Study Help

· 00:01Well greetings everyone. I'm, Professor Goss, and I am the instructor of record, this semester for Poly. Psi. One introduction to government,

· 00:10and I just want to tell you it's a it's a new semester. I'm really excited to get going There's so much going on in the news out there that ah certainly connects with our course matter to this semester, so I will do everything I can to get those things involved in my lectures. Try to spruce it up and make this

· 00:28useful to you. You know something that you can apply to the real world that's going on as we're in class a little bit about me. I am in my thirtieth year, Long Beach City College, in the history of all a side apartment,

· 00:40been at a long time and a senior, most member of our department, and it was Department Head for a long time, and in the Faculty Association.

· 00:50Now i'm just playing on Professor Goss, and I love the job. I do. I love teaching. I love teaching about government and politics. I've been

·

Unknown Speaker

00:58interested in it all my life.

·

Unknown Speaker

01:00Of course, if you looked at my

·

Eugene Goss

01:04profile when we went into the canvas page. You'll probably notice that I am a sitting. See, I am the mayor of the City of ceremony as we speak, I elected official the City of Ceremony, which is right next door to Pasadena, about thirty minutes away from due north from Long Beach,

· 01:22and I've been doing. I've been on the City Council in ceremony for eight years, and i've been mayor twice. It's a one-year assignment this is my second time. So

· 01:31and i'm presently running for re-election. So I i'm going to be able to bring a lot of personal experience in politics and government into this class in campaigning and all sorts of things. So I I think that you're going to find it real interesting.

· 01:45Anyway, i'm going to every time we meet. I'm going to present a Powerpoint presentation. As I speak. You want to make certain you take careful notes of things i'm saying not just what you see in the Powerpoint Presentation,

· 01:58and because the things that I have to say and the things on the Powerpoint, both are testable material. On the chapter exams are taking, and the four big unit exams you're going to be taking. So

· 02:11please watch every lecture, good aggressive notes on it. If you go through and hear those notes and something's confusing to you. Give me a call or visit me during my office hours in t twenty, three, thirty, one in the T building on Monday and Wednesday

· 02:26from one thousand two hundred and forty, five to one hundred and forty five, just because you're online doesn't mean you can't come to the campus and see me personally, but I also have email.

· 02:36So I wanted to just give you a heads up. The first module really has to do with the first half of chapter one in the magstat text, Your your pardon me the magazine

· 02:49you're reading the magazine, and I want you to make certain that you read the assigned chapter before you see the lecture. So you should have read at least the first fifteen pages of chapter one. I have a wetext. This lecture will cover that

· 03:03module the module to lecture the next one you'll be seeing will pick up in the middle of chapter one and finish chapter one

· 03:12and do chapter two. So make sure when you before you open up the module to lecture in about a week, that you make sure you've read the second half of chapter one

·

Unknown Speaker

03:25that's confusing to you again brought me an email,

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Eugene Goss

03:28happy to explain anything as many times as it takes, because I know that it's a It's an exciting time. But I know you all. Many of you are working, and you multiple classes. Sometimes things get a little overwhelming. That's when you take a deep breath and call Professor Goss and i'll do what I can help.

· 03:44Okay,

· 03:46i'm going to go ahead and do a share screen and get started on the

· 03:51yeah

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Unknown Speaker

03:52lecture of the day

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Unknown Speaker

04:01is there we go

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Eugene Goss

04:02the inaugural lecture of Polys. I one fall, two thousand and twenty two.

· 04:08Um. I would like to tell you that every semester I teach online classes asynchronous classes where we're not meeting in person. I always provide fresh lectures for the semester.

· 04:22So i'm i'm doing this a few days before the begin.

· 04:27All semester all my lectures. This semester will be ah fresh this fall, and you're not going to be seeing recycled videos that have been ah posted for several semesters or several years. These are all fresh this fall. If you happen to be watching this taking this class.

· 04:44You're in the winter block. Sorry they'll be a little bit a little for you if you're in winter glass. That's about a couple of months old, but they're still quite relevant and impertinently to the world that you're living in right now.

· 04:56And of course I pride myself in providing, not just lectures, but up to date fresh lectures. Because I think that's important. I think you all kind of expect that.

· 05:06Okay? Well, enough of that. Nothing of the housekeeping. Let's get right down to business. She me i'm gonna I need to say another thing.

· 05:13The last couple of years I've been dealing with a kind of a mild throat condition. It's very benign, Doctor says nothing serious going on,

· 05:21but I I have to clear my throat pretty regularly, or i'll start coughing. I have some issues there, so what I do is clear my throat every now and then. Maybe i'll cough a couple of times again. I'll probably doing this. Excuse me,

· 05:34be sipping on some water or some coffee,

· 05:38and i'll be doing that pretty regularly, so I can keep my voice and not have to cough.

· 05:43I appreciate you uh bearing with me, and

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Unknown Speaker

05:46I know sometimes it's room. Someone's in a problem in the middle of a lecture middle of a presentation, and they stop, and they bring something.

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Eugene Goss

05:52I I just hope you'll accept my apologies in advance,

· 05:56and this No, I it's not Covid. No, I had that back in January. I've been tested. I'm fine. It's It's just something else other than that.

· 06:04Okay, So I've got a screen out in front of you, and we're going to start out the lecture of something positive. You know a lot of people in America today have a rather jaundice or cynical view of

· 06:16kind of government's never been a top topic that Americans have been in love with, that we are. The Our constitutional Republic was founded on in a revolt. But we're against the King and a government so. And ever since then Americans have always been kind of skeptical and not real

· 06:32Ah! Crazy about their government, or at least about government power in their lives. I remember that good old days, and you ever heard in the old timers. I remember the good old days. Well, you know, back in the one thousand nine hundred and sixtys they weren't always the we had. We had our problems,

· 06:47but I certainly we certainly had a different attitude towards the Government. Remember, in the sixtys we were just about a little less than twenty years out from having one World War Ii, and having defeated Hitler,

· 06:58the Japanese Empire in the Pacific at the same time, and we built this incredible economy in the fiftys and in the sixtys.

