Hey guys welcome to your first lecture I
just want to thank everyone for joining
me
for the first day of class. We're gonna
be going over Chapter one of your Open
Statx textbook. We're going over just an
intro chapter on American government and
civic engagement
I am your professor Dr. Eunice Kang and I
just want to say you don't have to take
a lot of notes because I'm going to link
all the PowerPoint notes and convert it
into a PDF file. You can download the
PDF file and just study off the PDF file.
All the exams are gonna be based off
of lecture notes and so you don't have
to take a crazy amount of notes. You
could just follow along and enjoy and
just listen. I just want you guys to you
know that I want to make this as simple as
possible so just listen to the lecture
and enjoy! Alright!  So who governs you?
You're probably thinking nobody governs
me! Right?  Maybe the
rebelliousness in us is like, nobody's got
 any power on me, right? But let
me tell you there actually... The question
is how many levels of government are you
governed under?  Maybe you think, 
maybe just one?  Is it the federal
government? No, it's not one. Maybe you're
thinking okay maybe the government of
California, maybe? No it's not!  I'm
here to share with you that there are at
least... And you know, if we think of these
layers levels of government like a layer
of an onion, right? Like we can... There
are at least I want to say three or four
levels of government that rule over you!
Yes, they rule over you so the first one
here... and I'm gonna get out my handy
 laser pointer, right? If
you look here... Let's take
the City of Compton, right? You have the
City of Compton which is a city
government that rules over you.  Okay, if
you look here, this map shows the
breakdown of all the counties, right? We live... Compton college is under Los
Angeles County so right here you can see
Los Angeles County. So right here we can see that Los Angeles county  is a government that rules over you.
rules over you okay
Okay, now here on the left bottom corner you can
see that the state of California the
the state of California has a government. And
the state government rules over you,
governs over you.  And lastly you see the
whole country of the United States, right?
The national government, right, rules over
you, governs over you.  Okay! So there are
three main levels of government I know
there I showed four but it's basically
three and first we have look here which
is the national level the next level of
government that rules over us is the
state level so we live in California so
we're the state level and the last level
of government is the local level so the
local level includes
like the county of LA and also Compton
college which is the city okay
we'll be on to the next slide here's the
three levels of government I just want
to show you a different graph a graphic
right we have the federal another word
for federal is national okay national
government here we have the state state
of California and then you have the
local government right the local level
of government and the local includes and
you can see here at the county and also
the municipal another word for municipal
is City okay so if we take you know
let's say you living near Compton
college right you have the city the
municipal City of Compton that rules
over you the county of LA because
Compton is part of Los Angeles County
that rules over you the County of Los
Angeles is part of the California state
that rules over you and the state of
California is part of our of the
national of the country of the United
States right and therefore the national
government rules over us so there's at
least three main levels of government
that rules over us that governs over us
okay so I just want to quickly point out
who are
the main political players who are the
main people right on the national level
and an easy way to remember that on the
national level the main political
players are the President of the United
States right the US Senate and the US
House of Representatives and US Senate
plus US House of Representatives is
called Congress okay these two
legislative bodies right make up the US
Congress okay so they are these two
bodies right make and write all the laws
and pass all the walls okay and then you
have the Supreme Court justices right
and we have nine and so here you can see
with my laser pointer the executive
branch here the legislative body
legislative branch and then here is the
judicial branch okay
for the second level the state level the
three the different political political
actors include the governor the governor
is the highest person in in the state
right that is elected who governs us the
governor and then you have in the state
of California a legislative body and we
have a bicameral legislative body
meaning - okay so we have the state
senators and we also have the State
Assembly members so the state sent the
state senators and state some of the
members that create laws right and then
on the local level the main the main
players the political players on the
local level include the leader is the
top leadership on the county level and
these people are called not the governor
or the president
we call them County Supervisors so in
Los Angeles we have County Supervisors
specifically for the City of Compton
our current for 2020 the the county
supervisor is mark ridley-thomas right
and for the City of Compton the mayor
right oh we also have a mayor on the
local level we also have a mayor and the
mayor doesn't act alone they also elect
city council members so those are some
of the political parties on the national
level state level and local level okay
all right so quickly on the national
level I just shared with you who are
some the political actors but what sort
of services what are the roles what are
the duties that the national level of
government provides these include the
national government provides for our
defense our military defense as you can
see here they provide for our social
security that's our social security
pensions and things like that that's
that social security is like when your
parents right turn 65 then all the money
that they paid into Social Security
while they were working a job because
