Chapter 1
American Political
Culture
Warm up
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Efficacy
Autocracy
Totalitarianism
Authoritarianism
Knowledge necessary for engaged
citizenship…
What Americans Think about Government
• Americans expect a lot from their
government.
– Keep us safe and yet protect
individual liberty and privacy.
– Support the weakest and yet keep
taxes low.
– Sustain a healthy environment and
still promote business growth.
– Keep government small, yet handle
each crisis quickly and effectively.
What Americans Think about Government:
Level of Trust
Do you trust government to do the right thing?
What Americans Think about Government:
Importance of Trust
Does it matter if Americans trust their government?
• Yes
• American government is predicated on a citizenry
that:
– is informed and active,
– keeps leaders aware of their preferences, and
– holds elected officials accountable at elections.
• Trust is a prerequisite to engaged democracy.
What Americans Think about Government:
Political Efficacy
What is political efficacy?
• Political efficacy is the belief that one has the ability
to influence what government does.
– 1960: 25 percent of those polled said elected officials
didn’t care what citizens like themselves thought
– 2014: 78 percent thought the same
Political Efficacy
Citizenship: Knowledge and Participation
• Political Knowledge
– People will not believe they can affect government if
they don’t know much about it.
• Americans are not very knowledgeable about
their government.
– In a 2013 survey, only 28 percent of respondents
could identify Justice Anthony Kennedy as the
Supreme Court’s swing vote.
Citizenship: Knowledge and Political
Engagement
• Citizenship: derived from the Greek ideal, refers to
“enlightened political engagement.”
– This entailed public discussion, debate, and activity
designed to improve the community.
– Citizens must be aware of the facts and what can be
done about a situation, and they must be willing to
take action to solve community problems.
Citizenship: Knowledge and Participation:
Necessity of Political Knowledge
• Necessity of Political Knowledge
– Citizens must understand how politics works if they are to
shape outcomes.
– Knowledge of the process must extend far beyond
names and dates
• Citizens need political knowledge to understand
what they can expect of their government.
Citizenship: Knowledge and Participation:
Digital Citizenship
Digital Citizenship
• Digital citizenship is the ability to participate in society
online, and it is increasingly important in politics.
– In fact, 75 percent of Americans read the news online
and more than 6 in 10 look up political information
online.
– A full 67 percent visit a local, state, or federal
government website.
Citizenship: Knowledge and Participation: How
the Federal Government Affects Our Lives
What Americans Know about Government
Is Government Needed?
• Government is needed to provide “public goods.”
– Public goods are goods that benefit everyone but that
no individual or group on its own can afford to supply:
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defense against foreign aggression,
maintenance of public order,
a stable currency,
and so on.
Who Governs?
What are some forms of government?
• Autocracy: government by a single, nonelected
leader (e.g., a king, queen, or dictator).
• Oligarchy: government by a small group that is not
accountable to the citizens (e.g., military officers or
landowners).
• Democracy: a system of rule that permits citizens to play a
significant part in the governmental process, usually through
the election of key public officials.
Limits on Government
Power: totalitarian, authoritarian, and
constitutional
• Totalitarian governments recognize no limits on their
authority.
• Authoritarian governments recognize no limits on
their authority, but they are constrained by other
institutions, such as business or a church.
• Constitutional governments are limited both in what
they can do (substantive limits) and the methods
they can employ (procedural limits).
Forms of Government: John Locke
Forms of Government: John Stuart Mill
Politics
• Politics: conflict over the leadership, structure,
and policies of governments.
– Representative democracy (republic)
• Governments are run by elected officials who
represent the interests of their constituents.
– Direct democracy
• Citizens themselves vote on all legislation.
– town meetings, referenda
Pluralism
• Groups and organized interests also participate
in politics.
– Groups and organized interests provide funds for candidates,
lobby, and try to influence public opinion.
– The pattern of struggles among interests is called group politics,
or pluralism.
