Agenda

• Today: What is government? What is politics?

    - Course Overview
    - What makes government or "the state" unique?
    - What is politics?
    - How does politics affect us?

• January 20: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - NO CLASS!

• Next class: Texas Political History Overview and Discussion

    - Reading/Chapter Assignment: Prologue: Texas Political Roots (Complete 50% before class for full in-class work credit!)

Announcemnts

Course Overview: Texas Government

Introduction to Government: Writing and discussion

What is politics?

• Expensive or involves large amounts of money
• Distant
• Involves politicians or campaigns
• involves voting or decision making
• Involves rights
• National borders
• Controversial

What is politics: State and local (mostly)

Houston Public Works

What is politics: Federal, state and local

Metro rail

What is politics: Federal, state and local

HCC Central Campus

What is politics?

• Not distant
• immediate,right here
• touches everything
• direct impacts are constant
• involves all of us
• It can be expensive, but it’s not always about money

Politics is powerful

• Immense power to achieve good ends

Politics is powerful

• Immense power to achieve good ends
• Immense power to do incredible harm

Politics is powerful

• Immense power to achieve good ends
• Immense power to do incredible harm

Politics is powerful

Introduction to Government

Note about the word “state”

• State has several meanings

• It can be used to simply mean “the government”

• In international relations it refers to independent countries or nation-states

• In US politics, it refers to the 50 individual states

    - 14 of the US which were originally independent states in the international relations sense
    - This point is important in understanding federalism
    - This point is important in understanding Texas place in the federal system

Introduction Government: Questions to consider

Introduction Government: Questions to consider

Introduction Government: Questions to consider

What is The State?

Other organizations

• Family

    - What does it have in common?
    - What is different?

Other organizations

• Family

• Church

    - What does it (government) have in common?
    - What is different?

Other organizations

• Family

• Church

• Community organizations (voluntary)

    - What does it have in common?
    - What is different?

Other organizations

• Family

• Church

• Community organizations (voluntary)

• Charities

    - What does it have in common?
    - What is different?

Other organizations

• Family

• Church

• Community organizations (voluntary)

• Charities

• Businesses - The Market

    - What does it have in common?
    - What is different?

Other organizations

• Organized crime

    - What does it have in common?
    - What is different?

Other organizations

• Organized crime

• vigilantes

    - What does it have in common?
    - What is different?

Other organizations

• Organized crime

• vigilantes

• terrorists

    - What does it have in common?
    - What is different?

What is “the state”?

The organized, coercive use of violent force commonly accepted as legitimate

• Coercive use of violent force
• Legitimacy

Introduction Government: Questions to consider

Introduction to Government: Questions to consider

What is politics?

• Politics is the process of making collective decisions in the context of…

What is politics?

• Politics is the process of making collective decisions in the context of…

The State or government.

The difference between politics and everything else

These organizations all engage in collective action, but lack one thing the state has:

• Family
• Church
• Community organizations (voluntary)
• Charities
• Businesses - The Market

The difference between politics and everything else

These organizations all engage in collective action, but lack one thing the state has:

• Family
• Church
• Community organizations (voluntary)
• Charities
• Businesses - The Market

Coercive use of violent force

Studying other organizations

Family, church, the market, etc. are all about making collective decisions in:

The Voluntary Sphere

Politics is about

Making collective decisions in:

The Coercive Sphere

Politics is powerful

George Washington

Politics is powerful

Frederick Douglass

Authorship and License

• Author: Tom Hanna

• Website: tomhanna.me

• License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.