· 07:05John F. Kennedy's challenged America during this this this boom period of the sixtys to land a man on the moon at the end of the decade. Sure enough,

· 07:15by one thousand nine hundred and sixty nine. We accomplished that, you know. Kennedy had been dead and buried long before it happened.

· 07:22President Nixon was depressing at the time. But the truth is that this was an amazing achievement, and it was just a further proof to Americans that their government

· 07:31it was worthwhile that it was confident, and it could be trusted, and it was doing big things. So back in the sixty S. Americans just had a very positive view of their government, and that it started to fall apart in the late sixty S. And early seventy S. With the onset of the with the continuation of an unpopular war in Vietnam,

· 07:50and then, when President Nixon was found me involved in the watergate skin, and the ballpoint was our first President to resign. A few years later. Since then Americans had just had not had that same positive attitude, and right now it's it's surveys of going for the last ten years or so

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Unknown Speaker

08:10we're so. The government's image in the eyes of the people is struggling.

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Unknown Speaker

08:13I like to go back and just remind you there was a day

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Eugene Goss

08:16when people thought the United States Government was pretty spiffy.

· 08:21Okay, So having said that,

· 08:23let's get into some baseline concepts that we're going to be using In the course of this semester we'll start with about the

· 08:31politics and political sciences terminology

· 08:34your textbook definition of politics. This is the process by which decisions are made and carried out within and among nations, groups and individuals.

· 08:44Um,

· 08:48I think that's pretty much self-explanatory. But remember when you see when you hear the word process, something that you should come to mind the politics you should always remember. It involves a process by which things or decisions are being made

· 09:01right,

· 09:02and this politics can take place in in your community. It can take place in your family. It can take place in your city, your neighborhood, your county, your State ash in the nation, and internationally between nations.

· 09:16So politics is a is a very common thing in human life. It's been there since the very beginning,

· 09:23and it's a required subject matter for you to learn if you want to get a bachelor's degree

· 09:29the state of California.

· 09:31But let's do our user operational definition, because i'm going to say that definition sounds good. So if I ask you to left test, what is the textbook definition? You'd answer the first. If I asked you, what is the operational definition you should be able to say? Well, politics is a struggle for power, Professor Goss.

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Unknown Speaker

09:49It determines who gets What? When, and how.

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Eugene Goss

09:53So the key here is There's a There's a power struggle among people and groups to make decision to be able to make decisions about who gets what, when and how that could be Just about everything Today an American like just about everything as a political sign to it.

· 10:09Very recently a President Biden has has from the executive authority, decided to ah relieve some people of the college loans that they had done that they had

· 10:23ah

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Unknown Speaker

10:24taken out for their college education.

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Eugene Goss

10:27And that's just another example of how politics

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Unknown Speaker

10:31has kind of just seeped into just about all aspects of our lives. That's just the latest example.

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Eugene Goss

10:38Political science, therefore, is the study of politics, and you are in the history and political science and ethnic Studies Department.

· 10:46The Political science program is in that department. So political science and the study of politics, or the study of the decision making process, or who gets what.

· 10:57So for who gets what went in now.

· 11:01So, as a political scientist, I'm. Interested in studying

· 11:05that power struggle. One of the most important things we study is political scientists is power between individual leaders and people and groups,

· 11:14and we study those decisions and what goes into those decisions. And then we study what happens because of decisions.

· 11:20How do those impact people and talk about who who wins and who loses and who pays the price? Um! And so political science is really about a lot of things, and it's really quite a fascinating endeavor if you really get into it. I think you're going to get hooked, maybe be a Polysai major Who did that happen?

· 11:40Uh, maybe it happens to some kids, some soon.

· 11:44Political science is generally concerned with these three basic questions, and these go all the way back to Aristotle, you know, over two thousand years ago

· 11:53who governs?

· 11:55So the fundamental question is, Who should our rulers be? Who should govern us?

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Unknown Speaker

12:01Should it be Democrats? Should it be Republicans? Should it be men?

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Eugene Goss

12:05Uh it should be African-american,

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Unknown Speaker

12:08and so that question racially should be Asian-americans white Americans?

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Eugene Goss

12:12The American you name it,

· 12:14you can answer this cool questions, whoever in any way you like,

· 12:18should it be people with Phds. And should it be people just high school, should it be, should be people who live in California or anybody but live in California. You can answer any way you like, and this is part of the debate and argument always goes on in politics. Well, I don't want him to be my president. I don't want her to be my president,

· 12:39and these are the reasons. And here we go.

· 12:42So who governs is a fundamental question that all political entities, all political communities, have to answer from time to time

· 12:54for what ends. Well, when that that individual, or when that group

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Unknown Speaker

12:57who has representatives gets into the office of sometime, maybe Mayor the

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Eugene Goss

13:03you know, maybe a governor, and maybe maybe school Board, maybe President, maybe Congress,

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Unknown Speaker

13:08What are they going to do? What's their whole point? What are they going to accomplish when they, and what is their goal and what they didn't intend to accomplish.

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Eugene Goss

13:15So when we have people running for office, one of the first things we ask them. Will you tell us what your platform is? Tell us what you would do when you get into office?

· 13:22Well, i'm at a lower taxi government regulation, or I'm going to. I'm going to build a train from L. A. To San Francisco. That's what we're talking. So the second major question is for what is, what is the

· 13:35what are the goals of the people you'd like to have governing?

· 13:40But how are they going to do it? Let's say you want to build a train from La to San Francisco. We're in the process of trying to do that. That's a very complicated thing. How you going to actually achieve that, How you going to raise the money to pay for it? It's gonna cost us tens of billions of dollars.

· 13:57How are you going to get people who have property along the way to give up their property, so you can run a train straight through. There are all sorts of challenges, so on anything that told a politician wants to accomplish for what ends you need to ask them the follow-up question. Okay, how you going to do it?

· 14:14Who's going to do it? When's it going to get done? How much is it going to cost? How's it going to benefit people right?

