| s-1001
| A democracy is a government in which political power—influence over institutions, leaders, and policies—rests in the hands of the people. |
| s-1002
| In a representative democracy, however, the citizens do not govern directly. |
| s-1003
| Instead, they elect representatives to make decisions and pass laws on behalf of all the people. |
| s-1004
| Thus, U.S. citizens vote for members of Congress, the president and vice president, members of state legislatures, governors, mayors, and members of town councils and school boards to act on their behalf. |
| s-1005
| Most representative governments favor majority rule: |
| s-1006
| the opinions of the majority of the people have more influence with government than those of the minority. |
| s-1007
| If the number of elected representatives who favor a proposed law is greater than those who oppose it, the law will be enacted. |
| s-1008
| However, in representative governments like the United States, minority rights are protected: people cannot be deprived of certain rights even if an overwhelming number of people think that they should be. |
| s-1009
| For example, let’s say American society decided that atheists, people who do not believe that God exists, were evil and should be imprisoned or expelled from the country. |
| s-1010
| Even though atheists only account for about 7 percent of the population, they would be protected due to minority rights. 4 |
| s-1011
| Even though the number of Americans who believe in God far outweighs the number who do not, the minority is still protected. |
| s-1012
| Because decisions are made through majority rule, making your opinions known and voting for those men and women who make decisions that affect all of us are critical and influential forms of civic engagement in a representative democracy such as the United States. |
| s-1013
| In a direct democracy, unlike representative democracy, people participate directly in making government decisions. |
| s-1014
| For example, in ancient Athens, the most famous example of a direct democracy, all male citizens were allowed to attend meetings of the Assembly. |
| s-1015
| Here they debated and voted for or against all proposed laws. |
| s-1016
| Although neither the federal government nor any of the state governments function as a direct democracy—the Constitution requires the national and state governments to be representative forms of government—some elements of direct democracy do exist in the United States. |
| s-1017
| While residents of the different states vote for people to represent them and to make laws in their behalf in the state legislatures and in Congress, people may still directly vote on certain issues. |
| s-1018
| For example, a referendum or proposed law might be placed on the ballot for citizens to vote on directly during state or local elections instead of leaving the matter in the hands of the state legislature. |
| s-1019
| At New England town meetings, all residents are allowed to debate decisions affecting the town (Figure 1.5). |
| s-1020
| Such occasions provide additional opportunities for civic engagement. |
| s-1021
| Figure 1.5 |
| s-1022
| Residents of Boxborough, Massachusetts, gather in a local hotel to discuss issues affecting their town. |
| s-1023
| New England town meetings provide an opportunity for people to experience direct democracy. |
| s-1024
| This tradition has lasted for hundreds of years. |
| s-1025
| (credit: modification of work by Liz West) |
| s-1026
| Most countries now have some form of representative government (Figure 1.6). 5 |
| s-1027
| At the other end of the political spectrum are elite-driven forms of government. |
| s-1028
| In a monarchy, one ruler, usually a hereditary ruler, holds political power. |
| s-1029
| Although the power of some monarchs is limited by law, and such kings and queens often rule along with an elected legislature that makes laws for the country, this is not always the case. |
| s-1030
| Many southwest Asian kingdoms, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, have absolute monarchs whose power is unrestricted. |
| s-1031
| As discussed earlier, another nondemocratic form of government is oligarchy, in which a handful of elite members of society, often those who belong to a particular political party, hold all political power. |
| s-1032
| For example, in Cuba, as in China, only members of the Communist Party are allowed to vote or hold public office, and the party’s most important members make all government decisions. |
| s-1033
| Some nondemocratic societies are totalitarian in nature. |
| s-1034
| Under totalitarianism, the government is more important than the citizens, and it controls all aspects of citizens’ lives. |
| s-1035
| Citizens’ rights are limited, and the government does not allow political criticism or opposition. |
| s-1036
| These forms of government are fairly rare. |
| s-1037
| North Korea is an example of a totalitarian government. |
| s-1038
| Figure 1.6 |
| s-1039
| The map of the world shows the different forms of government that currently exist. |
| s-1040
| Countries that are colored blue have some form of representative democracy, although the people may not have as much political power as they do in the United States. |
| s-1041
| Countries that are colored red, like China, Vietnam, and Cuba, have an oligarchic form of government. |
| s-1042
| Countries that are colored yellow are monarchies where the people play little part in governing. |
| s-1043
| LINK TO LEARNING |
| s-1044
| The CIA website provides information about the types of government across the world. |
| s-1045
| Why the Division of Labor Increases Production |
| s-1046
| When we divide and subdivide the tasks involved with producing a good or service, workers and businesses can produce a greater quantity of output. |
| s-1047
| In his observations of pin factories, Smith noticed that one worker alone might make 20 pins in a day, but that a small business of 10 workers (some of whom would need to complete two or three of the 18 tasks involved with pin-making), could make 48,000 pins in a day. |
| s-1048
