Gateways to Democracy
Preface for Review 9
December 2009
PREFACE
Our book begins with a simple question: how does anyone exert political
influence in a country of more than 300 million people? We know that students in
American Government classrooms across the country are grappling with this question, as
they develop an appreciation of their role in American public life. In our own classrooms,
students ask us: What is my responsibility? Can I make a difference? Does my
participation matter? How can I get my opinions represented? These are gateway
questions that probe the opportunities and limits on citizen involvement in a democracy.
Although the size and complexity of the American constitutional system is daunting, it is
imperative we prepare our students for the demands of democratic citizenship.
As teachers and scholars of American government, we have come together to
write a textbook that explains the theoretical and structural foundations of American
democracy and the resulting political process that demands an active and informed
citizenry. To help students understand American democracy and see how they can be
involved in their government, we peel back the layers of our political system to expose its
inner workings and examine how competing interests can both facilitate and block the
people’s will. In doing so, we use the conceptual framework of gateways. We contend
that there are gates—formal and informal-- that present obstacles to participation and
empowerment. But there are also gateways that give students a chance to influence the
process and to overcome these obstacles. We develop and describe these gates and
gateways.
Our gateways framework helps students conceptualize participation and civic
engagement—even democracy itself—with reference to access. Our book is both realistic
and optimistic, contending that the American system can be open to the influence of
students and responsive to their hopes and dreams—if they have information about how
this system works. But we avoid cheerleading, but pointing out the many gates that
undermine the workings of government.
We use the gateways theme to encourage critical thinking by the students. We
employ concrete examples of political activism and engagement, from a teenager to the
president of the United States, inviting students to enter a conversation about the
workings of American democracy. This textbook digs below the surface of standard
descriptions of democracy by asking students to consider how democratic we are as a
nation. We pose questions--Does equality require an equal process, or equal outcomes?
How responsive and accountable is American government? And we challenge students
to figure out their own standards for the society in which they want to live in the twentyfirst century. Questions like these encourage students to think about the meaning of selfgovernment and by so doing, they constitute a sustained analytical component of this
textbook.
Organization of the Textbook
We begin and end with student engagement. Chapter 1 describes the demands of
democratic citizenship, and Chapter 17 asks students to judge American democracy. In
between, the foundations of the American constitutional system, the means of citizen
access and influence in a democratic society, and the institutions of American
government are examined in three parts.
Chapter 1, Gateways to American Democracy, provides the rationale and
roadmap for citizen engagement in self-government. The Constitution is described as a
gatekeeper, protecting liberty and order but also facilitating representation. The
dimensions of representation are set forth as ideological, economic, and partisan.
A special section that describes the policy-making process is included here as a
foundation for policy coverage throughout the book. We view policy as central to
understanding American democracy. As a result, we have decided not to isolate the
discussion of policy in chapters at the end of the book, as nearly an afterthought. Instead,
we integrate policy into each of the substantive chapters, situating policy as a central part
of understanding American politics. By so doing, we underscore the importance of the
topic and give students a better understanding of American government.
The chapter’s overall aim is to establish the nature of democracy, the need for an
informed citizenry, and the framework we plan to employ on this intellectual journey.
Part I, Building a System of Government, includes chapters on the
Constitution, federalism, civil liberties, and civil rights that frame the major issues the
Framers confronted when they created a representative government. This section
examines why the Framers made particular choices and what the intended and unintended
consequences of their decisions have been over time. Students will understand that the
ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence have only slowly been realized and
are still evolving. This section of the textbook provides basic information about the
operation of American government—the separation of powers, unitary president, life-
time appointments for judges, staggered elections, divided legislature, state and local
government, and geographic apportionment—and helps students assess whether the
foundations of American government ensure responsiveness and equality.
Part II, Citizen Gateways in a Democracy, includes chapters on public opinion,
the mass media, interest groups, political parties, campaigns and elections, and voting and
participation. Together these chapters address the question of how a single individual’s
opinions are formed, expressed, and included in the policy-making process at all levels of
government. These matters are essential to our approach. If students are to be part of the
political process, they need to understand the demands facing them and the capacities of
their fellow citizens.
We begin with basic data about how much people know about American
government, where they get their information from, who they listen to, and to what extent
peoples’ opinions change over time. By starting with individual opinion, we help students
assess their own opinions about politics and analyze the sources of those opinions.