· 14:20So, anyway, politics is about a lot of things. But you should be able to know that political science generally is concerned with those three questions, and how people answer,

· 14:30Let's get down to the concept of power for a minute

· 14:34power is obviously the key to politics. That power struggle. I'm talking about

· 14:39Bertrand Russell, the famous philosopher said. The power is the ability to achieve intended effects.

· 14:46Power is the ability to achieve intended effects.

· 14:50The two maxims of power that come with that number. One

· 14:54power exists in the context of human relationship. So if we're studying one person by himself or herself,

· 15:02they're not involved with anyone else. There's nothing going. There's no interaction of any type of any other person. We can't study power,

· 15:09but as soon as that person encounters another individual, or a group, or a whole nation, or it doesn't matter as soon as they encounter one person. There is now a relationship power, it can take place.

· 15:20So the first thing when we're studying powers. There has to be

· 15:23a human relationship of of at least two people, or could be a relationship between a leader and hundreds of millions of people like the President of the American people, but there has to be a relationship.

· 15:35Secondly, that power that is used in that relationship

· 15:40can be used in many different ways.

· 15:42It's highly variable.

· 15:45So, for instance, if I say I have the power to, if i'm in a classroom and i'm standing up in front of everyone. I see a guy in the back. He's got a baseball cap on,

· 15:55and if I say to somebody, I can get his baseball cap on,

· 15:59I still Haven't shown you power, because what's that? What's Bertrand Russell saying?

· 16:04Powers the ability to achieve intent effects. You'd have to see me get his hat off. Right. So i'm in a relationship with him because we're in the same room, and I see him right. That's That's enough of a relationship.

· 16:16And let's just say I was able to convince the guy standing next to him to knock his hat off. Well, I have now used power. We're all standing back and watching gossip power. I've just successfully used power.

· 16:28But what you know about that guy with the hallows. He doesn't want that He didn't want that to happen first time. You know what happened the second time. So let's say we try that again the next day. Do you think he's going to allow the guy next to him, like his hat off.

· 16:40So for me to use that use power over my might have to try a different approach. That's what I need, my variable or dynamic

· 16:47human beings are thinking creatures.

· 16:49We learn from experience, and so power is very dynamic. Power can be used one way today in a very different way tomorrow,

· 16:57subject to change

· 16:58again. How is the ability to achieve intended effects? So we want to see if a person's actually able to do them by you observing them,

· 17:06and we want to mix. And then that person has to have be able to achieve intended effects within a relationship with at least one other person just standing in the middle of an empty building. There is no potential for power.

· 17:19Finally, Powers very, very variable and dynamic.

· 17:24Oh, excuse me, I Here it comes.

· 17:31So we're not going to spend much time. This semester talking about personal power, and a psychologist can focus on this.

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Unknown Speaker

17:38Excuse me,

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Eugene Goss

17:41but we will, for now, just to get the idea of power and relationships down. So i'm going to say that if you have personal power and we're using the ideas of Robert Dahl, famous political scientist

· 17:52you have. I'm going to say your person. If you have personal power, I mean to find it this way you're person A, and you have power of a person. B. When you're able to get person B to do something, you wouldn't have done everyone.

· 18:05So first you're in the relationship with Person A, and then you're able to get them to do something that they would not

· 18:11have done otherwise had they not been in that relationship with you had you not done that

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Unknown Speaker

18:15to them.

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Eugene Goss

18:16And we'll say that's a use of power. And then we confirm that through observation,

· 18:21observation is important.

· 18:23That's the empirical method, the scientific method to be empirical. Em Pir ica out to be empirical, the

· 18:32to observe and to try to make factual notation, it seems, as they actually are. Now.

· 18:41Now, I'm going to lay out a scenario. You have been standing and let's say you're on campus tomorrow.

· 18:48You've got two classes right after each other. They're long classes, and you didn't get much sleep last night,

· 18:54and you're at the end of your first class, and you go into our cafeteria. You only got about twenty minutes, and then you're going to have to get your next class, and you want to get in line to get a cup of that fancy coffee. But there's a long line there,

· 19:06and so you decide right then in there you're going to rest. Sit down at rest, and you're going to get

· 19:11the person in front of you on the line to get you your cup of coffee.

· 19:15So here's and so the rest of us are going to be standing hidden. We're all going to be, you know, our White Lab coats and our clipboards. We're all so political science. We're studying this. How? How is person? A your person? A going to get Person B to get them your coffee?

· 19:29Okay. So

· 19:31the first thing that that comes to mind the first thing that most students in my classes say as well.

· 19:39I'd offer him or her a couple of coffee

· 19:43to stand in line to buy my cup of coffee.

· 19:47Well, that's not a use of personal power, and i'll tell you we will call it an economic, simple economic exchange

· 19:54or a simple contract. Here you take. I'm going to give you money to buy my coffee, but i'm giving you enough to buy your own coffee. And is that okay? And they say, Well, sure that's a good deal. They stand in line and get your coffee when they bring it back to you. Well, you did change them. Have they not been in that relationship with you? They wouldn't have done that, but they changed you, too.

· 20:14Had you not been in that relationship with him you wouldn't have to give them.

· 20:18So we're going to say It's kind of a a standoff. And this is basically the building block of of of a free market. Capital system is the idea that each individual can voluntarily enter into a transaction with each other, make a judgment with each other for themselves about whether or not the transaction is good enough as long as no one's forcing you

· 20:38right. There's no no, no, uh uh pressure being applied.

· 20:42Both parties agree to a mutually beneficial arrangement without outside coercion,

· 20:47you know, in in business terms that's a simple contract.

· 20:52So I want you to understand. That's not an example of personal power, though it's It's usually when my students consider to be the first, and I think it's a very normal way in which Americans

· 21:02approach this this, this challenge, the

· 21:05the second way is to simply say, Hey,

· 21:09you know I

· 21:11I am.

· 21:13Ah, I've got a really bad knee, and if I stand too long I I i'm in a lot of paints. I'm gonna I'd like to sit down here. And would you mind getting me my coffee while I rest, and if a person takes pity on you, or or expresses some passion for you and says, Okay, sure, what do you want.

