These men had been British citizens living under a monarchy. All of these men were aware of the Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact, and the English Bill of Rights.
In addition, many of these delegates had served in their own colonial legislatures. Many of the provisions in the Constitution reflect the colonial experience during the Revolutionary War period.
Will you use your past school experiences as a guide as you begin to develop your new student government?
A reminder that the Magna Carta was signed by King John of England in 1215.
The Mayflower Compact was the framework of government signed by the Pilgrims in 1620.
The Petition of Right was signed by Charles I of England in 1628.
The English Bill of Rights was signed by William and Mary, the King and Queen of England in 1688.
By 1787, the colonists had suffered through 20 years of social, political, and economic upheaval because of basic disagreements over their rights as British citizens.
The colonists believed that Parliament and King George III did not have the right to pass legislation that would deprive them of their political rights. Many of these same problems and arguments could be traced to a political dispute between King Charles I and the English Parliament in 1628.
In 1625, Charles I inherited the English throne from his father James I. Charles I was in debt and desperately needed money to support his monarchy. When Parliament refused to give him money, Charles sent the members of Parliament home.
Charles tried to force individuals and merchants to give him loans. By 1628, Charles had to summon Parliament back into session because he needed new sources of money to support his kingdom.
Parliament refused to consider the king's demands until he signed the Petition of Right. By signing the Petition of Right the King promised not to collect forced loans from individuals or to levy taxes without the permission of Parliament.
Charles I also agreed not to put a person in prison without a legitimate charge and to not house soldiers in private homes without the owner's consent.
The colonists during the Revolutionary War period believed that Parliament was violating the same rights that had been included in the Petition of Right.
Once Parliament gave Charles I the money, he again sent the members home and ignored the Petition of Right. The members were outraged, and the conflict between the Parliament and King Charles I would escalate until 1640.
In that year, Charles again called Parliament into session because he needed money to fight a war against Scotland. The members of Parliament were more concerned with limiting the power of the King. The Parliament actually put two of Charles' ministers on trial. Both of these men were found guilty and were executed.
The Parliament also passed a bill that condemned Charles as a traitor to the English nation. Charles actually came into Parliament and arrested some of the members.
In 1642, the king and Parliament both raised armies, and the English Civil War began. This civil war ended in 1649 with the defeat of the king's army. The Parliament put
Charles I on trial and found him guilty of treason. In January, 1649, King Charles I, the sovereign ruler of England was put to death.
Many of the colonists believed that the Parliament and King George III were repeating many of the mistakes of King Charles I. The Parliament had levied taxes that were in direct violation of the provisions of the Petition of Right signed in 1628.
The Stamp Act of 1765 had been passed by a Parliament in England that had no representatives from the colonists. In the Declaratory Act of 1766, Parliament once again stated that it had the power to make the laws for the colonies. The colonists declared that there could be "no taxation without representation."
All of the political, economic, and social arguments between the English government and the colonists culminated in April 1775, with the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
During the war, the colonists would declare their independence from England on July 4, 1776. The colonists had also created a central government called the Articles of Confederation during the Revolutionary War which were ratified in 1781.
The Articles of Confederation government had many weaknesses that needed to be changed. This brings us back to the reason for the meeting in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787, which led to the creation of the U.S. Constitution.
The Constitution is a reflection of the times in which it was written. The Constitution created a government that guaranteed that the abuses of the Parliament and
King George III would not be repeated. The Constitution also proposed a government that corrected the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation while including many of the traditional rights that the colonists had enjoyed as British citizens.
The U.S. Constitution was also based on the political philosophy of Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Paine, and others. The framers in Philadelphia realized that the government created by the Constitution would have to be flexible enough to meet the needs of a growing nation.
The Constitution is a living document that can be amended to meet the demands and changes of a modern world.
How should your new student government be designed so it can meet the changing needs of your school?
You now face the task of creating a new student government that will meet the needs of many diverse individuals and people. Many people will wonder if students can succeed in self-government. How will you possibly get all of the students within your school to agree on anything?
These are basically the same questions that people around the world were asking in 1787, as the newly independent United States of America prepared to create a government under the Constitution.
Before you proceed, remember that the right to govern comes from the consent of the governed - the people, or in your case, the students.
In your situation, you will have bring together a group of students who do not have any real experience at self-government. Once again you will have to find the answers to the questions that faced those 55 men in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787:
Who makes the rules?
How did they get that power?
Why do we need rules?
Summary
This concludes our lesson on Applied Government. By now you should have an appreciation of the difficulty of creating a new government. In the next lesson we will begin an examination of the seven Articles of the U.S. Constitution.
Good luck on the test!