PSC 201 - United States Government
Week 1: Introduction
Department of Political Science
High Point University
Fall 2009
Website
• Did everyone visit the site?
http://acme.highpoint.edu/~mkifer/
• Any problems?
Text Book
• Did everyone find the text book in the
bookstore?
• Write your name in it as soon as you know you
are going to stay in this class
Government’s Reach
• Work with the person or people next to you.
• Books closed!
• Write down a total of 10 ways government will
affect what you do today.
• Be creative.
• 5 minutes.
Government’s Reach
What is the point of this exercise?
Citizenship
• What is it?
• Definition: Informed and active membership in a
political community
• What does citizenship mean for people in the United
States?
Government
• What is it?
• Definition: Institutions and procedures through
which a territory and its people are ruled.
• What are the important components of the
definition?
–
–
–
–
Institutions
Procedures
Territory
People
What are some types of governments?
Types of Government
• Authoritarian
– Totalitarian
• Democracy
• Constitutional
– AKA “Liberal”
Types of Democracy
• Democracies
– Representative
• Examples?
– Direct
• Examples?
Representative Democracy
State
Legislatures
City and
County
Councils
U.S. House
and Senate
Direct Democracy:
California Ballot Initiatives
Special Election May 29, 2009:
1A Increase “rainy day” fund for state budget
1B Require supplemental payments to schools
1C “Lottery Modernization Act”
1D Provide $600 million to protect children’s
programs
1E Amend Mental Health Services Act, provide
funding
1F Prevent pay increases for elected officials
during years when California has a deficit
Evolving Limits on Government
• 16th and 17th centuries
– Emergence of “middle class” or bourgeois
• 18th century
– Founding of United States
– Articles of Confederation and U.S. Constitution
Expansion of Participation
• Examples of expansions of participation in U.S.
government and politics
– Property qualifications (1820s)
– Race-based exclusions (13th, 14th, 15th
Amendments, 1865 – 1870 but also Civil Rights
Acts in 1960s)
– Gender-based exclusions (19th Amendment, 1920)
– Age-based limits (26th Amendment, 1971)
American Identity
• Over time, composition of U.S. has changed
– At the Founding of US about 4/5 European origin,
1/5 African origin, very small percentage other
– Immigration changed composition of the country
• What are some current debates about U.S.
national identity?
American Identity: Implications
• Changes affecting identity and politics:
– Increasing population
– Aging population
– Immigration and racial/ethnic diversity
– Regional migration
– Changes in rural/urban composition
American Identity: Implications
How do these changes affect politics and
government in the U.S.?
American Identity: Implications
• Aging population:
– 3 million people over 85 in 1990 to 18 million in
2050 means implications for
• Medicare and Social Security
• Remember AARP?
American Identity: Implications
Race
1995
2050 (projection)
Total US Population
263 million
400 million
Percentage White
(non-Hispanic white)
83.9
(73.6)
74.8
(52.8)
Percentage Black
(non-Hispanic Black)
12.6
(12)
15.4
(13.6)
Percentage Asian
(non-Hispanic Asian)
3.6
(3.3)
8.7
(8.2)
Percentage Hispanic origin
10.2
24.5
Percentage American Indian
0.7
0.9
U.S. Political Culture
• Three values
– Liberty
– Equality
– Democracy
U.S. Political Culture
• Liberty
– What does it mean to you?
– Limited government
• Personal and political freedom
• Economic freedom
U.S. Political Culture
• Equality
– What does it mean to you?
– Equal opportunity
– Political equality
U.S. Political Culture
• Democracy
– What does it mean to you?
– Popular sovereignty
– Majority rule and minority rights
U.S. Political Culture
• Conflicts about and among values
– Freedom and liberty
• What are some controversies?
U.S. Political Culture
• Conflicts about and among values
– Equality:
• What are some controversies?
U.S. Political Culture
• Conflicts about and among values
– Democracy:
• What are some controversies?
Orwell: Politics and the English
Language
• What else did he write?
– 1984
– Animal Farm
– Essays
Orwell: Politics and the English
Language
• Don’t use:
– “Dying” metaphors
– Operators or verbal “false limbs”
– Pretentious diction
– Meaningless words
Orwell: Politics and the English
Language
• “A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he
[sic] writes, will ask himself at least four
questions, thus:
1.
2.
3.
4.
What am I trying to say?
What words will express it?
What image or idiom will make it clearer?
Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
Orwell: Politics and the English
Language
• “And he [sic] will probably ask himself two
more:
1. Could I put it more shortly?
2. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly? “
Orwell: Politics and the English
Language
The rules:
1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech
which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never us a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon
word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright
barbarous.
Questions and Assignment for Tuesday
Any Questions?
Assignment for next time:
Chapter 2 of Ginsberg, et al
Declaration of Independence
Constitution
• I will post on the website some questions to consider
– Read them
– Think about some responses
– We’ll cover them in class