· 21:31They stand in line. They get the coffee and bring it back and give it to you. Have you use personal power?

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Unknown Speaker

21:36Yes, you have.

·

Eugene Goss

21:37They use power. They they! They got that power out of the goodness of their hearts, and it was based on true circumstances. You have a bad meaning. It would have created a lot of pain stand there, and so you did not mislead them or from them in any way.

· 21:52So i'm going to call this a benevolent or benign use of power. Benevolent hormonine, benevolent means, good or benign, meets neutral, so benevolent or benign uses might need a simple request based on true circumstances that relies on another person's kindness or perception of mutual interest

· 22:10folks. This happens all the time it happens in families. It happens at work. It happens There are many examples every day of our lives, of people who do things for other people when asked

· 22:21out of the goodness of their hearts. And if this is perfectly innocent and perfectly fine, as the person in person A who asks for something from personally. Have they use power? Yes, they,

· 22:33but they used it in a benevolent urbanide way.

· 22:37The third generals category of uses of power is something completely different.

· 22:44This is when you get in line

· 22:46you lie to a person you say. Look, I've got a bad knee. I need to sit. Would you mind getting me a cup of coffee, and they take pity, or they show compassion to you,

· 22:55and they get in line and get you a cup of coffee, and when they bring it back and hand it to you, we are all watching, we go well. That person use power. But when we find out that it was a lie. Now that's a that's a use of power, but it's what we call a negative or a malevolent use of power.

· 23:11Okay, Another version of that might be

· 23:14You get up and you you're a much bigger person, and you physically grab them, Shove them, and you get up there and look down and physically intimidate,

· 23:23and to get me my coffee, or else.

· 23:26Well, that's a use of force. That's also a all level and use of power.

· 23:32Um. So

· 23:34whenever you're using power in a way which coerces people

· 23:39against their better judgment. So they're what they're doing is not voluntarily, or they're being misled and defrauded. That's what we call a malevolent use of power.

· 23:50So coercion by threat or intimidation, or force,

· 23:54or fraud, through misrepresentation or prevarication. Now, there you can probably think of other examples. I This is not an exhausting list of the ways in which we can conceptualize power.

· 24:07But just to understand that when you go to use power in your personal life, or when you gain power over lots of people. If you become a political official

· 24:17or you're running a large organization like the chief of

· 24:19lease, or like a President of the United States like a corporate Ceo, just to understand that every decision you make to use power really takes into account what what's going on with you? Are you using power for good? Or are you using power in a way which is bad on a level?

· 24:41So the nature of power? I want you to understand this. Most of you, I think, know already what if you follow me? You know what the

· 24:49nature of power is. Obviously power is not good or bad, because it can be used for either. So power is inherently by nature neutral.

· 25:00It can be used like any other tool for good or evil purposes. So if i'm staying in front of a chalkboard, and I have a piece of chalk, and I put up the notes to Beethoven's Night Symphony,

· 25:11I'm using power for good. But if I put up, you know cuss words, i'm using power for that. So I, as a person with freedom to make a choice have the power of the challenge to use power for good or evil.

· 25:25You do, too, every day of your life.

· 25:28This is why, having some sense of moral foundation is so important for society and so important for our our lives individually, and

· 25:36never forget. Power is neutral. How you use your power in relationships with other people

· 25:43really comes down to who you are, what kind of person you are.

· 25:50Let's keep working with power. The effective government requires power to function. And look, if you tell the government you want them to, you want them to make sure no one drives over eighty miles an hour freeway.

· 26:05You have to give them the power to do that. You have to to give them police and give police the

· 26:10the necessary authority to go out and and to ticket people who are traveling fast too fast on the freeway.

· 26:16You can't get around that. If you want the police to come in and protect you from criminals. You need to give the police the power to use force, to be able to arrest people,

· 26:24and sometimes even kill people if somebody's lives in danger,

· 26:28so power is necessary for government to function. The real question is, not whether government needs power the real questions, but

· 26:36when does it have too much? And when does it have too little? That's our job in a Republican democratic system? It's our job

· 26:44to make certain that we answer that question to our satisfaction. As we observe our government in action.

· 26:51Psychologists maintain that each individual needs a certain sense of empowerment to be mentally healthy. We all need to have a sense that we have control over our lives to a certain extent that we understand the environment around so that we can be active agents in our own lives. People who don't have that sense of the power oftentimes

·

Unknown Speaker

27:11have issues.

·

Eugene Goss

27:13I'm going to leave that to your psychology, Professor. That's just a generalized state. There's a lot to that. But just to understand that individuals typically need a little bit of power at least to be healthy, right Mentally,

· 27:25we also know that if a democracy means anything, it means that people have power. So in a democracy each person needs at least a modest sense of power for democracy to work. If If most people in America simply don't have the sense that they stand, the Government want to be involved in the government, it won't work for them,

· 27:43and they don't have that modest sense of power, and that spells trouble for the democratic form.

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Unknown Speaker

27:48Government

·

Eugene Goss

27:51having said all that we have to be very careful about this idea of power. The famous British historian Board acted the

· 27:59Uh made a very famous assertion about power

·

Unknown Speaker

28:03it's been it's a These are indeed very wise.

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Eugene Goss

28:08The power it corrupts,

· 28:09and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

· 28:13What does that mean?

· 28:14What he observed throughout history as an individual leader tends to get more and more and more and more power over people around him.

· 28:23They tend to change when they tend to be corrupted by that fact.

· 28:27It's not that the power is evil. It's it having a lot of it, and getting bored,

· 28:32makes us less good, and not in all cases that have been people who have had lots of power that actually done good things with. We've had a history of

· 28:40good kings, for instance. We've had plenty of corrupt kings and money equipment

·

Unknown Speaker

28:44leaders throughout history,

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Eugene Goss

28:46and when they get so much power that they have absolute power,

· 28:50they oftentimes are perverted by that, and do really bad things with it. But

· 28:56so this is an accident, a maxim that I think you should should internalize power, corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely because our constitutional system of government kind of assumes this to be true, we don't put absolute power in the hands of

· 29:11three branches of a government with checks and balances and separation of power, and the President has some power, but he has to deal with Congress and the boards and the fifty State Government. He just doesn't have absolute power anything close to it

·

Unknown Speaker

29:25come back to that concept in the future.

