Democracyand American Politics

ObjectivesObjectives• Understand the nature of politics, government, and citizenship.• Differentiate among the types of democracies that exist in the

world, and identify the qualities that make a government truly democratic.

• Examine the functions of government, as well as some of the challenges and controversies that affect its ability to perform each function effectively.

• Identify the four basic American values and describe how these values help to define the character of American politics.

• Explore the primary political ideologies that have helped to inform contemporary political discourse in the United States.

• Understand how comparison and historical analysis can deepen our understanding of American politics.

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Government & Politics

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• Politics• The process by which collective decisions are made for a country.

• Government• Helps a country facilitate decision making, maintain internal order,

interact with other countries, and develop laws and policies.• Set apart from other groups because only government has a right

to make decisions binding to everyone within the country.• Has the right to use force to ensure the laws are followed.

• Citizens• People who are fully qualified and legally recognized as members

of the country.

• Where governments get their power (or right to rule) distinguishes them from each other.• Democracy versus non-democracy

Democracy as a Form of GovernmentDemocracy as a Form of Government

Democracy: • All citizens can participate

in the making of governmental policy to some extent, even if indirectly.

• “rule by citizens”• Direct democracy• Indirect/representative

democracy• require elections of

representatives

Democratic elections:• Be free elections with real

choice (competing political parties)

• Have broad participation• Take place within context of

free speech and free media• Come with the ability of

people to organize freely and to seek access to public officials

• Follow majority rule but have protections for minority rights.

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RepublicsRepublics• Definition of republic: • A country that is not ruled by a monarch

• In American politics, it also has added meaning: • Founders used the term republic to denote government by the people’s

elected representatives (responsible to the people, but also able to use their own intelligence and experience to govern).

• Distinguishable from a direct democracy• Republic provides insulation from direct popular pressure.

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6• U.S. was world’s first modern democracy.• Spread of democracy very gradual.• Increase during mid-1970s. • Today we are in a democracy recession.

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The Challenges of DemocracyThe Challenges of DemocracyEnsuring majority rule

• Majority rule: idea that 50% plus one of the people should be able to choose a majority of the elected officials in a country and thereby determine its direction.

• Representative democracy makes people equal only in their right to vote.• Other resources are unequally

distributed. • Sometimes strong majorities

have favored one policy, but it has not become law. Examples: prayer in schools and stricter control of hand guns.

Protecting minority rights

• Minority rights: basic freedoms of smaller groups within the general population.

• Do majority rule and minority rights conflict?

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Functions of GovernmentFunctions of Government1. Maintaining order and safety2. Providing public goods• Policies that cannot possibly be given to some people while being withheld

from others.• Free rider problem: those who take advantage of a public good but refuse to

pay their share of the cost of providing it. Examples?3. Promoting the general welfare• Infrastructure• Regulating the economy to ensure that it operates fairly• Providing support to people in vulnerable positions• Redistributing income to improve the lives of citizens with less wealth• Regulating behavior

• Which of these functions do you find controversial? Why?• How does the U.S. compare to other countries in terms of being an “active”

government?

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American ValuesAmerican Values• Four basic American values have played a role in determining the

extent of government’s involvement in people’s lives and what government does.

• These values are not held equally by every American; sometimes these values conflict with each other.

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American IdeologiesAmerican Ideologies• Ideology: an interconnected set of ideas that forms and organizes our

ideas and attitudes about politics.• America’s ideologies relate to different combinations of the values we

just discuss, primarily in terms of conflict among them.

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The conflict between individualism and fairness yields an economic left-right dimension: economic free choice (right) and support for government intervention -regulations, taxes, programs – to ensure economic fairness and equality (left).

The conflict between individualism and moral beliefs yields an “social issues” with support for free choice in such issues as abortion, sexually explicit entertainment, and drug or alcohol use at one end and support for government intervention to enforce moral values in such issues at the other.

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American IdeologiesAmerican Ideologies

CONSERVATISM

• Desire for government intervention on behalf of moral views

• No intervention in the economic realm on behalf of fairness through regulation, taxes, other programs.

• Allow free markets to work without government intervention.

LIBERALISM• Desire for government intervention

to reduce economic inequality and inequalities between groups.

• No intervention to enforce policies based on religious values by regulating personal behaviors.

• Tend to favor higher tax rates for wealthy than for middle class and poor.

• Programs and policies to ensure equal treatment of women, ethnic and racial minorities, gays and lesbians.

• Oppose having government ban pornography or require prayer in schools, generally. 14

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Other IdeologiesOther Ideologies• Libertarianism• Opposes government intervention in any area of people’s lives.• On economic issues it coincides with conservative ideology.• On the social dimension, it coincides with liberalism.

• Socialism• Favors having the government take over most businesses and run them in

the interest of social and economic equality.• Never has done well as political party in the United States, even though it had

been a major force in many other parts of the world in the twentieth century. Why not? • Friedrich Engels: U.S. system of elections makes it hard for new parties to

emerge and succeed; immigration and slavery created cleavages between ethnic groups rather than workers and capitalists; and, the country has been general prosperous with a higher standard of living than other countries.

• Fascism• Nationalist, racist ideology of the 1930s that centered power on a single

charismatic leader.• Hitler in Germany; Mussolini in Italy. 15

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The Role of Ideological Conflict in American PoliticsThe Role of Ideological Conflict in American Politics

• Current example: opposition to same-sex marriage on religious grounds. No extension of benefits and legal protections that go to married couples.• How does this issue break down in terms of politics? Ideologies relate to

political parties? Role of elections in the process? Legislation? Court interpretations? State politics?

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How to Understand American DemocracyHow to Understand American DemocracyTwo key tools: comparisons with other countries and historical analysis• Comparative tools • Expose us to possibilities beyond those we observe in the U.S.• Give us insights into why various aspects of U.S. government and politics

operate as they do• Historical analysis• Provides insight into the roots and evolution of our government• Helps us understand how we arrived at our current political situation

• Example: Why do Americans volunteer more than citizens of other countries?• Comparative assessment: France – less need to volunteer when state

provides greater welfare assistance. OR U.S. tends to be more religious than other countries therefore individually, we are more inclined to help others.

• Historical assessment: Volunteering is a long tradition going back to the 1800s. Civil society of roughly equal social status, mostly farming communities, where one helped as a matter of course and survival.

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