Transcript The American System - Greenwich Public Schools

The American System
• Two Big Questions
• Who Governs? (The text)
• To What ends? (Divorce Court example)
• Power means . . .
• Text: who holds office, how they’ll behave
• Authority: the right to power
• Legitimacy: what makes a law or constitution right
• Three Concepts of Democracy
• “true interests” served: China, Cuba
• Rule of the many: Direct (Athens, Colonial N.E.)
• Representative Democracy
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Who governs? How?
Marxist: Owners of means of prdctn rule
Elitist: Few top leaders make all rules
Bureaucratic: Appointed civil servants rule
Pluralist: Competition among affected ints.
Direct vs. Representative Democracy
Cynical: Politics as self-serving enterprise
• Often an incomplete analysis
• A Second Bill of Rights?
• Roosevelt’s “New Deal” and Johnson’s “Great
Society”
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The Growth of Government
First 150 years, government grew slowly
Constraints on Fed. Gov’t have relaxed
Public/Elite opinion demanded change
Wide distribution of resources
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Large policy agenda
Diffusion/Decentralization of power
Multiplication of interest groups (what paper?)
Management vs. ruling
Depression/New Deal and 1960s/Great Society
• Current administration/party wants reversal
Enduring Questions
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Preoccupation with rights
More red tape
Elite opinion influences “which” rights
Freedom versus equality?
• Advantages of freedom remote, costs obvious
• Advantages of equality are obvious, costs remote
• Debate: Equality of opportunity vs. result
• Ideas influence policy