INTRO TO CIVICS

Values and Institutions

WHAT ARE “VALUES”?

DEFINITION OF “VALUES”

broad ideas about what is good or desirable – shared by people in a society

WHERE DO THESE VALUES COME FROM?

PRINCIPLES

• …or our beliefs

VALUES ARE IMPORTANT…

• Because they influence the way we act.

In other words…

• Principles affect our Values • Values affect our daily decisions • Daily Decisions dictates what type of society

in which we live

Examples?

WHAT ARE SOME BASIC AMERICAN VALUES?

• Freedom, equality, justice, opportunity, democracy, unity, respect, tolerance

HOW DO VALUES BUILD UNITY?

• Common Civic and Political Heritage• Popular Sovereignty• The English Language

Common Civic and Political Heritage

• Individual Rights - “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness”

Popular Sovereignty

• Fair, free, regular elections, • equal justice under the law• majority rule

English Language

• Unifying language of education, business, and government

Do you agree?

ANY OTHER UNIFYING EVENTS?

?

AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS

sets of ideas that people have about relationships, obligations, roles, and functions

AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS

• Family, Religious, Educational, Social and Governmental

Example?

“This Country, with all its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, of their revolutionary right to dismember, or overthrow it”

Abraham Lincoln