NationStates Jolt Archive

Today I started my PoliGov class in earnest (i.e. we moved on from basic Christian worldview stuff into the actual study of the workings of the U.S. Government).

Anywho, I want to make sure I'm getting this right. After all, this is pretty fucking important IMO, knowing how my own country works after all. So my question to you--since I've decided to choose you as my source--is how exactly should I attempt to communicate my current understanding of system?

Obviously reprinting my textbook is illegal, so should I post excerpts from my notes instead?

Furthermore, I know you don't do homework help here. But I'm not asking you to do my homework, just to make sure I'm getting the system right.

Obviously reprinting my textbook is illegal, so should I post excerpts from my notes instead?


Paraphrase the material and explain it in your own words. It's really the only way to test your understanding anyway.

Today I started my PoliGov class in earnest (i.e. we moved on from basic Christian worldview stuff into the actual study of the workings of the U.S. Government).

Anywho, I want to make sure I'm getting this right. After all, this is pretty fucking important IMO, knowing how my own country works after all. So my question to you--since I've decided to choose you as my source--is how exactly should I attempt to communicate my current understanding of system?

Obviously reprinting my textbook is illegal, so should I post excerpts from my notes instead?

Furthermore, I know you don't do homework help here. But I'm not asking you to do my homework, just to make sure I'm getting the system right.

Make a diagram. Your teachers will love you for not having to read through something they already know and are sick of ;)

Today I started my PoliGov class in earnest (i.e. we moved on from basic Christian worldview stuff into the actual study of the workings of the U.S. Government).

*raises eyebrow*

I take it you go to a private school?

Pretend you are talking to people from mars who have no idea what a government is or how it works. Explain what the textbook and your teacher says it is to them.

Obviously reprinting my textbook is illegal, so should I post excerpts from my notes instead?
How about you try paraphrasing it? That'll help us get the jist of what you think is being taught to you.

Pretty much say it in your own words but reference it to the source you use.

Today I started my PoliGov class in earnest (i.e. we moved on from basic Christian worldview stuff into the actual study of the workings of the U.S. Government).

Anywho, I want to make sure I'm getting this right. After all, this is pretty fucking important IMO, knowing how my own country works after all. So my question to you--since I've decided to choose you as my source--is how exactly should I attempt to communicate my current understanding of system?

Obviously reprinting my textbook is illegal, so should I post excerpts from my notes instead?

Furthermore, I know you don't do homework help here. But I'm not asking you to do my homework, just to make sure I'm getting the system right.

finger puppets.

Form it into a murder-mystery story full of plot twists and questionable motives. Actually, no … that's just what they'll be expecting you to do.

Form it into a murder-mystery story full of plot twists and questionable motives. Actually, no … that's just what they'll be expecting you to do.

Et tu Brute?

make it into a poem (and stick a secret message in for good measure) for teacher points

you could also quote us all as a source :tongue: (...actually do you think that could work?)

*raises eyebrow*

I take it you go to a private school?
Explaining what the basic Christian worldview isn't necessarily religious, as long as the teacher isn't actively promoting.

I'm guessing your textbook is divided into a bunch of different sections. If it's anything like mine, their are chapters, sub-chapters, and headings on about every other page. I'd recommend just listing the basic facts in your notes (e.g., president is elected by electoral collage or something) and then organizing them in a way different from your textbook. (So instead of a section on the federal government and one on the state, there would be section on executive branches and one on legislative.) It makes accidental plagiarism harder, and also allows you to show you've actually thought about it and even interpreted the information in your own way.

Today I started my PoliGov class in earnest (i.e. we moved on from basic Christian worldview stuff into the actual study of the workings of the U.S. Government).

Anywho, I want to make sure I'm getting this right. After all, this is pretty fucking important IMO, knowing how my own country works after all. So my question to you--since I've decided to choose you as my source--is how exactly should I attempt to communicate my current understanding of system?

Obviously reprinting my textbook is illegal, so should I post excerpts from my notes instead?

Furthermore, I know you don't do homework help here. But I'm not asking you to do my homework, just to make sure I'm getting the system right.
Write it in French.

Thanks everyone for the help.

Explaining what the basic Christian worldview isn't necessarily religious, as long as the teacher isn't actively promoting.

Oh, it was. Though I do go to a private school, so it's to be expected. He's generally a good teacher, but he has foot-in-mouth syndrome to an extreme, and I've been able to fight back against some of the more ridiculous claims... but those are stories for other times.

Anyway, Tuesday's lesson was on the Principles of Government. The purpose of the lesson was to introduce us to the 4 main purposes of government, and to introduce various theories on the origin of government (though the book seems to favor the Social contract theory--at least as it relates to the origin of U.S. government, which is fair enough I suppose).