each time you're paid your monthly
salary let's say or by leak we salary
the federal government has been
deducting a certain amount of money to
be paid into Social Security so that
when you retire or you reach 65 years
old then the national the federal
government starts giving you back the
money that you paid into Social Security
right so my mom like for the past 20
years she was a preschool teacher and
Social Security was deducted from her
income but now that she's 65 years old
she just turned 65 actually she turned
62 because now you have the option to
take out money from social security at
62 versus 65 I don't want to get into
this but at 65 you can let's say take
out more you can get a higher amount but
if you start taking it out at 62 years
old then then they give you less of that
money per month okay so my mom she
wanted she wanted to get it earlier but
she just takes less of the money she
didn't want to wait another three years
before she hit 65 so she wanted to start
getting her money social security at 62
so she's getting Social Security right
the national level national government
they take care of pensions for veterans
so veterans are people who worked for
the military and because they served our
country right we want to make sure that
we take care of them when they retire so
that's pensions monthly pensions
retirement fund for veterans it's also
maintenance of federal courts and
prisons so we do have state courts in
state prisons but we have a separate
federal courts and federal prisons for
federal crimes right so we do maintain
that and also management of state parks
so if you like our national state parks
our national parks right like Yosemite
is a national park
we also have in California we have Death
Valley or Joshua Tree or if you've been
to you know outside of California we
have the national parks of Zion Canyon
or Yellowstone we also have I think
Redwood National Park we have
Sequoia National Park if you visited any
of these parks right these are
maintained not by the state of
California
these are maintained on the national
level these are nationally designated
parks for the public to enjoy so those
are some of the services that they
maintain like all the National Rangers
right for these parks who pays them who
pays their salary it's the national
government that pays their salary and
it's because of the taxes that they you
know deducted from our income per month
from our federal income tax that pays
for a lot of these services okay all
right so on the state level I some of
the services that they provide and what
they fund are let's say for the Calif on
the California level for example cuz we
live in California they allocate money
for state colleges and universities so
the money that we pay for our state
income tax right is used that money is
revenue for the state government right
the governor and everyone in Sacramento
that's where a state capitol is right
then they the money that they get from
our taxes right then they use that money
to fund state colleges like Compton and
universities and they also maintain
state roads and state bridges for
example okay
all right on the local level so what do
counties and city governments what are
they in charge of so the funds that they
get and so the local level right they
don't take money they don't charge us
income tax they don't take a certain
amount for our income tax all right but
what they do how they do get us is their
sales tax so whatever you buy from your
local mall right de la Mo is the closest
one that I can think you know cause us
to Compton college right or I don't know
if you've been to South Bay Galleria
Mall any of these malls that you go to
maybe the higher end ones and Costa Mesa
let's say I forget one that one was
called but like you go to the mall right
and you buy something
well our sales tax is right now what
what is it anyone know it's
approximately nine point seven five or
is it nine point five percent it's one
of the highest sales tax in the country
but yeah I mean
with that money then on the local level
the county supervisors and the mayor and
our City Council's in Compton college
that say they use that money to fund K
through 12 education can garden to 12th
grade right and they also fund police
and fire departments place and fire
departments if you see it says usually
city of Blanc right so I live in the
city of Torrance I'm not sure if Compton
has its own police and fire department
I'll have to look that up but if you
look at it see if it says City of
Compton or if it says County of Los
Angeles
so for cities if they can afford it
right then with with the sales tax and
also with property taxes okay they
maintained their own local police and
fire departments and if they don't have
if the city can't afford it then
sometimes they contract out to the
County of Los Angeles by police and fire
departments to patrol their City and
their area ok so and then any public
parts your local public parks right
with your local playground let's say and
local libraries they're usually funded
it's not by the state of California it's
not by the national level government is
not by the United States government
right on the national level that pays
for your local library in your local you
know smaller local playgrounds and parks
it's it's the it's the local government
right usually by the county of LA and by
your city ok so those are the main
levels of government and the key point I
want to take that you I want you guys to
take away is this all three levels of
government have the power to tax you to
provide these services that I just
mentioned all right and how they how
they tax you is through federal and
state income taxes right through sales
tax on any products that you purchase
from any retail store that you go to
and the property tax that you pay for a
house that you own usually that same a
house costs you know eight hundred
thousand right when you purchase it it
doesn't and it doesn't matter if the
house has since you've purchased it has
gone up or down over the past couple
years right so eight hundred thousand
times one percent is eight thousand
dollars that you have to pay on top of
an eight hundred thousand dollar house
that you purchased right a four hundred
thousand dollar house would be one
