POLI 2051 Lecture : Lecture Ch1
Document Summary
It is not limited to just politics, it is played everywhere, its who gets what when and how. Why do we allow ourselves into this arrangement: we need structure because we get benefits we get things, we allow ourselves into this arrangement because life without government would be worse. Without government, we would have to exist in what some have called the state of nature . Social contract theory can guide us here, to some extent. It"s a normative(describes things the way they"d like to be), rather than empirical theory(describes things the way they are). It is not a written contract, but rather, a general agreement between the people and their government. Normative - the way things ought to be. What does government do? on our own: protecting rights and liberties, providing public goods(collective goods) things we cant get, collective goods- education, trash pickup, roads, libraries, promoting equality, most controversial.
