American Political Culture
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Why didn’t people
shoot George W.
Bush?
Why do we pay
taxes?
Why don’t we take
to the streets to
protest Wall Street?
Definition of Political Culture

a set of norms, beliefs, traditions, and
values oriented toward the political
system that are for the most part
shared by the society and are relatively
unique to a political system
The American Political Culture
American Political Culture
Is there an American political culture?
 Has it disappeared?
 How does it affect public policy?
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Tenets of Classical Liberalism
Individual have natural rights
 Individuals are equal under the law
 Government should be limited
 Government's #1 purpose is to serve
individuals
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Declaration of Independence
All men are created equal
 Endowed with certain inalienable rights,
life liberty pursuit of happiness
 Government derives “their just powers
from the consent of the governed “
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Do you believe in Liberty?
Liberty

The belief that
individuals should be
free to act and think
as they choose,
provided they do not
infringe unreasonably
on the freedom and
well being of others.
Individual Responsibility
A commitment to
personal
responsibility, self
sufficiency, and
material
accumulation
 Hard work pays off
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It is the responsibility of the state to
take care of poor people who can’t
take care of themselves.
62
62
UK
France
66
66
Czech.
Italy
70
71
Russia
Bulgaria
58
50
23
US
Germany
Hungary
#s are the percent agreeing
People like me and my family have a
good chance of improving our
standard of living.
72
61
45
40
US
Australia
#s are percent agreeing
Italy
Germany
37
36
Britain
Netherlands
1.
2.
3.
Government should reduce income
inequality.
Government should provide all
Americans with a guaranteed income.
Luck is more important than hard
work in getting ahead.
What would those making less than $12k
think?
Values are shared by least and
most fortunate
Do you believe in Equality?
Equality
Americans have a strong commitment
to legal, social and political equality.
 Not equality of outcomes or economic
equality
 Public Support for Affirmative Action
 Equality more of a “contested” concept

Clinton/Obama Health Care Plan
large government
operation
 remove control from
the market
 restrict the choices
of individuals
 Promote equality of
outcomes
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•“a government takeover of
your life “
•“automatically enrolled in
a government run health
alliance”
Future of Freedom
Foundation
Why America hates Socialism
Values Shape Policy Outcomes
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Policies are suspect if they conflict with
dominant political culture.
large government operation
 remove control from the market
 restrict the choices of individuals
 Promote equality of outcomes
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Universal health care; living wage policies;
Are we really rugged individualists?
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Large majorities
favor
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Government
regulation of Wall
Street
Protecting the
environment
Building
infrastructure
Safety net
Public Support for Greater Government
Role in Health Care Industry
Are we really rugged individualists?
Tocqueville, Democracy in America
Tocqueville Vision
Frontier and widespread property
ownership
 Life characterized by atomistic social
freedom
 Do not need strong state or class
movement to create upward mobility
 New world creates faith in individualism
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Traditional Explanations
Louis Hartz, The Liberal Consensus
 no feudal aristocracy—no landed
aristocracy to provide a conservative
view
 minimal taxes
 few legal restraints
 frontier provides opportunities—easy for
ambitious individuals to succeed
 nation of small independent farmers
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Is the American polity characterized by
hegemonic liberal democratic values?
All men are created equal
 Endowed with certain inalienable rights, life,
liberty, pursuit of happiness
 Government derives “their just powers from
the consent of the governed “
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“All men are created equal.”
“Multiple Traditions” Critique
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“Americans share a common culture,
but one more complexly and multiply
constituted than is usually
acknowledged.”
“Multiple Traditions” Critique
Rogers Smith -->
 American political culture is the
“complex patterns of apparently
inconsistent combinations of traditions,
accompanied by recurring conflicts.”
 Complex Mix of liberal and ascriptive
forms of Americanism at the same time
Smith- Multiple Traditions (cont)
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"fail[s] to give due weight to inegalitarian ideologies and
conditions that have shaped the participants and the substance
of American politics just as deeply" as liberalism has
At the republic’s founding, the “comparative moral, material,
and political egalitarianism that prevailed . . . among moderately
propertied white men was surrounded by an array of other
fixed, ascriptive systems of unequal status, all largely
unchallenged by the American revolutionaries (549).
for “at least two-thirds of American history, the majority of the
domestic adult population was . . . ineligible for full American
citizenship solely because of their race, original nationality, or
gender”
Reconstruction period- example of liberal and ascriptive
traditions
Civil War and Reconstruction
Slavery abolished
 All persons born in US deemed citizens,
regardless or race, creed, or gender
 None could be denied voting rights on
racial grounds
 BUT,
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Darwinism and Spencerism
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“Intellectual and political elites develop
the most elaborate theories of racial
and gender hierarchy in US history and
embody them in staggering array of
laws governing naturalization,
immigration, deportation, voting rights,
electoral institutions. ”
Intellectual Credibility – Racial
Hierarchies
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“black, brown, and
red races … (had) a
peculiar mental
temperament which
has become
hereditary. Leaving
them constitutionally
recreant to the cues
of civilization ” 1895
Daniel Brinton, President, American
Association for the Advancement of Science
CA Senator, John MIller
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40 centuries of Chinese life had “ground
into” the Chinese race characteristics
that made them unbeatable competitors
against the free white man. They were
“automatic engines of flesh and blood”
far below the Anglo-Saxon- such that
immigration of Chinese laborers must
be banned.
Chinese Exclusion Act
Senator Lodge’s Literacy Test
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“Research shows it
will exclude the
Italians, Russians,
Poles, Hungarians,
Greeks, and
Asiatics,… thereby
preserving “the
quality of our race
and citizenship.”
Multiple Traditions – still true?
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THERE WILL BE NOTHING ON
WATTENBERG AND GINGRICH ON THE
FALL 2011 MIDTERM. 
How many immigrants are in
the United States today?
"Welcome to All!“, Puck April 28, 1880
Are you smart enough to be a
US Citizen?

What is the supreme law of the land?
 What is the economic system in the United
States?
 Name one branch or part of the government.*
 We elect a U.S. Representative for how many
years?
 Who vetoes bills?
 What are two ways that Americans can
participate in their democracy?
 Name one American Indian tribe in the United
States.