percent which is four thousand dollars
of property taxes that you pay a year to
your local government a house that is
three hundred thousand would be an extra
on top of the monthly mortgage payment
that you pay including the interest that
you pay to your bank for taking out a
loan let's say you have to pay extra for
a $300,000 house like three thousand
dollars right so you have to pay a
property tax so with that money from the
property tax with that money from the
sales taxes with that money from federal
and state income taxes different levels
of government provide you different
services right so I want you guys to
understand that and you can see from my
previous slide that each of the
different now each of the different
governments each of the low at different
levels of government provide you with
different services and they text you in
different ways so that they can then get
the money to provide those services for
you so that's why it's important to buy
products in your city if you want to
make sure that your city is well funded
a lot of people push like don't buy from
online right buy from your local retail
store because they want to make sure
that that these local businesses can
stay can function and stay in business
and also any revenue that they get from
from you purchasing it they those
businesses have to pay a sales tax to
to to the government's and with that
sales tax and they can provide these
services okay all right I know that was
a lot but know this it's really good
knowledge to know right okay so in a
presidential year if you go to the polls
election places to vote a reasonable
ballot because you're talking about
three level three main levels of
government and that third like you have
a national you have a stay and then you
have the local right but the local is
divided into county and C right you
could be voting for a lot of different
people it could be as much as this okay
you're not going to vote on all of these
in one particular year necessarily but
you could you have the president vice
president on the national level of
government you have the US Senate and
the US House of Representatives on the
national level of government you also
have the state governor
which is on the state level of
government you have state legislators
right California has a two house
legislature what did I say that they
were their state senators and State
Assembly members and then you also have
to vote for your municipal area
executive right you have to Pitt you
have to vote for your supervisor County
Supervisor and you have to vote for your
mayor and you have to vote for your City
Council members right your City Council
representatives as you can see here so
because we have like three levels of
government you have to be familiar with
at least seven different races sometimes
so it's a lot to take in
but it's interesting it's fun so let's
just take Compton you know as a city
right for the City of Compton
you have your elected officials that
include the mayor this is aja Brown
yeah district the City of Compton is
divided into it looks like four
districts right so in district or so
let's say Compton college is really big
they'd uh they'd like they divided up
the city into four different districts
right so Michelle chambers here you can
see is in charge of district one and
then you have gap this issac guy in
charge of district 2 and only people in
that district but for that specific
person right so if you live in district
4 you can't vote for you know a
representative that's running from
district 1 and usually if you want to
run for certain district you have to be
living in that district either a home
owner or renter and then you have the
mayor okay so also elected officials
usually include a city attorney so this
isn't in case you know the city is sued
or something that you have an attorney
that will defend the city you also have
a city clerk which is in charge of all
the record-keeping and also the city
clerk is usually in charge of conducting
letting people know about voting
elections and things like that and then
you have city treasurer someone who
maintains the money and make sure that
the city is economically healthy and is
investing in good good portfolios so
that the city you know has money right
okay moving on what services do city
governments provide you okay we're gonna
go into a bit more detail before the
previous slides I gave you like a taste
of what it is but let me just share with
you in a bit in more detail so on the
municipal another word for municipal is
City okay you guys you got to know that
these are just synonyms okay municipal
city they they managed services such as
the provision of usually they're in
charge of clean water okay they do park
maintenance your local park that you
like to go to with the swings and
playground all that they maintain them
they maintain that with the text that
they collect from sales taxes and and
proper taxes and things like that and
then they do local law enforcement right
police and fire let's say
okay cities and counties they both rely
on tax revenues especially sales or
property taxes to fund these provisions
of services okay
Compton okay we looked at the local
level we're now going to move into the
county level in the county that we're a
part of is Los Angeles County so we're
gonna move on up okay so we started from
the city and now we're gonna move up to
the county level so real quick Los
Angeles County is made up of 88 cities
and approximately 140 unincorporated
cities and communities okay
more important thing is just that we're
you know lost I'm just comments made up
of 88 cities there's other areas and
communities within Los Angeles County
that's not technically a city doesn't
have city status but don't worry too
much about that but I just wanted to
throw that out there so Compton real
quick if you is part of the Los Angeles
County Supervisor Oriole district - okay
and the incorporate we City of Compton
was incorporated into LA County on May
11th 1888 so it was a really long time
ago and we were the eighth city to join
or be a part of Los Angeles County cool
fact so here are the elected right Los
Angeles County Board of Supervisors
these are the highest people in the
county okay these are you know yeah
