THE AMERICAN POLITICAL
LANDSCAPE
Advanced Placement
United States
Government & Politics
Ethnocentrism
 Selective –perceptions based on background,
attitudes, biases
 Inability to appreciated the difference in point
of view based on differing cultures.
Cleavages: Reinforcing and
Cross-cutting
 Reinforcing Cleavages: political conflict
becomes more intense and there is greater
polarization in society
Cross-cutting cleavages
 Cross-cutting cleavages: instances where
differences don’t reinforce each other.
*ex. American diversity-lessens political conflict
because individuals have multiple allegiances
Elements of Diversity
 Geography
 Sectional differences
 Social and economic differences
 Race and ethnic differences
 Gender and sexual orientation
 Religious differences
Poverty
 The 2009 Poverty Guidelines for the
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48 Contiguous States and the District of
Columbia
Persons in family
Poverty guideline
1
$10,830
2
$14,570
3
$18,310
4
$22,050
5
$25,790
Geography and Politics
Race and Ethnicity
 African Americans
 13 percent of the population.
 Hispanics

10 percent of the population.
 Asians
 4 percent of the population.
 Native Americans

1 percent of the population.
The Gender Gap
 In 2000 there were 3 female governors, 13
female senators, and 58 members in the
House of Representatives.
 Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore
received 12 percent more female votes than
the Republican candidate George W. Bush.
Congress and the Gender Gap
Politics and the Gender Gap
Gender Gap on Political
Issues
Gender Gap and Wages
The Gender Gap (con’t.)
 Sixty-four percent more women than men
work at or below the minimum wage.
 Men and women do not earn comparable
wages even when education levels are
equivalent.
The Gender Gap
 Women earn 78 cents on the dollar
 MBA grads-women earn 4,600 less
 One year out of college, women make 80% of
male counterpart’s salary in same occupation
 3% of fortune 500 CEOs
 Women are in the majority of all college
graduates and law school graduates but less
than a third are politicians or partners in law
firms.
 Closing the gap could increase GDP by 9%
 Women hold 17 percent of the seats in Congress,
well below Europe’s 22 percent and far behind
the Nordic countries’ 42 percent
 The surge of women running as anti-abortion
conservatives reflects a “war over who gets to
define what feminism means.”
 In 2008, 6 percent more men than women
supported the GOP presidential nominee
John McCain. (White men, in particular, have
tended to vote more conservatively than
almost any other demographic group.)
Women’s Issues
 Politics & Women
 Reproductive Rights
 Workplace Issues
 Health care
 Parenting & Caregiving
Sexual Orientation
 Roughly 10 percent of Americans identify
themselves as homosexual.
 Vermont, 2000, 1st state to permit same-sex
couples to form ‘civil unions’.
American “Unity”
Melting Pot
Vs.
Salad Bowl
Analogies
Implications...
 Religion
 Income, wealth
 Occupation
 Social Class
 Age
 Education