We continue with the nature of communication among citizens by addressing the
impact of the news media on American politics. The news media are an important source
of information for the public, politicians, and policy elites. But the news media do more
than just report the news; they frequently construct the news. We talk about the role of
the news media not only historically but also in the context of the rise of cable news
network, the growth of the internet, and the decline of newspapers. Does the immediacy
of the modern media environment have an empowering or a detrimental effect on our
democratic system? Does the intense and sometimes intrusive media scrutiny enhance or
restrict government’s responsiveness to the needs of its citizenry? These are the kinds of
questions we address to get students thinking about the political environment in which
twenty-first-century government has to function.
We then turn to interest groups as a means by which individual opinions are
aggregated together and given voice in a democracy, but in markedly different ways and
to varying degrees of success. Community or grassroots efforts, from environmental
movements to religious organizations to public interest groups, are often a satisfying and
empowering form of civic participation. The conventional wisdom is that powerful
“special interests” can trounce small citizens’ groups when competing for government
benefits, but we counter that the increasing numbers of interest groups means that more
people are represented in the formulation of public policy and that improved
communication among ordinary citizens has given citizen groups a new “gateway” for
influence.
We next examine how political parties evolved and their crucial and controversial
roles in the functioning of government. We also examine parties’ potential as an
instrument for engaging and channeling citizens’ efforts to elicit responsiveness from
government.
The last two chapters in this section look directly at the most basic form of
participation in a democracy—elections, campaigns, and voting. When politicians seek
elective office, they strive to appear as responsive as possible. Can voters make informed
decisions and hold their elected officials accountable? We grapple with the difficult
question of whether or how much campaigns as political institutions shape our
government. Campaigns tend to be associated with “dirty politics” and candidates who
are willing to say anything to get elected. But such perceptions miss the fact that
campaigns are also gateways connecting the public and politicians. We argue that
political campaigns provide voters with the information they need to make good choices
and to hold public officials accountable. We also provide comprehensive analyses of the
accuracy and type of information presented in campaigns, the financing of campaigns,
strategic framing of campaign issues, and the factors that ultimately determine the
outcomes of elections.
Voting is, of course, the most straightforward and least costly form of
participation in American democracy. It is also simplest way for an individual to
influence his or her elected officials. But students are often skeptical about the power of
the vote. Given the size of the country, do all votes even count? If they do, are they
counted equally? The election of 2000 serves as a sharp illustration of why and how
individual votes can matter, and we look, too, at the 2008 election that sparked great
interest and attention. We also describe other types of civic participation such as
membership in religious and community organizations, not-for-profit community
organizations, and Internet blogging. We use this chapter in part to illustrate how the
gateways to involvement in twenty-first century American life are wider and more direct
than they have been in the past.
Part III, The Institutions of American Government, provides an in-depth
description and explanation of Congress, the Presidency, the Bureaucracy, and the
Judiciary. For the branches of government chapters--Congress, the Presidency, and the
Judiciary--we describe the fundamental components of each as well as the ways each
interacts with the other two. We ask students to examine the behavior and outputs of
government by responsiveness and equality. For example, does a term-limited president
weaken him relative to Congress, which does not have term limits? We ask a similar
question about the bicameral structure of Congress and whether it gives the legislative
branch an advantage when dealing with the executive branch. We also focus the students’
attention on how party politics creates a governing dynamic that changes depending on
the balance of control of these branches. For the judicial branch, we contend that the
courts provide an important gateway to influencing the process and also for advancing
the cause of equality. Yet courts are not electorally accountable to citizens and federal
judges hold life tenure. Do the courts mete out equal justice to all citizens, regardless of
race and income? This question becomes especially important to ask as the nation
continues to have increasing numbers of poor people and very wealthy people.
In the chapter on the bureaucracy our aim is to show students how policy-making
and the bureaucracy affect day-to-day life. We examine the layers of bureaucratic
decision-making to demonstrate that the decisions made at each level of an agency or
cabinet department can have a profound impact on how laws affect individual life. We
discuss decision making in the areas of economic policy, budget policy, entitlement
spending for the elderly and the disadvantaged, health care policy, education policy, and
environmental policy, all in the context of the dynamics of policy implementation within
agencies and departments that oversee them. In these discussions, we highlight the areas
of public policy that students may experience firsthand.
