American Political Culture: Liberty, Equality, and Democracy in Practice

1. Week 1 Lecture American Political Culture

2. What is Political Culture? • Political culture is defined as broadly shared values, beliefs, and attitudes about how the government should function. • American political culture emphasizes the values of liberty, equality, and democracy. • Americans actively embraced these values and made them part of the national identity.

3. Liberty, Equality, and Democracy • Liberty is a central American value defined as freedom from governmental control. • Equality is generally defined in the U.S. as greater support for equality of opportunity (the notion that all people should be free to use their talents and industry to their fullest potential). In addition, Americans tend to support political equality than social equality. • Democracy in the United States emphasizes popular sovereignty (the notion that political authority ultimately rests in the hands of the people).

4. American Political Values in Practice • Historically, Americans have struggled with limiting personal freedom and liberty in the name of protecting workers, prohibiting discrimination, and upholding standards of conduct (such as by prohibiting drug use). • The problem of equality in practice falls into three categories: The debate over equal access to public institutions , debate over the public role in ensuring equal opportunity , and debate over economic equality deals with the large income and wealth gap between rich and poor citizens. • Democracy’s practice in the United States has been controversial. Historically, the right to vote did not extend to all citizens.

5. Evolution of American Personal Liberty • Buy and use illegal drugs (Cocaine, Heroin, etc.) • Expanding the legal use of recreational and medicinal marijuana • Purchasing and using any weapons that an individual may wish to have(handguns, automatic weapons, etc.) Open carry laws in effect. • Soliciting prostitutes and other adult services. • Expanding the definition of marriage to including gay Americans. • Being able to get an abortion. • Allowed to do unlimited campaign contributions under the protection of the 1st amendment’s freedom of speech. • Practice religious freedoms even it means discriminating against someone else for their lifestyle.

11. Summary of Introduced and Pending Restrictive Voting Legislation • Identification laws • Photo ID laws. At least 22 states have introduced legislation either requiring voters to show photo ID at the polls or making existing photo ID laws more restrictive. • Proof of citizenship laws. At least eight states have introduced legislation requiring proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, to register or vote. • Making voter registration harder. At least seven states have introduced bills to end Election Day or same-day voter registration, limit voter registration mobilization efforts, and reduce other registration opportunities. • Reducing early voting opportunities. At least seven states have introduced bills that limit existing opportunities to vote early in person. • Making it harder to restore voting rights. At least two states have introduced legislation that would further restrict the right to vote to persons with criminal convictions. • Making it harder for students to vote. At least two states have proposed legislation that would make it harder for students to register and vote.

13. What Americans Think About Government • Americans trust in government overall has declined. Citizens feel they can do little to influence government action. Declining public trust in government is a matter of concern because prolonged distrust makes it harder for the government to raise taxes to support necessary programs and makes it more difficult to attract talented individuals to government service. • The belief that government is responsive to ordinary citizens has declined. Many Americans think the government does not listen and is not responsive to ordinary citizens

14. What Americans Think About Government (Cont.) • In a poll taken by CNN in August 2014 stated that Just 13% of Americans say the government can be trusted to do what is right always or most of the time, with just over three-quarters saying only some of the time and one in 10 saying they never trust the government, according to the poll. • Meaning 87% of Americans did not trust in the government at all. Current approval of Congress is just 5% and Obama’s approval rating is only currently 39%.

16. Citizenship: Knowledge and Participation • Surveys show that the majority of Americans are ill informed about government. • Apathy is the result of a lack of knowledge about how the individual and politics are related. Therefore, if the individual feels unable to be politically effective, the individual will never try. • On the other hand, politically active individuals have a tendency to participate often in the system, because they believe they can affect it.

17. The Necessity of Political Knowledge

18. Forms Of Government • Governments vary in structure, size, and operation. Who governs and what limits are placed on government. • Governments range from autocracies (governments in which a single individual – a king, queen, or dictator, rules) to oligarchies (governments in which a small group – landowners, military officers, or wealthy merchants – makes most of the governing decisions) to democracies (systems of rule that permit citizens to play a significant part in the governmental process, usually through the election of key public officials.) • Governments also range from constitutional (or liberal) governments (systems of rule in which formal and effective limits are placed on governmental power) to authoritarian governments (system of rule in which the government recognizes no formal limits but may be restrained by the power of other institutions) to totalitarian governments (systems of rule in which the government recognizes no formal limits on its power and seeks to absorb or eliminate other institutions that challenge it).

20. Limiting the Power of Government • Beginning in the seventeenth century, two important changes in the character and conduct of government began to take place: • 1. Governments began to acknowledge formal limits on their power and • 2. Governments began to grant ordinary citizens the vote as a formal voice in public affairs. • In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the upper classes of European society attempted to control government by changing the social order, seeking to transform aristocratic institutions (parliaments) into instruments for political participation. • The upper classes’sgrowing numbers and economic advantage over the aristocracy helped it to place constitutional limits on governmental power. The upper class also advanced individual liberty principles for all – freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of conscience, and freedom from arbitrary search and seizure.

21. Expanding Political Participation • Participation expansion means more people have the right to participate in politics. Politics is defined as the conflict over the leadership, structure, and policies of government. • Power is defined as having influence over a government’s leadership, organization, or policies. Political participation that includes all citizens is called democracy. It can manifest itself in many ways, such as voting, lobbying or demonstrating. • Among the other ways that political participation has expanded has been through the introduction of representative democracy and direct democracy. • In addition, political participation among the populace has increased through the active membership and activities of organized interest groups.

22. Who Are Americans? • Since the founding of the nation, waves of immigrants (from Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa) have contributed to increasing ethnic and religious diversity in the United States. • From at least the 1900s, immigration has caused political strife as people expressed concern that immigrants would bring disease, antidemocratic values, unfamiliar religious beliefs, and different languages. • Political struggles over immigration and citizenship have always involved race. • Recently, the United States has also become more religiously diverse, and more urbanized.