basically the top person ok the CEO of
our County Los Angeles ok so you have
you know hilda solis who's who's in
charge of the first district and then
what who died what district did I say
Compton was a part of what part a second
district so who represents us right now
mark really Thomas that's gonna change
because 2020 has turned out so next year
it's gonna be someone else
their district Sheila Kuehl fourth
district Janice Hahn fifth district a
Jennison that's I live in Torrance and
so she's our she's our supervisor and I
think she was up for reelection because
I saw her posters everywhere and this is
2020 2020 for the fifth District it's
Kathryn Barger so these are the county
board is super where's five in total for
the County Board of Supervisors okay so
each supervisor really fun fact they are
allotted there they're in charge of a
lot of money they each supervisors
allotted three million dollars to fund
their staff members because they
obviously they can't do it alone so they
have an office with a bunch of staff
people so I have friends that work as
staff members for some of you know these
county supervisors right they have their
County car yes there they have cars not
only for themselves like as County
Supervisors but I think for their staff
too sometimes is that a friend who drove
a county car with a county license plate
with that County license plate they
could park in loading zones and not have
to pay I think in meters and they have a
lot of special privileges if you have
that County driver's license car license
plate they pay for office expenses they
also use that money for pet projects
and this is on top of their annual
salary which is one hundred and seventy
nine thousand dollars so you're talking
six figures here so if you win right a
County Supervisor election you're gonna
have a six-figure job close to two
hundred thousand dollars and you have
three million dollars of I think this is
you know three million dollars a year to
fund all this stuff so there's a lot of
perks who wants to run for County
Supervisor one day and you will anyway
all right so here are the different
county supervisors okay so this is a
really cool map here this whole thing
you can see with my laser pointer is Los
Angeles County and the population of LA
County is ten point
four million people it's a lot of people
so in here it's broken down into let's
say right I think like animal Antelope
Valley North West Valley Los Angeles
forest San Gabriel Valley right central
leh South LA South Bay the West Side
Santa Monica San Fernando etc so this is
LA County alright to the east is San
Bernardino County so they have their own
set of County Supervisors they're not
part of our five County Supervisors
right the west of us there's Ventura
County to the north of us there's Kern
County to the south of us we have Orange
County and they have their own set of
Orange County Supervisors and then you
have you know next orange county of
Riverside County and they have their own
set of County Supervisors so you can see
how the state of California is broken
into different counties right and each
of those counties have their own
supervisors that are in charge of
different providing different services
okay so we talked about what municipal
also known as city governments what sort
of services they provide us right but
what services does the county provide us
the law does Los Angeles County provide
us to our county supervisors provide us
okay what are some of those services
okay let's go through the list alright
so you have the county departments
include the sheriff okay
and the sheriff I believe is an elected
position so let's say the police chief I
know for okay and I use my personal
information I live in Torrance so
there's a police chief and the police
chief I think is appointed or hired by
the city right but then for the sheriff
which is on the county level I think
this is an elected position because I
see sheriff's running for office on the
county level the county department is
also in charge of Parks and Recreation
so there's county of LA Parks that they
maintain that's separate from let's say
the city I know that bla Saunders County
also funds our national history museum I
as a parent I have two kids like we have
annual passes to the National History
Museum because I did the math and I
found out that if I go at least two or
three times like then I it paid for
itself so I was like okay you know
that's a good deal and also on weekends
if I have nothing to do I want to go to
the National History Museum National
History Museum is located near USC right
they have all those like dinosaurs right
and things like that
the county of LA also provides different
Public Library's if you look at your
local library see if it says if it's
your if it says let's say your city
library or it says County valet library
I know for when I was passing by I want
to say the city of Carson I think one of
the libraries in the city of Carson
don't quote me on this but it said
County of Los Angeles
and I think Gardena for sure when I went
to guard Dena's library one time I'll
bear a long time ago when I used to live
in gardena this was maybe like six years
back in gardena they had the guard
it didn't say city of Gardena library I
think it's at County of Los Angeles
library so the County of Los Angeles was
funding a local library in gardena so
you see if it says like but torrents it
doesn't say county of los zetas library
in Torrance my local library says
Torrance library so it's funded by our
city okay so all the librarians there
are funded by you know city of Torrance
revenue tax revenue okay all right so
fire department is also they have a
County of Los Angeles Fire Department
they have social services on the county
level right so I have friends that are
employed and social services so social
services like you know I think child
social services that say like a social
worker right if kids aren't being taking
care of the home and their social
workers that you know go in and make
sure that the safety of these kids are
taken care of things like that beaches
and harbors okay so if you go to your
local beach right let's say the closest
beach that I normally go to I don't know
if you guys go to it to you but you have
