Politics and Government Essay Outlines 2

1. To what extent should a government intervene in family matters?
To consider in all government intervention essay questions:
Rights of citizens in a democracy Rights of a government
Features of a democracy:
- Right to vote; Regular free & fair elections; Range of opinions from competing political parties
- Right to freedom of expression
- Right to freedom of belief (religion, political, etc)
- Right to equality before the law; independent legal system

- When is it justifiable for the government to take away these rights?
- 1) Infringement upon the rights of others (crimes, domestic violence, etc)
- 2) Protect the interests of citizens / country (economy, security, basic welfare, moral fabric, societal stability, etc)
o social contract theory (pple give up rights to government to receive or jointly preserve social order)
o impact of not infringing outweighs impact of infringing rights
o government has the clearest picture of national agendas and needs of state
o Eg. societal stability over freedom of expression in media
o Eg. economic growth over freedom of personal choice in family planning
- 3) Governments have the capacity to protect interests of citizens / country
o Ability to legislate laws, formulate and implement policies
- When is it not justifiable for the government to take away these rights?
-  Consider the areas that should not be intervened by the government (personal religious beliefs?)
-  Consider the level of intervention by the government (mandated laws to disincentives/incentives or campaigns)
-  Consider the assumption ‘government knows best’ assumption - Right to sovereignty (to preside over affairs of the state without intervention by outside / international bodies
- Right to make decisions for the state and act on its behalf that everyone has a duty to accept and obey (especially when they are elected by its people in a fair election)
o Are there exceptions?





2. ‘Rich nations should help the poor countries in the world.’ How true is this?

Why should rich nations help poor nations? Pragmatic reasons:
- Will benefit rich nations if they help
- Will affect rich nations adversely if they do not help

Moral reasons:
- Rich nations caused problems exacerbating poverty in poor nations (moral responsibility)
- Rich nations have the capacity to help without making them less well off than poor nations, or to sacrifice something of comparable value
Balance: Extent of help should help poor nations Limitations of aid:
- Foreign aid will not benefit poor nations with irresponsible, incompetent or corrupt government
- Rich nations need to back up economic help with genuine long-term assistance and diplomatic recognition to ensure instead of short-term aid or aid with strings attached.