We have two concluding chapters. The first—Chapter 16, The United States as
a Global Partner--examines how the United States will navigate the changing global
economic and political environment of the twenty-first century. In it we will look at how
compatible American democratic ideals, values, and institutions are with other forms of
government and ask whether the United States can forge working relationships with
governments that are different from its own. This chapter looks at the global footprint of
the United States in the areas of trade and economic development; arms control and
human rights; and health, energy consumption, and climate change.
The final chapter--Judging the Democratic Experiment--encourages students to
synthesize the book’s content and assess how they might navigate the gateways we have
examined to become an effective citizen. In doing so, we want to provide students with
the tools and incentives to assess the quality of their current political institutions. We
point out that how one assesses the American political system depends very much on
where one sits. Further, the standards one brings to bear shapes the answers one
develops. This conversation about whether America is democratic is important, because
it provides the chance to reform the rules of government. Those reforms bring the nation
closer to our ideals. But there will always be a gap between the realities of government
and the ideals of government. But that gap is a good thing, since it provides the reason to
seek improvement in government.
In short, this textbook offers students the information they need to answer such
questions thoughtfully, and that their participation in your classroom will be an important
step toward engaging the demands of twenty-first-century public life.
Special Instructional Features
Our textbook’s pedagogy is designed to support a comprehensive introduction to
American government that also takes the demands of citizenship seriously.
Participation. A goal of the book is encourage student participation in public life by
helping them to recognize their own self-interest and a broader civic interest. The book
makes the case that democracies demand citizen participation and that citizenship is a
serious responsibility.
Critical thinking. We also want to facilitate critical thinking by asking students to
evaluate American democracy by responsiveness and equality. This emphasis sharpens
students’ analytical skills and gives them greater competence and additional confidence
to get involved in public life. We devote special sections in each chapter to fundamental
types of information that we believe students need to navigate the political process. We
also add pedagogical tools to help both the instructor and student identify key concepts
and terms.
Constitutional and legal setting. For instructors, the book provides strong support for the
institutional foundations of American government. The first section of every chapter is an
overview of the constitutional and legal setting of the chapter’s subject. This essential,
basic information helps make sure that students are equipped with what they need to
know to understand the process, limits, and safeguards of democracy.
Public policy. We believe public policy is much too important to be relegated to separate
chapters at the back of the book, to be covered only if there is time. Students cannot take
their place as active citizens in American democracy unless they understand how the
policy process works. We bring policy applications into our consideration of every aspect
of American government by incorporating the policy process, and specific policy
examples, in a dedicated section in every chapter. Attention to a series of specific issues
in a variety of contexts helps students understand the political process. And, indeed,
specific policies are often the best incentives for getting them engaged.
Student engagement. Young people who have been active in politics and government are
featured in the opening of every chapter to encourage students and show them a reason
and a way to become involved.
Comparative feature. A box examines a particular topic with reference to political
practice in other countries, with special attention to five other democracies: Britain, India,
Israel, Mexico, and South Africa.
Supreme Court feature. To buttress the book’s attention to the legal and constitutional
context in which American government operates, each chapter features a relevant
Supreme Court case, stating the facts and the decision, with an analysis of its impact.
Pedagogical Tools for Conceptual Reinforcement
Focus questions. Focus questions at the beginning of each chapter encourage students to
think about the chapter topic in terms of government’s responsiveness, the people’s
equality, and the gates and gateways to access. These questions are revisited in the
chapter’s final section, in which the authors offer an interpretive response.
Margin questions and cues. Brief questions in the margins provoke students to think
about the big issues even as they are reading about the details of American government.
These questions keep students thinking critically about the information they are
absorbing, serve as prompts for class discussions, and aid in chapter review.
Margin key terms. Terms important to know for an understanding of American
government are boldfaced in the text and defined on the page for ease of understanding
and review.
“Gateways to Learning”. A special “Gateways to Learning” section at the end of the
each chapter includes a ten-point list of main ideas for review and learning. Lists of key
terms, timelines, exercises, review questions, and resources are also included in this
section and on the book’s website.
Supplements for Instructor and Students This text will have a full suite of instructor
and student supplements, including online resources, PowerPoint slides, and a test bank.
We will review these at a later date.
Acknowledgments