Manhattan Beach or Redondo Beach and
Hermosa Beach those beaches are not made
not maintained by the city of let's say
Matt Han Beach for example the
lifeguards and the law enforcement
that's on the beach are by the county
it's count it says if you see those like
lifeguards and like Beach Patrol people
on the cars on the vehicles it says
County Los Angeles so they're funded by
Los Angeles County because beaches and
harbors are by the county and not by
your local city government
so the Museum of Art in Los Angeles is
also funded by Los Angeles County
government animal control and you have
the separate treasure and tax collector
so there are county level animal control
and county level treasure and tax
collectors okay all right and this is
your Los Angeles contemporary Museum of
Arts is also funded by county I love LA
here's a quick list fun list of Los
Angeles County's 88 cities and you can
see here where is Compton Compton is
okay you find it before me here we're
one of the 88 okay there's also counties
with cities within Los Angeles County Oh
so here you can see the full list I
don't know I don't think I can click on
it for now unless I get out of this
laser pointer mode but I don't think
it's not that important so we'll move on
there's also community areas of Los
Angeles and not gonna open up the list
because I think community areas are not
cities but they have there they're just
known as community areas there is
unincorporated areas of Los Angeles
County what is an unincorporated area so
real quick there are 88 cities in Los
Angeles County within the with
indistinct boundaries but there are
those areas that are not within a city's
boundaries are referred to as
unincorporated and the county was on
this county is responsible for municipal
city services to those areas so examples
include let's say rowland heights and
hacienda heights they don't have their
own city mayor and city council members
the person in charge of rowland heights
and hacienda heights is the county
supervisor right and county of LA
okay so Compton is a part of the state
of California so let's take a look at
the the capital our state
on for the four California here we have
the outside office of California State
Governor this is a picture that I took
when I visit it there you can see our
California bearer and our current
governor is a guy named Gavin Newsom
this is I went into a session and this
is the state Senate state Senate meeting
place where they conduct meetings and
they vote on laws and things like that
and you can tell that this is the state
Senate because it the carpeting is red
so red is a sign of that it's the upper
house it's the more prestigious house
you can see on the next slide that I
went to the State Assembly meeting and
the state assembly is green which is
kind of like the lower house and and
everything is green but so this is the
state senators and these are all the
State Assembly members okay so what
services does a state government provide
you okay what does the California state
government provide you as long as state
laws do not contradict national laws
state governments can make a policy on
intrastate Commerce interested is within
the state so any business that's within
the state of California is governed by
the state by the kelp by the state
government okay
but if it's interstate if it's
connecting between states that's
governed by federal also known as
national government right state
government also is in charge of the
state's Taxation Public Safety right
health care education right and Welfare
so let's say the California Department
of Education the State Board of
Education sets the K through 12
education policy okay the state
government also California also
maintains the DMV so the DMV is
Department of Motor Vehicles and that's
by the state of California each
is in charge of their own DMV okay so
this is not funded by the national
government it's not funded by your local
city or county this is the state of each
state maintains their own DMV right and
the DMV issues driver's licenses and car
registrations right and this is DM view
you see long lines everywhere they're
notorious for having long lines right
they also conduct on the state level
state governments they also conduct
elections and this even includes the
presidential elections right each state
is in charge of making sure that there
are you know free and fair there's no
fraud in elections and they are in
charge of you know conducting those
elections even presidential elections
it's it's by each state each of the 50
states are in charge of their own
elections okay so the Secretary of
State's office for California is
comprised of nearly 500 people to run
statewide elections so if you want to
ever help conduct elections working for
the Secretary of State Cal the state of
California
and specifically the Secretary of State
which is an elected position to help
make sure that there is no fraud going
on and that elections are taking place
okay so California state senator I I
said that there's like the state Senate
and then there's like the House of
Representatives
I'm not House of Representative okay
right now I think it's a guy named
Steven Bradford his in the 35th district
Kempton is part of the 35th district and
you can see that it covers this this
state Senate district includes parts of
Compton Gardena Englewood Hawthorne
parts of Carson and a little bit of
Torrance okay I'm moving on so Compton
is a part of
district 64 of the state assembly and
these so whoever wins this district has
to fly to Sacramento right so Mike
Gibson flies to Sacramento to make laws
that affect this district
so Compton we have to remember where
also we talked about the county we
talked about state of California okay so
if you live in Compton you're also part
of the United States so well aside the
United States government here we have a
picture of the US State Capitol this is
not the White House this is the State
Capitol this is where the legislative
body is right the US House of
Representatives and the state said the
US senators they meet here to make laws
okay so who is our city of Compton's
congressional representative okay and
these are congressional representative
meaning the House of Representatives