| How can a group of workers, each specializing in certain tasks, produce so much more than the same number of workers who try to produce the entire good or service by themselves? |
| s-1049
| Smith offered three reasons. |
| s-1050
| First, specialization in a particular small job allows workers to focus on the parts of the production process where they have an advantage. |
| s-1051
| (In later chapters, we will develop this idea by discussing comparative advantage.) |
| s-1052
| People have different skills, talents, and interests, so they will be better at some jobs than at others. |
| s-1053
| The particular advantages may be based on educational choices, which are in turn shaped by interests and talents. |
| s-1054
| Only those with medical degrees qualify to become doctors, for instance. |
| s-1055
| For some goods, geography affects specialization. |
| s-1056
| For example, it is easier to be a wheat farmer in North Dakota than in Florida, but easier to run a tourist hotel in Florida than in North Dakota. |
| s-1057
| If you live in or near a big city, it is easier to attract enough customers to operate a successful dry cleaning business or movie theater than if you live in a sparsely populated rural area. |
| s-1058
| Whatever the reason, if people specialize in the production of what they do best, they will be more effective than if they produce a combination of things, some of which they are good at and some of which they are not. |
| s-1059
| Second, workers who specialize in certain tasks often learn to produce more quickly and with higher quality. |
| s-1060
| This pattern holds true for many workers, including assembly line laborers who build cars, stylists who cut hair, and doctors who perform heart surgery. |
| s-1061
| In fact, specialized workers often know their jobs well enough to suggest innovative ways to do their work faster and better. |
| s-1062
| A similar pattern often operates within businesses. |
| s-1063
| In many cases, a business that focuses on one or a few products (sometimes called its “core competency”) is more successful than firms that try to make a wide range of products. |
| s-1064
| Third, specialization allows businesses to take advantage of economies of scale, which means that for many goods, as the level of production increases, the average cost of producing each individual unit declines. |
| s-1065
| For example, if a factory produces only 100 cars per year, each car will be quite expensive to make on average. |
| s-1066
| However, if a factory produces 50,000 cars each year, then it can set up an assembly line with huge machines and workers performing specialized tasks, and the average cost of production per car will be lower. |
| s-1067
| The ultimate result of workers who can focus on their preferences and talents, learn to do their specialized jobs better, and work in larger organizations is that society as a whole can produce and consume far more than if each person tried to produce all of his or her own goods and services. |
| s-1068
| The division and specialization of labor has been a force against the problem of scarcity. |
| s-1069
| Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel. |
| s-1070
| My name is Katie and today I'm going to be talking about my two and a half week long vacation to Portland, Oregon. |
| s-1071
| So I am from Washington D.C., and I have a bunch of family in Portland, Oregon, so it wasn't my first time going there. |
| s-1072
| Um but it was definitely my first time, like as an adult. |
| s-1073
| So that was really exciting and fun. |
| s-1074
| I thought that I would make sort of like more of an informative video because I could just like post a vlog, but um the footage was like so random, and all over the place. |
| s-1075
| I got some really cool footage but um, not like cute like Instagram girl footage, because I did dress like a 12 year old boy the whole time. |
| s-1076
| So the first thing that I recommend you do in Portland is not actually in Portland at all. |
| s-1077
| So you might be like this is a terrible list. |
| s-1078
| Sorry. |
| s-1079
| The number one thing that we did on our trip was we actually stayed a night in Eugene, Oregon, and we got up at like the crack of dawn and drove to Crater Lake. |
| s-1080
| This was incredible. |
| s-1081
| Um one of the coolest things that I have ever seen. |
| s-1082
| The footage that I'm gonna put in here honestly it looks a little bit fake. |
| s-1083
| This place was incredible. |
| s-1084
| We didn't do a whole lot of hiking here because there was not a whole lot of cloud coverage that day, and it was so hot. |
| s-1085
| So what we did was we drove around the entire perimeter of the lake and you get all these incredible views of the mountains and the lake, and seeing it from all the different angles was so worth it. |
| s-1086
| So maybe this is not something that you want to do if you're just going to Portland for a couple of days but it's definitely something to consider if you're going out to Oregon for a little bit longer period of time. |
| s-1087
| Number two is shopping. |
| s-1088
| These are in no particular order by the way. |
| s-1089
| They're just sort of like what I thought of as I was making this video. |
| s-1090
| So there's a lot of cool shopping in Portland, Oregon. |
| s-1091
| A lot of cool thrifting and vintage stores, a lot of cool art galleries. |
| s-1092
| And then one of the biggest things that you should check out while you're there is Powell's which is a bookstore. |
| s-1093
| And I want to say it's like the the biggest like Indie Indie bookstore in America. |
| s-1094
| I guess that's what it's called. |
| s-1095
| I'm gonna – oh, it's the world's largest independent bookstore. |
| s-1096
| So this place was so cool we could have spent hours in here. |
| s-1097
| The best thing that I thought about this bookstore was that they mixed in new copies of books with used copies. |
| s-1098
| So if you're looking for a book and you're wondering like – oh I wonder if I could get this used, like it's usually right next to it, which I thought was just like so awesome. |
| s-1099
| That was very exciting for me because I love a used book. |
| s-1100
| So I am not a huge like nature person. |