To begin with, the four main purposes for government are


maintaing social order
providing public services
security and defense
controlling the economy (to varying degrees)


Granted, I'm sure this is an overly simplistic list. But this is a High School course.

We also learned about the three origin stories of government:


Evolutionary Theory
Force Theory
Divine Right Theory
Social Contract Theory


Evolutionary Theory makes the claim that government evolved from the basic family structure and that the head of the family was the head of that primitive government, etc.

Force Theory basically says that some dude and his friends took control of all the people in a given area. Brought them under his power and all that.

Divine Right, an old standby. Basically the idea that god(s) decreed that a given ruler would rule and that opposing them was opposing that deity.

Social Contract was the theory that by contract, people surrender to the state the power needed to maintain order and the state, in turn, agrees to protect its citizens.

In addition to that, there were some terms that I needed to identify. Here were the definitions I got from reading the book:


state: a political community that occupies a definite territory and has an organized government with the power to make and enforce laws without approval from higher authority.
nation: group of people united by bonds of race, language, custom, tradition, and, sometimes, religion.
nation-state: a country in which the territory of both the nation and the state coincide.
consensus: an agreement about basic beliefs.
sovereignty: the supreme and absolute authority within territorial boundaries.
government: the institution through which the state maintains social order, provides public services, and enforces binding decisions on citizens.


Then we had to identify John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes basically believed that people did not have the right to break the social contract, while Locke believed that if the state did not hold up its end, people were absolutely justified in doing so.

to begin with, the four main purposes for government are


maintaing social order
providing public services
security and defense


4. profit!!!

4. profit!!!

Don't you mean

4. ???
5. profit!!!

Don't you mean

4. ???
5. profit!!!

i would have, but you said 4 and 3 were already accounted for

Ah, right. The 4th is controlling the economy.

Ah, right. The 4th is controlling the economy.

that's what i said

If you can, throw a cynical remark about what government is.

Specifically, you could state that government is an agent that outlaws all forms of coercion except its own, all forms of justice except its own, and all forms of theft except its own (taxes). Oh, and no matter what, your government never listens to you personally. It listens to everybody but you (or maybe just a few people that definitely aren't you).

Anyway, Tuesday's lesson was on the Principles of Government. The purpose of the lesson was to introduce us to the 4 main purposes of government, and to introduce various theories on the origin of government (though the book seems to favor the Social contract theory--at least as it relates to the origin of U.S. government, which is fair enough I suppose).

To begin with, the four main purposes for government are


maintaing social order
providing public services
security and defense
controlling the economy (to varying degrees)


Granted, I'm sure this is an overly simplistic list. But this is a High School course.Indeed. One might also add something like "the pursuit of excellence." As far back as Plato and Aristotle, philosophers urged that government should be run so that the human community can live up to its greatest potential. More recently, political theorists such as Hannah Arendt or C.B. Macpherson have urged similar views.

We also learned about the three origin stories of government:


Evolutionary Theory
Force Theory
Divine Right Theory
Social Contract Theory
That's four, though I would question the logic in calling social contract theory an "origin" theory. Most serious contract theorists explicitly state that they do not believe a contract explains how political societies actually came to be; rather, the contract model describes a relationship between citizens, or between citizen and sovereign (depending on the contractualist), that can justify government provided it behaves in a contractarian way.

Most contractualists would probably agree to either of evolutionary theory or force theory, or some combination of the two.

Then we had to identify John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes basically believed that people did not have the right to break the social contract, while Locke believed that if the state did not hold up its end, people were absolutely justified in doing so.It's certainly more complicated than that, but for practical purposes this might do well enough for now.

Hobbes does not, it is true, support any right of "rebellion" against a legitimate government... but then, he does hold that a sovereign effectively dissolves the social covenant by acting in certain abusive ways that put the sovereign back into a state of war with its subjects. And since in the state of war we may both act to defend ourselves and act to establish a peaceful government in whatever form, effectively he provides an "out" against abusive government.

Locke, on the other hand, states a right of rebellion--but, then, he seems to support a fairly low standard for what we are entitled to expect from government. Indeed, his doctrine of executive "prerogative" actually outsrips that of Hobbes, in some ways, for whittling away limits on what the executive power may legitimately accomplish. (Hobbes, for instance, is explicitly opposed both to the death penalty and to conscription for non-defensive wars.)

You're right about my failure to count. I remembered one and forgot to change the list.

My textbook did not provide as much information on Hobbes and Locke as you have done, which is kind of what I suspected.

Thanks again.

EDIT: In fact, this seems to sort of flip my view of the two. It's kind of backwards for how I assumed.