Nannette yes who's part of the 44th were
part of the 44th congressional district
Californians 44 congressional district
includes communities of Carson Compton
Lynwood North Long Beach Rancho
Dominguez San Pedro South Gate walnut
Park Watts Willowbrook and Wilmington so
if this person wins this congressional
district then they fly to
Washington DC every week or however
frequent they fly back and forth to
represent to figure out the needs of the
people here and to make laws and to vote
on laws in Washington DC and you can see
that California has 55 congressional
districts these 55 commercial districts
right are we have 55
US House of Representatives okay
2:55 okay is it 55 or 53 I got to look
that up just to make sure okay bye 55
congressional districts because the US
House of Representatives the number of
our presenters that we have is based on
population because California is very
populous we're one of the most populated
states in the country we have 55
congressional districts and we have 55
US House of Representatives representing
us in Congress okay in the US House of
Representatives
okay so on top of the US House of
Representatives we also have the other
legislative body is called right the
Senate the US Senate and we have two
senators US senators right because each
state has two senators okay so there are
a total of 100 US senators for the
United States and for California we have
Dianne Feinstein who has been the
senator since 1982 and unlike let's say
the president has term limits like you
can only run for president twice and the
term limit is eight years there is no
term limits for senators so they can run
and run and run and run forever and ever
like Dianne Feinstein who's been our
senator since 1982
what is nine what is right now we are in
2020 sorry I'm gonna do the madmen she's
been our senator for 28 years so far and
Kamala Harris she was elected in 2017
and she was a recent US presidential
candidate hopeful she dropped out of the
race but she is our US senator here's a
picture of the White House and are the
current President of the United States
is Donald J Trump he's a 45th president
sometimes people say you know instead of
calling them the presidents some people
say oh he's number 45 and that's usually
an Obama's number 44 so that's different
ways of calling the president before
entering politics his background he was
a businessman and a television
personality me how you men you may
remember him from The Apprentice him
saying you're fired
Trump was born and raised in New York
City I think he was also the owner of
some of the Miss America Miss Teen like
some of the beauty pageants I think he
sold it since then his education he went
to Wharton School of the University of
Pennsylvania and he is 73 years old okay
so what services does a national
government provide you so here we're
talking about the national governments
the political leaders include the
president u.s. senator and the US House
of Representatives right so what
services on the national level national
governments provide you so these
services they have what's called
delegated powers on the national level
they're also sometimes called enumerated
or expressed and these powers are
specifically granted to the federal
government to the national government in
other word for federal is national
government in article 1 section 8 of the
Constitution so our US Constitution and
I use what is our US Constitution it's a
document that the founding fathers all
signed to be a part of the United States
of America and back then it was 13
colonies they all signed on to to create
a national government and also to create
an autonomous state government they
wanted to give specific powers to the
national government versus the state
government so that included the power to
coin money to create money to regulate
interstate not interested not within
each state but interstate so if you're
crossing borders between let's say you
know Nevada and in California then
that's regulated by the national
government and foreign commerce so any
trade that we have with Canada or Mexico
or with China right or with the European
Union or with the UK let's say that's
regulated by the u.s. national
government so the state government let's
say like gavin newsom who is a governor
of california he cannot create money he
cannot do a trade deal with China like
California State cannot make a trade
deal with Mexico right only the
president of the United States and the
US Congress can create such deals
because these are foreign commerce
international commerce international
trade I cannot international economic
trade the national government also has
the power to declare war right
California cannot declare war against a
foreign country only the national level
the country of the United States can do
on the on the country love can't declare
war the national government can also
raise and maintain a military armed
force so our US air forces and our
Marines our army what else what else am
I missing right like these this is the
military Armed Forces this is maintained
by the National Guard's are paid for by
the national government okay not by the
state government this is the national
governments military Armed Forces
national government cells also in terms
of post offices so your local post
office is not maintained or paid for by
your local city not by the state of
California
this is maintained by the national
government these are federal employees
so next time you buy a stamp from your
local post office right there are
federal employees there are national
employees there their their salaries are
paid for by the national government so
my dad he was a post office worker for
like 35 years he was a federal employee
as a national employee right also the
ability to conduct foreign affairs
Foreign Affairs this is me this is done
only by the national government
California cannot necessarily have or
another state cannot conduct Foreign
Affairs because they're just a state
they're not a country right Foreign
Affairs this country to country level
negotiating right the country or the
United States is going to negotiate not
with the City of London right the United
States is going to conduct Foreign
Affairs with the country of the United
