Government 1B Instructor: Dr. Thomas Woods
This 9th-grade course continues Government 1A. It is the fruit of over 20 years of learning and study on my part, summarized in a half-year course.
The course is divided into the following sections:
Government and a Free Society: Theory
- history of natural rights theories
- negative rights, positive rights, property rights, human rights
- do people consent to government?
- critics of the freedom philosophy
Some Rationales for Government Action
- common reasons given for government intervention
- public goods
- poverty
- monopoly
- inequality
- and more
Some Problems with Government Action
- consequences of government intervention in various areas
- labor and unions
- health care
- antitrust
- farm programs
- business cycles
- war and the economy
- child labor
- working conditions
- the welfare state
- the environment
- money
- and more
The Modern State
- the theory of the modern state
- can political bodies be too large?
- decentralization
Government: Various Modern Systems
- constitutional republic
- monarchy
- fascism
- communism
- social democracy
- and more
The Lessons of History?
- Industrial Revolution
- the New Deal
- the housing bust of 2008
Unresolved Problems
- are voters informed?
- is political representation meaningful?
- the myth of the rule of law
- the incentives of democracy
The Rothbardian Critique
- what is government really needed for?
Conclusions
- economic freedom of the world
- what have we learned?
When Government 1B covers material introduced in Government 1A, it does so at a slightly higher level, building upon and reinforcing what you learned in the earlier course.
Parents can listen to the course lessons (which average about 25 minutes, but range from 18 minutes to an extreme of 38 minutes) during their commutes or around the house. On each lesson page you’ll find a link to a downloadable audio file. Just right-click (not left-click) on your mouse, and choose the option to save the file to your computer.
VERY IMPORTANT: Please do not skip the introductory lesson. It conveys vital information about the course.
The lesson links to the Ron Paul Curriculum pages are live. If the student is logged in, by clicking a link, he or she will be taken to the page that has the lesson.
All of the course providers ask that students not share this list with others, including siblings in the family. Course providers have created these courses on this assumption: each course will be paid for by the user or on behalf of the user. The pricing of access to the forums is based on one fee per family. This is not the agreement with respect to individual courses. Course providers have gone to the effort of producing courses on this assumption: students will not share the courses, and parents will not teach their children to steal by sharing courses with their siblings.
We know that a few parents will tell their children: “Well, no one will find out. I am going to let your brothers and sisters use this course. It won’t hurt.” But it will hurt. It will hurt the course providers. It will also hurt any student who finds out that his parents deliberately stole from the course providers in order to save a little money.
So, we ask every parent to show his child the purchase receipt for each course, without being asked by the
student to do this.
There will be a date on the purchase receipt. This is a matter of showing good faith. It is a way for a parent to say: “Do what I do, and also do what I say. This is the right way to run your life.”
Here is the list of the lessons.
- Introduction
- Natural Rights Theories: High Middle Ages to Late Scholastics
- Natural Rights Theories: John Locke and Self-Ownership
- Natural Rights Theories: Argumentation Ethics
- Week 1 Review
- Locke and Spooner on Consent
- The Tale of the Slave
- Human Rights and Property Rights
- Negative Rights and Positive Rights
- Week 2 Review
- Critics of Liberalism: Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the General Will
- Critics of Liberalism: John Rawls and Egalitarianism
- Critics of Liberalism: Thomas Nagel and Ronald Dworkin
- Critics of Liberalism: G.A. Cohen
- Week 3 Review
- Public Goods
- The Standard of Living
- Poverty
- Monopoly
- Week 4 Review
- Science
- Inequality
- Aid to Developing Countries
- Discrimination
- Week 5 Review
- The Socialist Calculation Problem
- Working Conditions
- Child Labor
- Labor and Unions
- Week 6 Review
- Health Care
- Antitrust
- Farm Programs
- War and the Economy
- Week 7 Review
- Business Cycles
- Industrial Policy
- Government, the Market, and the Environment
- Prohibition
- Week 8 Review
- Taxation
- Government Spending
- The Welfare State: Theoretical Issues
- The Welfare State: Practical Issues
- Week 9 Review
- Price Controls
- Government and Money, Part I
- Government and Money, Part II
- Midterm Review
- Week 10 Review
- The Theory of the Modern State
- American Federalism and the Compact Theory
- Can Political Bodies Be Too Large?
- Decentralization
- Week 11 Review
- Constitutionalism: Purpose
- The American Case: Self-Government and the Tenth Amendment
- The American Case: Progressives and the “Living, Breathing Document”
- The American States and the Federal Government
- Week 12 Review
- Monarchy
- Social Democracy
- Fascism I
- Fascism II
- Week 13 Review
- Marx I
- Marx II
- Communism I
- Communism II
- Week 14 Review
- Miscellaneous Intervention: Postwar Africa
- Public Choice I
- Public Choice II
- Miscellaneous Examples of Government Activity and Incentives
- Week 15 Review
- The Industrial Revolution
- The New Deal I
- The New Deal II
- The Housing Bust of 2008
- Week 16 Review
- Are Voters Informed?
- Is Political Representation Meaningful?
- The Myth of the Rule of Law
- The Incentives of Democracy
- Week 17 Review
- The Sweeping Critique: Robert LeFevre
- The Sweeping Critique: Murray N. Rothbard
- Case Study: The Old West
- Economic Freedom of the World
- Week 18 Review