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What is political theory?

Theory originates from the Greek word theria which
means viewing as something seen; a spectacle, occurrence.

A person who theorizes is an intelligent observer, who
looks at what is going on and asks himself questions about
it and tries to understand the phenomenon.

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What is a democracy?
Greek: rule means kratos and demos means
people, or rule by the people.
Plato: democracy is rule by the majority mob.
(427 B.C. 347 B.C.) wrote The Republic,
The Laws, and many Platonic dialogues as
the voice of Socrates. First great systematic
philosopher of Western tradition. Justice is
end of the state.
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Direct Democracy
Popular Sovereignty Assembly
(people have supreme power (make laws by majority
by direct participation through vote)
membership in a district
Ten districts from ten tribes) Courts
(citizens are judge and
jury)
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Is majority rule democratic?
What is Tyranny of the Majority?

Athenian democracy Checks on Majority Rule





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Council of
500
Legislative
Panel
Elections military
generals and financial
officer
Assembly majority rule
What is a republic?

Roman Republic Cicero (106 B.C. 43 B.C.) wrote many
philosophical treatises, including works on the Roman constitution
and laws, e.g., De re publica (On the state) and De legibus (On
the laws), both titles borrowed from Plato.

The Roman Republic lasted almost 500 years - (509 B.C. 27 B.C.)
It was a model that the Framers of the U.S. Constitution used as
a source for republican government.





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A republic is the property of the public. But a public is
not every kind of human gathering, congregating in any
manner, but a numerous gathering brought together by
legal consent and community of interest. The primary
reason for its coming together is not so much weakness as
a sort of innate desire on the part of human beings to form
communities.
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What is liberalism?
Political philosophy that emphasizes the value of individual rights or
liberties. The role of government is limited and exists to protect
certain individual or natural rights. There is a distinction between
classical liberalism and modern liberalism.
John Locke (1632-1704) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) are
classical liberals.

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What is the difference between a democracy and a
republic?

Representation



Republic is called an indirect democracy
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What is republicanism?
Political philosophy that emphasized the public good or
commonwealth. The role of government is to promote virtues,
such as restraint, temperance, fortitude, dignity, and
independence. As moral virtue sustains a republic, vice corrupts it.

Niccol Machiavelli (1469-1527) was a classical republican. He wrote
Discourses on Livy and The Prince, which
extolled the use of power in politics.

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What is political culture?
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Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) wrote
Democracy in America (2 volumes):
Volume One (1835) & Volume Two
(1840)
I have previously remarked that the manners of the people
may be considered as one of the great general causes to which
the maintenance of a democratic republic in the United States
is attributable. I here use the word customs with the meaning
which the ancients attached to the word mores; for I apply it
not only to manners properly so called that is, to what might
be termed the habits of the heart but to the various notions
and opinions current among men and to the mass of those
ideas which constitute their characters of mind. I comprise
under this term, therefore, the whole moral and intellectual
condition of a people.
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American Democratic Republic

or or


American Political Culture
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1. Equality of conditions 2. Liberty 3. Religion







4. Material prosperity 5. Townships 6. Education
(associations)
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United States
Constitution
American
Government
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) wrote that
Every man has a right to live somewhere
But, when determining citizenship in the
Virginia Commonwealth, Jefferson drafted a
bill limiting it to white persons born within the
territory and who have resided two years.

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John Adams (1735-1826) signed a
Naturalization Act (1798) that had a fourteen year
residency requirement.
When Jefferson became president in 1800, the
law was repealed by the Naturalization Act (1802),
thus, the Naturalization Act of 1795 requiring five
years was in effect.
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Article I, 8 Congress has the power to establish an
uniform Rule of Naturalization
Article IV, 2 The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to
all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.
14
th
Amendment (1868) 1 All persons born or naturalized
in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are
citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they
reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall
abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United
States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person
within its jurisdiction the equal protection of laws.

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