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| | Start Date: Apr 25, 2008
| Last Update: Apr 27, 2008
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| | Description: A Treatise on Where American Government Derives Its Just Powers to Govern:
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| | | | | What is the social compact? | | | What is the social compact?
Black's Law Dictionary, 6th Ed., p. 1390 SOCIAL COMPACT. In political philosophy, a term applied to the theory of the origin of society associated chiefly with the names of Hobbes, Locke and Rosseau, though it can be traced back to the Greek Sophists. Rosseau [Constract Social] held that in the pre-social state man was unwarlike and timid. Laws resulted from the combination of men who agreed, for mutual protection, to surrender individual freedom of action. Government must therefore rest on theconsent of the governed.
Bare v. Gorton, 84 Wash. 2d 380, 526 P. 2d 399 (S.Ct. of W.) 9/12/1974, p. 5 "Two centuries ago, the American people chose a representative democracy as their constitutional form of government. Our system of democracy is not a static social compact fixed in 1789, but a continuing and dynamic experiment in representative government."
West v. National Mines Corp., 168 W.Va. 578, 285 S.E. 2d 670 (S.Ct. of W.Va.), 12/18/1981, p. 7 It is part of the great social compact to which every person is a party, and a fundamental and essential principle in every civilized community that every person yields a portion of his rights of absolute dominion and use of his own property, in recognition of, and obedience to, the rights of others, so that others may also enjoy their property without unreasonable hurt or hinderance."
State v. Brosseau, 124 N.H. 184, 470 A 2d 869 (S.Ct. of N.H.) 12/1/1983, p. 8 "Part I, Article 1 provides that our government is derived from the people and is founded on their consent. N.H. Const. pt. I, art.1, art 3 makes it clear that the government originates in a social compact running between the State and the people, whose end is the protection of man's natural rights. Id. at art.3. According to 18th century thought, such a social compact is a necessity because our natural rights are insecure while we exist ourside of a justly organized society or inside the 'state of nature'.
In joining a just society, we surrender the control over certain of our rights to its government for the greater good of the whole. That surrender is valid only so long as there is a quid quo pro, with the society providing an equivalent larger good for its exaction from the people.' 'If the individual receives an equivalent for the right of control he has parted with, the surrender of that right is valid; if he receives no equivalent, the surrrender is void, and the supreme power of the State as it respects him is an usurper.' |
| What is the definition of voluntary? Voluntarily? | | | Black's Law Dictionary, 6th Ed., p. 1575. VOLUNTARY. Unconstrained by interference; unimpelled by another's influence; spontaneous; acting of oneself. Coker v. State, 199 Ga. 20, 33 S.E. 2d 171, 174. Done by design or intention. Proceeding from the free and unrestrained will of the person. Produced in or by an act of choice. Resulting from free choice, without complusion or solicitation.
VOLUNTARILY. Done by design or intention, intentional, proposed, intended, or not accidental. Intentionally and without coercion.Young v. Young, 148 Kan. 876, 84 P. 2d 916, 917. |
| How does one become a 'member of the body politic'? | | | How does one become a member of the body politic?
U.S. v. Esparza-Mendoza, 265 F. Supp. 2d 1254 (May 29, 2003)
". . . the age would have been articulated most prominently by political philosopher John Locke. [FN56] Locke conceived of government as a social compact in which formerly free individuals voluntarily united to establish communities. [FN 57] ... be liable to such limitations as are necessary for the security of the absolute rights of the later." [FN 59] The social compact view is perhaps most famously echoed in the Declaration of Independence, which declared that
'governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.' . . . people of that state proclaimed directly: 'the body politic is formed by a voluntary associationof individuals: it is asocial compact, by which the whole people covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole people, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good.'
See Social Compact search list for 31 additional cites. |
| What is the 'body politic'? Commonwealth? Tacit? Agreement? | | | What is the 'body politic'?
Uricich v. Kolesar, 132 Ohio St. 115, 5 N.E. 2d 335 (Supreme Court of Ohio),p.2 -- What is the body politic? There is nothing in this statute to indicate that the words are employed in other than their common acceptation. 'Politic' is a derivative from a root signifying
'citizen'.
Uricich v. Kolesar, 54 Ohio App. 309, 7 N.E. 2d 413 (Court of App. of Ohio, 8th District) See: City of Durham v. Eno Cotton Mills, 141 N.C. 615, 54 S.E. 453, 463, 7 L.R.A. (N.S.) 321. "A body politicis a social compact by which the whole people covenants with each citizen and each citizen with the whole people, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good."
