…the beginning…

1.
Why study government and politics?
2.
Why does government and politics matter?
3.
What has government done?

1. Why study government and politics?
Learn what government is allowed to do
Learn what government is not supposed to do
Learn what has been done by government before
Learn possibilities of what government can achieve
Learn who leaders are and what they do
Learn the process for gaining power
Consider different theories of how it should work

2. Why does government and politics matter?
Impacts our daily lives
Our daily deaths
Our money
Our civil liberties
Our civil rights
Our happiness
Our religions
Our opinions of ourselves
Our status in the world

Why Government Matters: A Top Ten List
10.Promoted financial security in retirement
9.Reduced the federal budget deficit
8.Increased access to health care for older
Americans
7.Strengthened the nation’s highway system
6.Ensured safe food and drinking water
5.Reduced workplace discrimination
4.Reduced disease
3.Promoted equal access to public accommodations
.
2.Expanded the right to vote
1.Rebuilt Europe after World War II

In order to achieve anything in government:
People must have political power
People must use their political power

Post a blog post at www.civicsblog.blogspot.com:
Who has political power in America?
Give at least 2 examples that illustrate that the person you cite has political power.
Hints: Explain what this person has done that shows he or she has power. Use the individual name of the person and give the most specific examples possible.

Who has political power?
How do you know they have political power?
What examples can you give that illustrate that they have power?
What is political power?

Power: the ability of one person to cause another person to act in accordance with the first person’s intentions
May be obvious: president sends soldiers into combat
May be subtle: president’s junior speechwriters take a new tone when writing about a controversial issue

Power as it is used to impact who will hold governmental office
(ELECTIONS) and
Power as it is used to impact how government will behave (PUBLIC
POLICY DECISIONS)

One thing American seem to agree on is that it is necessary for government to be in some sense
“democratic” in the United States today in order to be perceived as legitimate.
Was the power you are writing about based in democratic ideals?

What is it?
What are the different theories of democracy?
How could this information be organized graphically?

Direct Democracy
Participatory Democracy
Aristotelian “rule of the many”
Greek city-state
Representative Democracy
Republicanism
Elitist theory
Schumpeter’s definition: acquisition of power by leaders via competitive elections
New England town meeting where each individual votes
Generally used as the American system of representative government
Impractical because of time, expertise of citizens, etc.
Hedges against the people making unwise, emotional decisions

Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.
– Winston Churchill

Aristotelian “rule of the many”
Fourth Century B.C.E.
Greek city-state
Practiced by free adult male property owners
Currently, we look at the
New England town meeting
An egalitarian theory of democracy

An elitist theory of democracy
Defined by Schumpeter: acquisition of power by leaders via competitive elections

“A system of governing in which people acquire the power to make decisions by means of a free and competitive struggle for citizens’ votes.”
– Joseph Schumpeter

The Framers’ justifications for representative democracy from a pluralist perspective:
Government should mediate, not mirror, popular views
Elected officials should represent, not register, majority sentiments
Citizens do not have the time, information, interest, or expertise to make reasonable choices among competing policy decisions

Even highly educated people could be manipulated by demagogic leaders (play on fears and prejudices)
Pluralist representative democracy minimized chances that power would be abused (tyrannical popular majority or self-serving office holders)

How is political power distributed in our current democracy?
How are decisions made?

“In some cases, the leaders will be so sharply constrained by what most people want that the actions of officeholders will follow the preferences of citizens very closely.”

DEFINITION: elected officials are the delegates of the people, acting as the people would act

If this is to work, the issues must be those that are sufficiently: important (to command the attention of most citizens) clear (to elicit an informed opinion from citizens) feasible to address (so that what citizens want done can, in fact, be done)

What if those situations don’t exist?
Somebody will act
Policymakers will learn about the issues and get actively involved
A small, and maybe unrepresentative, minority will decide
Decisions will be made by ELITES
They may not know what the people want
They may not care what the people want

DEFINITION: an identifiable group of persons who possess a disproportionate share of some valued resources like political power

Four schools of thought about elites
Marxist
Power elite
Bureaucratic
Pluralist View

DEFINITION:Democracy is a reflection of economic forces capitalists, business owners, bourgeoise VERSUS workers, laborers, proletariat
Whichever class dominates the economy, dominates the government

Power Elite View
DEFINITION: American democracy is actually dominated by a few top leaders, most of whom are outside of government and enjoy great advantages in wealth, status, or organizational position.

C. Wright Mills
(August 28, 1916 – March 20, 1962)

Power Elite View
Corporate leaders
Top military officials
Handful of elected officials
Modern day, we would add:
– media chiefs
– labor union officials
– special interest leaders

Bureaucratic View
DEFINITION: Power is mainly in the hands, not of American democracy’s elected representatives, but in those of its appointed officials, or career government workers

Max Weber
(April 21, 1864 – June 14, 1920)

Marxist view or Political Elite view may happen, but either way politics is dominated by bureaucrats who staff and operate government on a daily basis.
Appointed officials and career government workers dominate because of their expertise and longevity
These people decide how to translate public laws into administrative actions

Pluralist View
No single intellectual parent
DEFINITION: No single elite or group has monopoly on power
Groups must bargain and compromise
Groups must be responsive to followers
Political resources are not distributed equally (i.e. not majoritarian distribution)
There must be a competition and coalitions must be built

Inequalities in democracy exist, but everything is so divided among different elites and levels of government control that no one elite group is in control
“Not only are the elites divided, they are responsive to their followers’ interests, and thus they provide representation to almost all citizens affected by a policy.”

Politicians and governmental leaders don’t just “do what the people want”
Sometimes government can’t do what the people want because of the structure and process
Sometimes politicians do what the people want and it turns out to be bad public policy
Pluralism = What Madison was writing about when he wrote about factions? A healthy competition among different ideas with the best ideas or the largest coalitions winning?

Chapter Two
The Constitution

Individuals have power when they are able to
A. get elected to office
B. Vote without being influenced by outside forces
C. get others to do what they want them to do

The text suggests that, in the 1950s, the federal government would have taken very little interest in
A. a factory closing its doors
B. a profession not accrediting a member
C. a university refusing an applicant

The primary source of legitimate political authority in the United
States is the
A. will of the people
B. U.S. Constitution
C. concept of civil liberty

Which delegate to the constitutional convention thought that the new government might be too democratic?
A. John Adams
B. George Mason
C. Alexander Hamilton
D. Thomas Jefferson
E. Patrick Henry

The Greek city-state, or polis extended the right to vote to everyone except
A. slaves
B. women
C. minors
D. those without property
E. All of the above

The Framers’ concern about direct democracy are well illustrated by the fact that the U.S. Constitution
A. only uses the word democracy in reference to Congress
B. only uses the word democratic
C. does not feature the word democracy at all
Frequently uses the word democracy, but never in reference to the enumeration of a formal power

According to Alexis de Tocqueville,
Americans are fond of explaining their actions in terms of
A. self-interest
B. philosophical skepticism
C. moral precepts
D. disinterested and spontaneous impulses
E. religious commitments

Which of the following conceptualizes the narrowest distribution of political power-or places it in the smallest number of hands?
A. the power elite
B. the pluralists
C. Max Weber
D. Wright Mills
E. Karl Marx