·

Eugene Goss

29:28I always, as a courtesy to my students In my lecture

· 29:33I was like to go through some of the key terms that are listed in your chat in the Maglev text

· 29:38and comment on them Constitutional democracy, for instance, a government that enforces, recognizing that it's on those who govern, and allows the voice of the people to be heard from free, fair, and relatively frequent elections. Well, that's what we have a constitutional democracy.

· 29:54The people who govern us have to govern within limits. They can't do whatever they want,

· 29:59and the people get to be heard through free, Fair and relatively frequent elections. As a matter of fact, we got one coming up on November the eighth.

· 30:06Are you going to get an offer? If you're a registered voter going to be able to both for State legislature, the Governor, ballot, initiatives in the State, your local City Council persons, School Board members,

· 30:17your Congressman, your Us. Senator, not the President, but just about everybody else.

· 30:25Capitalism. Capitalism is not a political system. Capital is an economic system. We have it here in we're a capitalist country,

· 30:33and we have it since the very beginning.

· 30:36And one of the reasons why we're kind of different was that, apart from much of the rest of the world because of our capitalist system, which has been so good in providing for the American people in terms of

·

Unknown Speaker

30:47goods and services and quality of life.

·

Eugene Goss

30:50Capitalism is an economic system based on private property, competitive markets, economic incentives, and limited, that is, controlled government involvement in the production, pricing and and distribution of goods and services. Another way of putting it is: Capitalism says that government should play a very limited role in,

· 31:09and taxing people who produce things,

· 31:13and that we should allow for capitalists to pool their resource and invest in things, be as unhindered as possible, to go out and produce goods and services that the market wants, that we be reviving one,

· 31:27and America is probably the, I think, certainly the best example of a capitalist system in the history of the world for better and for worse. Later we'll talk about some of the downsides of capitalism, and they're planning, to be sure, but it certainly has provided the greatest standard of living to the world has ever seen,

· 31:46and

· 31:47those systems that use capitalism around the world tend to have the same results.

· 31:54What is legitimacy? Well, to be a legitimate power is to have any rightful in your use of the use of force.

· 32:02How do you get legitimate power through the Constitution. The Constitution sets up

· 32:07the means by which you get an office, and it says what power the office has, what you can and can do, and that is in America at least establishes legitimacy.

· 32:18Social Contract. Well, that's our Constitution is an example of a social contract

· 32:23except ours is written

· 32:25social contract. It's an implied contract between a new

· 32:29who agree to obey laws in exchange for the protection of their right. So

· 32:33uh we, you know You've never been asked. You accept the Us. Constitution,

· 32:38but it's It's just kind of assumed that you and I agreed to obey the laws that are going down from the Constitution through all our various institutions.

· 32:49We agree to obey those laws because we assume that you're a If i'm obeying those laws, you're obeying those laws that we're all doing those laws, and we're all protected in our rights.

· 32:59So that's the implicit contract in America that we are all protected in our rights as long as we're all following the law

· 33:08of in the way.

·

Unknown Speaker

33:10For the reasons it was read.

·

Eugene Goss

33:14Popular sovereignty level.

·

Unknown Speaker

33:16The idea of sovereignty is ultimate a sort of authority.

·

Eugene Goss

33:20So popular sovereignty means the idea. The ultimate political authority rests with people it does in America. How do I know that because the Constitution begins with three words: We, the people. So all the powers vested in the Constitution that have control over our government at all levels, including the President,

· 33:38go back to we the people. We can change our constitution through that constant event.

· 33:43Through the amendment process we can completely change the governing system. We can get rid of the government, we haven't, replaced it. The brand new, and it looks completely different

· 33:52through the constitutional process laid out in that body. All the Constitution that comes after the words, we, the people.

· 34:00So we do have popular sovereignty in America.

· 34:05Political culture. Well,

· 34:07the text of the the standard definition is the widely shared beliefs values, and Norm citizens hold about their relationship,

· 34:15government and one another. So all those things you and I take for granted, when we think about

· 34:20our our, our our relationship with each other. Excuse me,

· 34:30excuse me,

· 34:33and those we take those things for Grant, for instance, the idea of equality. We just take it for granted that we kind of assume each other's equal politically. I don't get one more vote than you do, because I you know. I'm a political science professor. We just don't even think like that.

· 34:47So those are some of the norms of share beliefs. We have the idea that we should be free, and we shouldn't be able to boss each other around.

· 34:54Use government to try to imprison each other. And there's just all kinds of basic things

·

Unknown Speaker

34:59that are part of a political culture, the way we just do things routinely for

·

Unknown Speaker

35:02day to day.

·

Eugene Goss

35:04We don't even think about the background, if you will

· 35:07of the political system.

· 35:10What is a majority? Well, just so, you know, a majority is receiving over fifty percent of the vote in an election. It could be fifty percent plus one vote.

· 35:19That's after you one. It could be fifty percent plus one vote. You've got your majority

· 35:24very important distinction.

· 35:27What is a plurality. A plurality is receiving the most votes, even if it's not a majority. So let's say you have forty five percent of the vote. Someone else has forty, another has

· 35:38you can. Nobody has the majority

· 35:41but you at forty-five have the poor Allen

· 35:44most of our in most of our elective offices. That's enough to get you elected

· 35:53America. Your text talks about something really Ah, nebulous, and that is the American dream. I think you all probably have some idea what that is, and maybe have your own version of it. So i'm going to say, rather than kind of give you what I think. Traditionally, it's i'm just going to give you what the text says about. I think it's a pretty good starting.

· 36:10The American dream is a complex set of ideas that holds in the United States a demand of opportunity for individual initiative and hard work to bring economic success. I'm: not so sure of all Americans believe that anymore.