Kingdom with Great Britain not with you
know a small time right smaller mayors
of cities right
okay moving on so what is a government
the government the definition is the
means by which a society organizes
itself and allocates Authority power or
money right in order to accomplish
collective goals like goals like public
goals and provide benefits that the
society as a whole needs so that is a
definition of what is government so
let's say write a collective goal is
that we want to educate people right and
make sure people get the schooling that
they need so this is this will benefit
society and so the government wants to
are you know is organized in different
districts and different areas to collect
money and to probably provide funding
for education or let's say safety for
law enforcement for water you know and
things like that right or for trust
trash collection you know but that
society as a whole needs okay so what is
politics the politics definition
politics is processed by which choices
are made regarding how resources and
these are not unlimited resource these
are limited resources will be allocated
will be will be distributed will be
given and which economic and social
policies the government will pursue so
its political right the government has
to make decisions on where the money
will go will have to make decisions on
what kind of policies to make will make
decisions on how if they have a goal how
that goal will be achieved right so
so yeah it's that process is you know is
is the politics of everything okay all
right we're getting near the end of our
lecture so please stay with me true or
false
is the United States a representative
government yes we are we we vote on
representatives to represent us in the
government are we a capitalist economic
system yes we are
are we a democracy true or false
yes we are are we a socialist country no
we are not that's false excuse me is the
United States a direct democracy no we
are not direct democracy is that each
individual person you know makes
decisions on our politics but each
individual person doesn't we vote on a
representatives to make decisions on
behalf of us are we a monarchy true or
false false we are not a monarchy
meaning like having a king or queen
having authority over us are we an
oligarchy no we are not considered an
oligarchy is the United States a
totalitarianism government false
we are not totalitarianism and I'll get
into the definitions of these more and
more but I just want to throw that out
there throw some of the terminology out
there to see you know how much you knew
that but let's go through the
definitions of different economic
systems right economic systems this is
different from political system
political system is how we are organized
to distribute power right and resources
and things like that but how what kind
of economic system are we we are we are
driven by capitalism and the definition
of this is an economic and political
system in which a country's trade and
industry are controlled by private
owners for profit rather than by the
state and it relies on individualism
individuals right individual
entrepreneurship individual risk
individual money right and whatever
product or services that you provide for
another person if another person pays
you for that product that you created or
pays you for a service that you've given
them right then you get to keep those
profits right so that's that's
capitalism in other press in the country
you have what's called socialist
socialist is the type of economic system
and this is very different from
capitalism right this is where the means
of generating wealth such as factories
or large farms and banks are not owned
by individual people right who owned
those companies but they're owned by the
government and not by citizens for a
socialist state right the government
owns everything right accumulate that
wealth and redistribute it to the
citizens and and so every so individual
people do not own anything it's by the
government so that is an economic system
so definitions of different political
and economic systems so for political
systems we have what's called a
democracy and a democracy is a political
system in which people govern themselves
right people are allowed to elect their
own leaders and to have their voices
heard which in turns let people to have
a say in the direction of their
government right and we have what's
called a representative government in
the United States people elect
representatives to City Council's to
state legislatures and to our Congress
and these bodies make laws to govern
their district right this is different
from let's say what's uh what's a direct
democracy where all people participate
directly into making government
decisions but you know we don't have
time for that right and this but this
happened in ancient Athens right we're
all male citizens were allowed to attend
meetings of assembly and make decisions
on on all things but we don't have time
for that we elect elect representatives
and those represented we trust the rows
represent us to make laws on behalf of
us so we're we are a representative
democracy in the United States so what
is oligarchy oligarchy it's it's in many
socialist countries like it's a
political system where only members of a
certain political party or the ruling
elite can participate in the government
an example of this is China the Chinese
Communist Party they are not elected
these are these are not elected people
who are that the people vote for these
are just the ruling elites like they
just
passed down power to just a select a few
that they deem that they want to
you know select few to be a part of
ruling the government ruling you know
China so if the Chinese people don't
like the decisions of the Chinese
Communist Party there's no way to get
them out of office like they have no say
right because they're in oligarchy and
they are a they are not a democracy so
what is totalitarianism it's a system of
government that is centralized
centralized meaning the government the
power is is in the national government
it's it's dictatorial meaning one person
a dictator is in charge and requires
complete subservience to the state
complete submission to the state people
have no rights the government is in