Who Are Americans?
• The United States has grown in population from
3.9 million in 1790, the year of the first official
census, to 318 million in 2014.
• The government sets policy to determine whom it
allows in and who is eligible for citizenship.
• This decision is highly political and has changed
many times over the course of American history.
Immigration and Ethnic Diversity
Who Are Americans?: Citizenship
U.S. Citizenship:
• The first census did not count Native Americans (in
fact, it was not until 1924 that Native Americans
could become citizens).
• Most people of African descent were not officially
citizens until 1868, when the Fourteenth
Amendment to the Constitution conferred citizenship
on the freed slaves.
Who Are Americans?: Immigration Policy
Immigration Policy:
• Immigration policy has been historically biased
against nonwhites.
– Until 1870, only free whites could become naturalized
citizens.
– The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 outlawed the
entry of Chinese laborers into the United States.
Who Are Americans?: Native Americans
Who Are Americans?: Twenty-First Century
• Twenty-First-Century Americans
– By 1965, Congress lifted strict immigration limits set
in place in the 1920s.
– This resulted in new waves of immigration from Asia
and Latin America.
• 2012 Population (U.S. Census)
– White: 63 percent
– Asian: 5 percent
– Black: 13 percent
– Latino: 17 percent
Twenty-First Century Americans
Who Are Americans?: Continent of Origin
Immigration by Continent of Origin (1900–2008)
Who Are Americans?: Age Distribution
• The age distribution of the population can have
a profound impact on politics.
– Different age groups have very different needs for
public services.
– Different age groups vote differently.
American Political Culture
If Americans do not share a common blood line or
religious or ethnic heritage, what unites the nation?
• Political culture
• American political culture emphasizes the values of:
– Liberty
– Equality
– Democracy
American Political Culture: Liberty
• Liberty: freedom from government
control. This includes:
– Personal freedom
– Economic freedom
• Linked to the concept of “limited
government.”
American Political Culture: Equality
• Equality
– Equality of opportunity
– Equality of outcome
– Political equality
American Political Culture: Democracy
• Democracy
– People choose their rulers and have some say over
what those rulers do.
– When ultimate power rests with the citizenry, this is
called popular sovereignty.
– In America, the people are sovereign and majority
rules, but the individual rights of the minority are still
protected.
Equality and Public Opinion
Public Opinion Poll: Q1
How much would you say the work and decisions of
the federal government affect what happens in your
life?
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
Not at all
A little
A moderate amount
A lot
A great deal
Public Opinion Poll: Q2
Do you believe our government should do more, the
same, or less for the citizens of our country?
a)
b)
c)
d)
More
About the same
Less
No opinion
Public Opinion Poll: Q3
How much of the time do you think you can trust
the federal government to do what is right and
fair?
a)
b)
c)
d)
Just about always
Most of the time
Only some of the time
Never
Public Opinion Poll: Q4
How much do you feel public officials care what
people like you think?
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
A great deal
A lot
A moderate amount
A little
Not at all
Public Opinion Poll: Q5
How much do you feel people like you can affect
what the government does?
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
A great deal
A lot
A moderate amount
A little
Not at all
Public Opinion Poll: Q6
How interested are you in information about what
is going on in government and politics?
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
Extremely interested
Very interested
Moderately interested
Slightly interested
Not interested at all
Public Opinion Poll: Q7
How often do you pay attention to what is going on
in government and politics?
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
Never
Once in a while
About half the time
Most of the time
All the time
Additional Information
Following this slide, you will find additional images,
figures, and tables from the textbook.
Federal Student Aid Website
Table 1.1: The Presence of Government in the
Daily Life of a Student at “State University”
Political Knowledge and Trust in
Government
Table 1.2: What Americans Know about
Government
Diversity of U.S. Population
Immigrants Being Processed
Public Opinion Poll
Figure 1.4: Income in the United States
Students in a Library
Occupy Demonstrator
Voters in a Polling Place