· 36:25I see some polling evidence that suggests that you know younger people in particular are having struggling with that because of the high cost of living housing and all the rest. I gotta tell you if you talk to immigrants who've come here recently, legally or illegally,

· 36:40they will tell you. That's how they see America. They see this as a place where there are opportunities that didn't exist in their own country, where they believe that if they work hard and make sacrifices. They and their families can end up in a much better condition, and their their kids will end up better than they are.

· 36:56That is still widely believed in America, but it's less believed today than it has been in the past, and we'll we'll come back when we look at political culture. Later in the term, we'll come back and address that specifically.

· 37:08What is Government? Well, I've thrown the word around a little bit loosely here. I suppose the Government is the processes and institutions through which decisions are made for the whole society, and legitimacy is force to carry out decisions.

· 37:21So that really is the difference between, say apple computer and a government agency. When you go into an apple store you

· 37:29you decide you're not going to buy a new apple. Iphone You turn around and try to walk out. They can't chase you with a gun and force you to buy an apple iphone.

· 37:37If you are working for apple, you you decide to quit Today you walk out. They can't force you with a gun to come back and work. They don't have the power of force.

· 37:47No private corporation Does not Exxon, not not Google, not Apple, not Ford, not Mercedes. No private corporation has the power of fours.

· 37:59The power of force is only in government.

· 38:02So if the Government tells you that you have to do something, they can back it up by forcing you to do it.

· 38:13Non-governmental institutions, businesses, corporations, nonprofits, household churches. None of those can use for the

· 38:21only the government.

· 38:26I'm fond of what the Pg. O' work on American humor has just passed away this year. It was a a big loss for his American society. He was a funny guy, and had a lot of interesting insights into government and politics.

· 38:41He's famous for a lot of things, he he remarked. That government is nothing more than organized for us. I don't think it's that simple.

· 38:48But he points out, for instance, with reference to the income tax that when we're told it's a voluntary tax. You just pay it. On April fifteen. No agent comes, tries to take it from you. Well, let's say you commit fraud at a felony level, and don't pay your taxes. You have to eat text.

· 39:04Then the Feds do come and arrest you. They put you in an Irs tech court. They will convict you, and you will go to Federal penitentiary

· 39:11if you try to get out of them or in Federal penitentiary. They'll shoot you. They'll kill you.

· 39:16You're not directly facing force when you pay your taxes, but in directly

· 39:23force is there, and you know it. That's why you pay your taxes. Don't, cheat on your taxes, for if it's not a smart vote always

· 39:30get good advice on how to pay your tax and pay them on time.

· 39:33That's just by By the way, the Irs who collects taxes for the Federal Government is the most feared agency of the Federal Government. Having said that the President Biden this year has decided, got Congress to pass a law which is going to, I think, hire something like sixty seven thousand more Irs agents

· 39:52to review our taxes. So in the coming years, so

· 39:57not exactly sure why you did that. We maybe we can delve into that later in the semester.

· 40:03But the point the point here is that obviously government is is set a part. It can use force. And so you have the police power, military, and none of the rest of institutions and civil society can be

· 40:16wells in government. Well, i'm just This is just a brief top down view. We're going to come back and tear this apart in Chapter three on Federal. But there's a national government of national jurisdiction. It's authorized by the Us. Constitution. That's the United States Government based in Washington, Dc.

· 40:32They They do so many things. The most important, of course, the top function is national defense. The military

· 40:39state of California State jurisdiction just within the boundaries of the State of California, right in the State of Nevada as jurisdictions for people.

·

Unknown Speaker

40:47The there

·

Eugene Goss

40:49it is, governed by the California Constitution, which we'll learn about later, the semester. It's top functions. If you just look by budgetary category,

· 40:56education, and criminal justice. It does a lot more than that. We get it all that

· 41:02there's the county of la. There are fifty-eight counties in the State of California. You're in the county of La. If you're in Long Beach, the top functions, if you just look at Budget or sheriff's department in Public Health

· 41:14City of Long Beach is a city of municipality. It's charged by the State top functions in any city, including one I, Mayor of Zero Moderate

· 41:22are always police and fire, and then everything else.

· 41:25There's a lot of other things as well.

· 41:29Special districts. Heck long beach Community College district is a stand-alone severed government with its own elected five elected politicians and board of trustees, and make policy for the whole district. I know if you knew that or not,

· 41:41and so there are many special districts, school districts and the most common up their water districts, Sanitation districts, air pollution control districts.

· 41:49We're going to learn about California State and Local government. At the very last year of the semester in December we'll finish the course with that. It's going to be really interesting. We'll delve into this in.

· 42:00But those year levels Us. State within the State's County city in special districts,

· 42:08Democracy. Well, your text says, Government is your your textbook definition,

· 42:13or in terms of what is, uh,

·

Unknown Speaker

42:15pardon me, governed by the people,

·

Eugene Goss

42:19or in terms of political power, rule by the many.

·

Unknown Speaker

42:22Instead of one individual or a small group. It involves the numbers right the people,

·

Eugene Goss

42:28Democratic principles, President and truly democratic system. Well, first of all, everybody would be recognized. All individuals would be recognized

· 42:37with dignity. Everybody is treated with dignity. Not no one person or no one in group is lesser than anyone else. Equal protection of the law for everyone. So the law applies equally to everyone else. No one gets privileges, no one gets treated poorly, or any more

· 42:55opportunity for everyone to participate in public decisions, you get an opportunity to go and speak at a public meeting. Yeah, and ready to

· 43:03sharing your opinions with elected officials about what they're trying to do. That's what part of a democracy is.

· 43:09And at first decision making by majority rule. Ultimately you don't have democracy. If a small minority is running. You need the majority in charge of making decisions.

· 43:19One-person, one vote. So college professors, don't get a hundred votes compared to college students who get one vote. Everybody gets one vote.

· 43:28What is direct, remote from democracy versus representative democracy,

· 43:34Well, direct or pure democracy would be where every person participates directly in the decision making process. So, rather than voting for someone to do something, you're going to actually do it yourself.

· 43:44Good example is, your text points out we're up in New England, going back hundreds of years. People in small towns at Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine get together once or twice a year in a high school. It's amazing. Anybody can show who wants to.