Balentine's Law Dictionary defines the phrase 'body politic' as a term often applied to a municipal corporation. A county is such a body. Another definitionis that 'bodies politic' are associated bodies, or communities of individuals, with certain rights and privileges belonging to them by law in their aggregate capacity. 8 Corpus Juris, 1137.
Black's Law Dictionary, 6th Ed., p. 278 COMMONWEALTH. ". . .
ss3. Any of the individual States of the United States and the body of the people constituting a state or politically organized community, a body politic, hence, a state, especially constituted by a number of persons united by compact or tacit agreement under one form of government and system of laws. Detres v. Lions Bldg. Corp., C.A. Ill., 234 F. 2d 596, 600.
Black's Law Dictionary, 6th Ed., p. 1452 TACIT. Existing, inferred, or understood without being openly expressed or stated; implied by silence or silent acquiescence, as a tacit agreement or a tacit understanding. State v. Chadwick, 150 Or. 645, 47 P. 2d 2332, 234. Done or made in silence, implied or indicated, but not actually expressed. Manifested by the refraining from contradiction or objection; inferred from the situation and circumstances, in the absence of express matter.
Black's Law Dictionary, 6th Ed., p. 67 AGREEMENT. A meeting of two or more minds; a coming together in opinion or determination; the coming together in accord of two minds on a given proposition. In law, a concord of understanding and intention between two or more parties with respect to the effect upon their relative rights and duties, of certain past or future facts or performances. The consent of two or more persons concurring respecting the transmission of some property, right, or benefits, with the view of contracting an obligation, a mutual obligation. A manifestation of mutual assent on the part of two or more persons as to the substance of a contract. restatement, Second, Contracts, ss 3.
the act of two or more persons, who unite in expressing a mutual and common purpose, with the view of altering their rights and obligations. The union of two or more minds in a thing done or to be done; a mutual assent to do a thing. A compact between parties who are thereby subjected to the obligation or to whom the contemplated right is thereby secured. |
| What is government? | | | What is government?
We the People: A Concise Introduction to American Politics, 3rd Edition, by Thomas E. Patterson, p.13 "What is government? What is its purpose? It might be thought that the answer to these age-old questions is that government is a means by which people work together to solve their common problems. To be sure, government can serve the collective good. But it can also serve the naked interests of a few, as in the case of Stalin's Russia, Hitler's Germany, or Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
Government can be defined as consisting of the institutions, processes, and rules that are designed to facilitate control of a particular geographic area and its inhabitants. [17] There are only two things that all governments have in common. One is a capacity to raise revenues, usually in the form of taxation, to support government activities. The other is coercion -- the ability to compel inhabitants to abide by the government's rules. Without these capacities, a government would be unable to exercise control over the territory and inhabitants it claims to rule.
Those who decide issues are said to have power, a term that refers to the ability of persons or institutions to control policy decisions. [18] Power is a basic concept of politics. Power determines which interests will decide policy. Those who have sufficient power can impose taxes, permit or prohibit abortions, protect or take private property, provide or refuse welfare benefits, impose or relax trade barriers. With so much at stake, it is perhaps not surprising that power is widely sought and tightly guarded.
When power is exercised through the laws and institutions of government
the concept of authority applies. Authority can be defined as the recognized right of an individual, organization, or institution to make binding decisions. By this definition, government is not the only source of authority: parents have authority over their children; professors have authority over their students; firms have authority over their employees. However, government is a special case in that its authority is more encompasing in scope and more final in nature. Government's authority extends to all within its geogaphical boundaries. It can be used to redefine the authority of the parent, the professor, or the firm. Government's authority is also the most coercive. It includes the power to arrest and imprison, even to punish by death those who violate its rules.
Government needs coercive power to ensure that its laws will be obeyed, but this power can also be abused. In a perfect world, political power would be used in evenhanded wasys for the benefit of all. but the world is imperfect, and those with power can use it for selfish ends, whether to enrich themselves personally or to advance the interests of their side against all others. 'Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely', was how Lord Acton described the problem.
Although no governing system can assure that power will be applied fairly, the U.S. system strengthens this prospect through an elaborate system of checks and balances. This system includes the division of authority among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. Each branch acts as a check on the power of the others and balances their power by exercising power of its own. Many other democratic countries have no comparable fragmentation of power. Extreme fragmentation of governing authority is a major characteristic of the American political system. This fact, as we will see in subsequent chapters, has profound implications for how politics is conducted, who wins out, and what policies result." |
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