POLS3310 Midterm

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University of Houston *

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3310

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Political Science

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Apr 3, 2024

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IDs - For each ID, please state what each term means and what its significance is for at least one of the basic political goods. Write at least 3 sentences, or 50 words, for each answer. Each ID is worth 5 points. Freedom Atomism Paternalism Legitimacy Political Moralism Deliberative Democracy ID 1. Freedom refers to the government’s protection of the citizenry’s liberty or liberties and is thus a basic political good in and of itself. With freedom, a nation’s citizens have the independence and will to do what they want with their own lives. They are not directly dependent on other people, with the government permitting a lack of constraint. ID 2. Atomism refers to the idea that people exist as individuals who are singular and lonely. This contrasts with people connected within a community, as atoms would be in a molecule. As society modernizes, people become more individualized and alone. As loneliness degrades happiness, which is a basic political good, atomism is a concept in opposition with the goals of a government. ID 3. Paternalism is the authorized restriction of a citizen’s freedoms, done in support of the citizen’s supposed benefit and best interests. Paternalism itself is the limiting of the citizenry’s liberty, a basic political good, in the name of the citizenry’s well-being. Oftentimes, paternalism is practiced in order to uphold another political good, sacrificing liberty for, say, security or equality. ID 4. Legitimacy refers to the authority in which the government has to govern the people. This is commonly used to validate the government’s political decisions and the processes behind those decisions in the eyes of the common public, particularly in the making of laws. Legitimate lawmaking requires some form of freedom built into the system, and freedom is a basic good. Laws put constraints around freedom, and so those constraints must be legitimate to be just. ID 5. Moralism refers to the argument that a government must work towards a moral society, a utopia. This is in opposition to realism, the argument that governments must maintain order and provide comfortable lives to citizens. Moralists and realists prioritize different political goods in each of their perspectives. Moralists argue the importance of
equality and happiness in the search for a moral end, whereas realists prioritize security and liberty to maintain comfortable, organized living. ID 6. Deliberative democracy refers to a type of democracy in which decisions and actions are made through debate and questioning before a decision is made, rather than competitive democracy in which an electorate is given the power to make decisions after an election. Some examples of this type of democracy include citizen juries and deliberate polls. These kinds of systems give the people more freedom and equality, as they grant power to the general populace at random. In theory, it also allows quality decisions and actions by the government for the future, maintaining development. Essays - For each essay, answer the question in its entirety. Write at least three paragraphs, or 250 words minimum, for each essay. Each essay is worth 15 points. Imagine your political community is interested in doing a better job realizing security. How would it do so? And what are the trade-offs it might encounter in doing so? There are many ways in which the United States could improve the safety of the American people and better realize the political good of security. One way would be to enforce a mandatory draft into serving the military for a set amount of time. This would bolster the strength of the US’ military power, ensuring more of a deterrence of foreign nations from attacking the US to protect the American populace. It further strengthens the US military so that the US is always ready to protect itself. However, since this supposed draft is mandatory, it decreases the amount of liberty that the American people can enjoy, forcing them to do something they may or may not want to do if they had the choice not to. Their freedoms are traded so that the US can realize more security for the nation. Another way of thinking to realize security as a political good would be to tighten laws around owning firearms. More gun control would reduce the number of dangerous weapons in domestic environments and thus gun violence in the US. However, this also limits the liberties of the citizens as well by prohibiting certain firearms or banning firearms altogether from the populace. One final path the US can take to further realize security would be to put more research and funding into healthcare and medicine. Advancements in the medical field would lengthen the lifespans and save many people’s lives. However, unless also worked towards, not every person in the US has access to regular healthcare. Unless equality is also better realized, some people will have this avenue for better medicine and others will not. Imagine your political community is interested in doing a better job maintaining the rule of law. State first the reasons why you would want to maintain the rule of law. And then what the obstacles are to maintaining the rule of law, and how you might circumvent them.
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