· 43:58This town manager takes them through an agenda, and everyone gets up and speaks on each item. They take a boat and move to the next side, and when they're done they all go home, and then the city runs the city.

· 44:07In that sense the citizens are actually making the decision. They don't have a city council or a mayor.

· 44:13These are very small cities, with just a few thousand people in very small towns. This is something that

· 44:19it's very impractical when you talk to take a look at larger cities, larger political jurisdictions, so obviously the United States Government in Washington is not a direct democracy.

· 44:30Another example of direct democratic institutions are what we call the initiative, the referendum and the recall.

· 44:37California has all three, about twenty, five. About half the States have these

· 44:41initiatives, and with people in the State put an idea up. They make a lot collective. They collect signatures on a petition. They get enough signatures. They take a petition to the State Secretary of State in Sacramento, who certifies it, and then puts that idea

· 44:57in the next general election. So people themselves are coming up with the idea, getting other people to design petitions, and then ultimately people themselves both. So this leaves out the elected State Legislature altogether.

· 45:10Referendum is when the State Legislature passes a law that decides they're not going to

· 45:14implemented until they sent it to us in the next election to vote up or down the

· 45:19we're just making sure we support it.

· 45:22And a recall election is when

· 45:24the public says, Hey, we don't like that elected official anymore. So you get enough to send your son a petition and voila! You have an election, and maybe you recall that

· 45:34the politician are we

·

Unknown Speaker

45:36first and only Governor to be recalled was, we called about twenty years ago, Gray Davis,

·

Eugene Goss

45:41and was replaced by a guy named Arnold Schwarzenegger. So

· 45:46So we do have recalls the local, and we pretty regularly, but that we've only had.

· 45:50Governor recalled the state of California's history.

· 45:53What is a representative democracy? Excuse me just a second.

· 45:58Well, that's when citizens delegate decision-making power to people who may elect to represent them so For instance, I was elected me on our City Council in ceremonary. Now I get to participate in the decisions that govern the city.

· 46:10So we uh, and certainly this is the case for

· 46:14Congressman or you. You get to elect your representatives to the House, your opinion to the Senate, and you get to recollect your President,

· 46:20and they go to Washington or your State Assembly and State Senator and your governor go to Sacramento, and in all cases they make the decisions, and then answer back to you. In the next election.

· 46:33Representatives are chosen by a popular vote.

· 46:36There's they're they're voted on in regularly scheduled elections, not elections that are convening for the politicians

· 46:43elections that are regularly scheduled. This is how we hold, and this is how we, the citizens, hold them accountable for the decisions they make. So elections are obviously a vital part of democratic government in a representative democracy.

· 46:59So American government, democracy, what is it? Most of political scientists class by America as a representative democracy

· 47:06representing democracy is a government in which the people elect those who govern and pass laws. It's really that simple. The

· 47:14United States of America is a republic and a representative democracy. The

· 47:20The Republic is a form of government where the people are sovereign. Again, what is sovereign? Has the final authority?

· 47:26Republic is a form of government,

· 47:28our sovereign. So we are a representative democracy, and we are a republic.

· 47:34Well, I guess I took the term to put this on the Powerpoint. Sovereignty is the final power that I will say

· 47:42the Constitution begins with the words, We, the people, which means that people are sovereign, or have the final say the

· 47:51and that means we are a republic and a representative democracy.

· 47:57Okay,

· 47:59I do like to play around with some of the old, The ancients, Aristotle, for instance, what an interesting guy! Two thousand four hundred years ago or so back in Athens. He studied the political world at the time, was really the first political scientist to think of himself like that.

· 48:14But, he went on systematically, studied the governments that existed his during his time on the historical record that he could get.

· 48:21He came up with a classification system. That's part of his work. If you go read It's about a thousand pages called on politics.

· 48:28They Aristotle,

· 48:30he said, the goal of good government has to do with the ends in alphabet.

· 48:34It's not how you make decisions. It's for the good government is What is the society look like at the end of the day? Society? Are people good or society good or not?

· 48:44That's how you evaluate it.

· 48:47A good or virtuous government involves leaders governing a virtuous people in the interests of the common good.

· 48:53It's pretty simple.

· 48:55So a virtuous people are being governed by virtue's leaders who were maintaining the virtue of society. The interests of the

· 49:05leaders, according to Aristotle, can corrupt a virtuous people, but have a very great difficulty making corrupt people lurches. So if you have a society that is, that is decadent and corrupt, virtuous leaders are not likely going to be able to turn it around in the short term.

· 49:21However, if you have a if you have a society which is virtuous,

· 49:25you get an an evil and deceitful leader.

· 49:29They can corrupt a virtuous people in not to in a short amount of time.

· 49:34So these are interesting insights from Aristotle, and sharing with you

· 49:38His classification system goes like this, or virtuous governments, and perverted the

· 49:43or corrupt governments.

·

Unknown Speaker

49:46The virtuous governments were in three types based on how many meters,

·

Eugene Goss

49:50basically

· 49:52but he

· 49:53rule by one that would be a king, a queen, a Tsar, a caliph, achieved something like that.

· 50:00Monarchy is a virtuous government. If the king, its interest is governing a virtuous society in the interest of the common good.

· 50:08It's well enough. Leave it alone, Aristotle. That monarchy was the most effective government Federal, with the best of all forms of government. It's a little bit different than we moderns are today. Right?

· 50:20It certainly was the most common form of government during his time, and it's certainly been the most common form of government in human history, since

· 50:29aristocracy is ruled by the upper class by birthright, the well-born, the

· 50:34and typically they might have a king working with them. But the aristocracy pretty much runs the show,

· 50:42you know, in Francis they have a saying, the blessed bleach long before the French heather Revolution,

· 50:48where the aristocracy was supposed in the blessing. Egyptian of lege means nobility. Those who are well born, and of all this privilege also have a responsibility to

·

Unknown Speaker

50:59they're obliged to take care of,

·

Eugene Goss

51:03and the true aristocracy is governed that way, or as aristocrats don't just exercise privilege for the exercise responsibility to take care of all society in the interest of the quantum good.