charge of everything including not only
how you know including their private
life of how they act and this is a good
example of this is North Korea so like
in North Korea it's the exact opposite
of democracy right to talat Aryan
countries are nations in which the
government does not permit its people to
partake in political decision-making
they don't have any decision-making
power instead of giving the people a
voice a totalitarian country is ruled
either by a single dictator right now
the dictator his name is Kim jong-un and
he's the son of no Jolin no Kim jong-un
is the father kim chong-in is the
current is a son who is in charge of
power right now kim jong-in kim jong-in
yes
um so instead of giving people a voice
the totalitarian country is ruled either
by a single dictator or a group that has
not been collectively elected by the
people the government has full and total
control while the citizens of the
country have little or no freedom so in
North Korea
right they have North Korean people
cannot immigrate to other parts of the
world they're not allowed out of their
own country they're basically jailed
inside can you imagine not being able to
travel to let's say Hawaii or Europe or
Japan or even South Korea like they are
captive in their own country because
they are a totalitarian government like
the North Korean government they don't
want its people to know how great it is
outside they want to keep their people
poor right and captive they don't even
have the freedom to travel outside of
the country they don't even have the
freedom to travel to other parts of
North Korea without a permit like this
is complete control right and the
government tells you what to do and what
you can't do and you have basically no
rights
okay that's totalitarianism there is no
limit to what a totalitarian government
can control because there are no tricks
or balances placed on the leaders of the
country there's no way to get them out
you are there's no there's no power we
are so blessed to be living in the
United States where we have checks and
balances that we can vote out leaders
that we don't like here in North Korea
if you're born there right these people
like they have no
they don't want to be born there
necessarily right they were just born
there I mean there have no freedoms
whatsoever
I mean I feel so blessed that my parents
were born I mean not born North and
South Korea were divided in the Korean
War okay I don't want to get into this
too much but in World War two
they were south of the border and so
when the when Korea and it used to be
one country the peninsula of Korea it
was divided into North and South but
yeah I'm so glad that we were part of
the South after the division of Korea
right in half anyway what kinds what
kind of political system is u.s. we are
a republic also known as a
representative democracy citizens do not
govern directly right we elect
representatives to make decisions and to
pass laws on behalf of the people u.s.
citizens we vote for Congress we vote
for the president
VP state legislatures right what is the
state legislature on the national level
it's our state senator state Senate it's
our Senate
it's our Senate and US House of
Representatives right we have the mayor
we have City Council and school boards
oh us we favor a majority rule so the
opinions of the majority that people
have more influence with the government
than those in the minority and democracy
is a government where political power
influence over institutions leaders and
policies rests in the hands of the
people we the people have power right in
a democracy so what are some political
activities you can engage in in a
democratic society examples in your book
from page 28 to 29 simple activity
include sending petitions expressing
opinions on social media we can contact
our elected officials we can contribute
money to campaigns we can donate money
to campaigns if we want you know
candidate to win we can attend a local
government meeting a political rally or
an event we can volunteer for a campaign
we can run for office ourselves if you
want that six-figure salary so what are
the key takeaways I want you remember
that u.s. is a capitalist representative
democracy we are governed by at least
three levels of government right at the
national level state level and the local
level and the local level include the
county and city governments number three
all levels of government have the
concurrent power concurrent
shared shared power to tax you to
provide different services right and
with that text revenue that they collect
the government's provide you with
economic prosperity secure national
borders right safety and well-being of
citizens to provide benefits for
citizens like education and health care
and infrastructure for transportation
right so here are the key takeaway
questions and I want you to submit this
on canvas if you go to assignments or I
think I might write a hyperlink
hyperlink a link in in the contents of
this what kind of I want you answer what
kind of economic system does the United
States have okay number two what kind of
political system does the United States
have number three what are the main
levels of government in the United
States no we have three named them and
you can further divide out what the
level local level is named some of the
political actors in the national level
state level and local level there's a
PowerPoint slide on that what services
do each of these governments provide you
on the national level state level local
level right national level and state
level they're very different what they
provide you right and some of them are
outlined in the Constitution for the
national government so tell me what
those are specifically and what does the
government get how does it how do
different governments get the money to
pay for these services right how do they
text yeah through taxes yes but what
kind of taxes and there's a separate
PowerPoint slide for that and fun
question how many cities are there in
Los Angeles County
do you member how many there were I'll
give this away 88 right 88 cities in Los
Angeles County so that is it for a
chapter 1 lecture thank you form so much
for joining me and I'll see you for
chapter 2 bye
