Stare deeply into my eyes.
You will become a patriotic
American.
Public Policy Paper
• selecting a research question,
• finding sources and building a bibliography,
• conducting research to answer your policy
question,
• formulating a policy recommendation based
on your research, and
• crafting a lucid argument in support of your
recommendation.
Culture Defined
• “The totality of socially transmitted behavior
patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all
other products of human work and thought.
• “These patterns, traits, and products
considered as the expression of a particular
period, class, community, or population:
Edwardian culture; Japanese culture; the
culture of poverty.
• “These patterns, traits, and products
considered with respect to a particular
category, such as a field, subject, or mode of
expression: religious culture in the Middle
Ages; musical culture; oral culture, [political
culture].” – American Heritage Dictionary
Political Culture:
What do Americans believe in?
Political Culture:
What do Americans believe in?
Freedom/Liberty
Equality
Democracy/Self-government
Political Culture:
What do Americans believe in?
• Freedom/Liberty
• freedom to act
• personal autonomy
• Equality
• fair treatment
• and equal opportunity
• Democracy/Self-government
• popular sovereignty
• government of, by, for people
Political Culture:
What do Americans believe in?
• Freedom/Liberty
• freedom to act
• personal autonomy
Individualism
• Equality
• fair treatment
• and equal opportunity
• Democracy/Self-government
• popular sovereignty
• government of, by, for people
Crazy for Freedom?
Political Culture:
What do Americans believe in?
• Freedom/Liberty
• freedom to act
• personal autonomy
• Equality
• fair treatment
• and equal opportunity
• Democracy/Self-government
• popular sovereignty
• government of, by, for people
Characteristics of America’s
Governing System
ala Patterson
• democratic
• constitutional
• free market
Characteristics of each?
Loci of power?
America’s Governing System
ala Patterson
• democracy (people govern either directly or through
representatives) responds to numbers--majoritarian
• constitutionalism is a set of rules that restricts the
lawful use of power (limits on the power of governments
over citizens) responds to rights--minoritarian
• capitalism (free enterprise and self-reliance)
responds to wealth–plutocratic
Rules of American Politics
ala Patterson
• democracy (people govern either directly or through
representatives) responds to numbers--majoritarian
• constitutionalism is a set of rules that restricts the
lawful use of power (limits on the power of governments
over citizens) responds to rights--minoritarian
• capitalism (free enterprise and self-reliance)
responds to wealth–plutocratic
All three rules of the game are based on the
free choice of free individuals & thus
consistent with our core belief in
individualism.