· 51:15And then there's polity which is mixed over. That is. You Take the well-born aristocrats, and you mix them with the best and the brightest of the common commoners who are not well born

· 51:26Today we might call the middle class,

· 51:30and that's still a fairly small government, but it's certainly a little bit more large than a typical aristocracy. This was the government, by the way,

· 51:39Polity was kind of what the people at the Constitutional Convention were shooting, for they wanted a government where the well-born were were responsible. But they also wanted to bring in the best of the brightest

· 51:52and the most accomplished from the commoners class of middle class. Working together, they thought that

· 51:58create a solid government, and where he worked Aristotle with fine versions. Of this he thought that was a good or virtuous government, but all three of these have perverted or corrupted forms.

· 52:10Tyranny is the corrupt rule by one. That's when a king decides that he or she is not going to worry about the common good. They're going to take care of themselves, or new things which are arbitrary, or precious, or just, plain, nasty, and mean spirited.

· 52:23This was a charge we laid against King George Iii. When we had our revolution, we said he was a tyrant. We want to be free of. We have our own country.

· 52:31So we start our constitutional republic's history

·

Unknown Speaker

52:35with the claim that our rightful leader, King George the Third, was, in fact, a tyrant.

·

Eugene Goss

52:41All of our key is correct. Well, by the few well-born. So in the case of France, French aristocrats they they were, they were incredibly they. They came corrupt. By the middle part of the eighteenth century. They just didn't seem to care about the commoners again. They were just concerned about their own luxury and their own

· 53:00privileges, and the the French people got the sense of that, and an oligarchy is not a lot of fun to live in.

· 53:12And then, finally, you have. Well, wait a minute. Question. Mark what is the corrupt version of poly Here, remember, holiday is bringing in members of the common class enlarging things to get more people involved in the decision-making process.

· 53:24Well, Aristotle thought the most perverted form of government was democracy.

· 53:28Democracy would be that it would be the corrupted version of polity where you let so many people in

· 53:34we're not the well-born. They just now decision making becomes really really

· 53:42selfish, that is, there's no one looking out for the common good, any. In fact, this is the case with tyranny. Olivier and democracy. According to Aristotle, everybody is looking out for themselves, and no one is looking up at the common good

· 53:54things deteriorate after that. Typically, what he pointed out is

· 53:58after you have a period of dead democracy. Typically see some version of me,

· 54:03Dictator. Come in and try to fix things

·

Unknown Speaker

54:07us and bring stability to such a place.

·

Eugene Goss

54:11So just so you understand that

· 54:14the ancients, and not just Aristotle, but other ancient philosophers. Ah! Older philosophers. Classic philosophers have always had a dim view of democracy because they just had and didn't have, a song. You just didn't have this view that the people could enter into

· 54:29ah political activity, and not do so in a selfish manner, because somehow that they people couldn't rise above their selfish interest and think about what was the interest of the common good. Obviously, in the last three hundred years in the modern world we have dispensed with that most of our systems of government are at least in the West, like America.

· 54:48Ah, just the opposite. We believe very strongly in the idea that the individual and people from back with common ancestry. That is, most of us all of us

· 54:59perfectly capable of participating in a government that's stable. And just so just throw this out to you for a sense of comparison, and what you understand

·

Unknown Speaker

55:08different ways of looking at things.

·

Eugene Goss

55:11Sir Winston Churchill, the famous hero in England and World war. Ii said: Democracy is the worst form of government on a ringing endorsement, is it?

· 55:21Except for all the others that have been tried?

· 55:25So he understood that democracy in his time in England was probably a good form of government to use,

· 55:33but he wouldn't have said it with the best form of government, because he would just simply say, Well, it was kind of the least worst you had to choose from,

· 55:42that is to say, all governments are flawed and have problems because human beings are flawed.

· 55:49You can't set up a government and expect perfect outcomes

· 55:53There's an old saying, The perfect is the enemy of the good

· 55:57it is. It is perfection in human institutions is probably impossible.

·

Unknown Speaker

56:04And so, then you have to figure out what

·

Eugene Goss

56:06any time in any country in any place in history Is democracy the best form of government? Probably not.

· 56:13There may be, or is it? Is it the least the worst form of you know? There are probably times when it won't work at all.

· 56:18Maybe something else worked.

· 56:20I think that's his point, at least during the modern period. Certainly in England and the West, including places like America, we see democracy as something that works among all the choices we have. It's probably the least worst. Some Americans would say it's the best,

·

Unknown Speaker

56:38but you could also say it's the least worse.

·

Unknown Speaker

56:42I don't think that's a point of view.

·

Unknown Speaker

56:44It's just kind of an interesting perspective.

·

Eugene Goss

56:47Thomas Jefferson, the famous Virginian, who was pivotal in the beginning of our republic, said: Government, the government that governs best governs is it? It governs least,

· 56:58And that's kind of the same basic attitude. You all know. All governments are going to be flawed. So minimize the impact of government in your life, because it's likely, or at least over time, It's likely that it could

·

Unknown Speaker

57:11problems for people.

·

Eugene Goss

57:14Other words proceed with caution. Proceed with. When you're talking about government anywhere anywhere on the planet at any time in history.

· 57:22You need to. It's a sober thing to to think about

· 57:26serious about it and sober about it, and understand that the

· 57:30it's a very, very complicated and important, and oftentimes dangerous, but

·

Unknown Speaker

57:37institution and process.

·

Eugene Goss

57:41Well, i'm going to do a stop share here, and I just want to come back.

· 57:45Um. The next lecture we have, We're focused primarily on the United States Constitution, the second half of chapter, one in Magleby and all of chapter two, and you will also read the Constitution and go into canvas, and I'll follow the instructions there, and we'll take it

· 58:02on the Constitution in the process, and I hope that's instructing for you. If you have questions about that experience, certainly drop me an email. I'm really looking forward to the rest of this semester. I think you've got to learn a lot, and I think it should be fun and useful for you,

· 58:17so i'll see you all soon. Take care.