CIVICS
CHV20-0
Student: HUGH SMITH

UNIT 1

Lesson 1
Key Questions

1a) In a democracy, decisions are made “by the people.” This means that the citizens that inhabit a democratic country make decisions based on their opinion. Therefore they have freedom of speech. It may be a direct democracy or an indirect democracy. It does not matter. The people are still voting and decisions decided by a majority rules. In order for a democracy to occur, the decisions must be made by the people.

1b) Freedom to make your own views known is important in a democracy. For a democracy to function decisions are made by the people like in questions 1a. If there was no freedom for people to make their own views known, then the state of government would not be democracy as decisions would not be made by the people. Therefore the people would not rule. If there was not freedom to make your own views, there would not be a democracy.

1c) When people talk about democratic rights they are talking about whether someone is entitled to do something. When people talk about democratic rights the situation is never the same because there are so many topics. When people talk about democratic rights, they could be questioning what somebody is doing, believing the person does not have a right to do whatever they are doing. The majority of people will agree that a person has no right to discriminate against another person. Democratic rights are around us in our day to day lives.

1d) A democracy cannot please everybody but it can please the majority of the people. The common good is what most of the people agree to. For example, when an election takes place the party or person with the most votes wins. This way of decisions making is called majority rule. Most people will agree that decision making using the majority rule method will make the most people happy, or the greatest food for the greatest number of people.

1e) A citizen is a simple term that means a person who is a member of a community, like a neighborhood, city, province or nation. In order to be a citizen a person must have three things. They must have a sense of membership, whether it is a nation, city or province. Secondly, they must have freedoms and rights, like the freedom of thought and the right to vote no matter their race or gender. Lastly a citizen must carry the responsibility to respect other peoples rights and to obey the law.

1f) The rule of law is a very important feature of democracy. Laws govern people in a democracy for the peoples' protection. All laws are equal to every single citizen. If a law is disobeyed there is always a punishment. Without the law there would be no point in making democratic decisions, because people would not have to follow. Without the rule of law there would be no democracy.

2. The concepts of majority rule and serving the common good are very important to a democratic way of decision making. In a democracy, rules are made by the concept of majority rule. Majority rule means that in order for a decision to be made, more than 50% of a group must agree. This way the most people are happy. The common good is the best way to please as many people as possible. Public input and majority rule are two things that the common good possesses in order to make democratic decisions. Without the majority rule and their common good for all people, our society would be unhappy leading to problems and the safety of its people. This is why these two concepts are very important to all democratic decisions.

Lesson 2
Key Questions

3a) Sarah Inglas the writer in the passage “Its hard” is claiming that not every person at her workplace McDonald’s is treated fairly.

3b) There are several pieces of evidence that the writer uses to support her claim. Firstly, the writer explains how one of the owners fired an employee of six years because she offended a manager with her language. Secondly, the writer states that the owner