Theories About the Origins of the State

• Force Theory
• Evolutionary Theory—primitive family leads to a clan, clan leads to a tribe, tribe gives up nomadic behavior
• Divine Right Theory—rule by the grace of God, etc.
• Social Contract Theory (Locke/Harrington/Hobbes/Rousseau)

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4 Characteristics of States

• State: A body of people, living in a defined territory, organized politically, and having the power to make and enforce law without the consent of higher authority.

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• Population
• Territory
• Sovereignty—the exclusive right to control your external and internal affairs
• Government

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Principles of Government:

• Government: The institution through which a society makes and enforces its public policies

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• Public policies: All the things a government decides to do (ex: tax cuts, maintaining military, social programs, road building). Also includes things government decides NOT to do! EX: AIDS, Bin Laden in 1996, Spanish-American War telephone tax*

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• Politics: Who gets what, when, and how

Two Political Questions

• Who governs?
• To what ends?
• These are two distinct questions, but they are related.

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• 1^st Q: Whoever has power will use it to their advantage, to get their policies into law and stifle opposition. EX: LBJ and Great Society, Bush tax cuts
• 2^nd Q: Power-owners can also decide how much control government has over your life—ex: taxation used to be only on extremely rich, civil rights legislation

Influence of Government Control �

• Power—the ability of actor A to make actor B comply with actor A’s intentions
• Authority—the right to use power

Granted by: law, states, constitution

• Legitimacy—a characteristic that makes institutions that grant authority have a legal right to do so.
• No government in the United States would be considered legitimate if it was not democratic

Examples of legitimacy: Ratification of the Constitution; Civil War was a test of legitimacy, states’ rights.

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