POLI 2051 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Social Contract
11 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
Government - a formally established way of making and carrying out political decisions. Politics - the competition to shape government"s impact on society"s problems and goals. Social contract theory can guide us here to some extent. Normative - the way things ought to be. It is not a written contract, but rather, a general agreement between the people and their government. The people agree to give up some of their liberty, and in exchange, the government guarantees to protect what were called natural rights . What are these: life, liberty, property, the contract derives from the assumption that government is based on the consent of the governed. What does government do: protecting life maintain law and order and the basic ways they protect life, protecting rights and liberties , providing public goods building roads, promoting equality - Citizens disagree about which functions are most important and which functions should be most vigorously enforced.
