Chapter 4 Political Ideologies

1. Chapter 4 Political Ideologies

2. American Political Ideologies • American Political Culture • Political Ideology • Liberalism • Conservatism • Challenges to the Status Quo

3. American Political Culture • Culture - values, traditions, language, religion and material objects that together form a people’s way of life. • Political culture - patterned set of consistent generally accepted ideas, values, and ways of thinking about government and politics. • American Creed • Homogeneous or heterogeneous - multicultural societies

4. From Political Values to Ideology • A political ideology is a set of underlying orientations, ideas, and beliefs about the role of government in our lives. • Liberals generally support social reform and a social safety net. • Conservatives generally prefer the social and economic status quo and equal opportunity.

5. Liberalism • Regards the individual as a rational being capable of overcoming obstacles to a better world. • Supports changing the status quo. • Support labor, welfare programs and oppose laws encroaching on civil liberties or rights. • Over the last 225 years there have been several different forms of liberalism in U.S. politics. • Social Contract Theorists – emphasis on goodness of man and a utopian view of future.

6. Conservatism • Established customs, laws and traditions should guide government and society. • Opposes change to the political and economic status quo, seek to preserve family values and free enterprise. • As with liberalism there have been numerous changes to key ideas and policy issues within the conservative ideology. • Stress equal opportunity for all through a competitive political and economic structure.

7. One Dimensional Political Spectrum RightWing Left Wing Center Radical Liberal Moderate Conservative Reactionary Status Quo

8. Many Faces of Political Ideologies in the U.S. • Liberalism • Classic • Populism • Progressivism • Contemporary • Neoliberalism • Conservatism • Early American • Industrial Age • Contemporary • Neoconservatism • Extremes • Democratic Socialism • New Right • Libertarianism

9. The Political Ideological Group Spectrum

10. Four Ideologies Liberalism Populism Equality Results Libertarianism Conservatism Equality Opportunity Liberty Order Individualism

11. David Nolan Ideology GraphLibertarian Expansion to 3 Dimensions

12. www.friesian.com/quiz

13. The Normal Distribution of theAmerican Electorate

14. The NES American Electorate

15. Political Ideologies 2004 Election - 21% Liberal 45% Moderate 34% Conservative