Transcript Chapter 1: Freedom, Order, or Equality Why Is Government Necessary? • Order • Liberty • Authority and Legitimacy Copyright © 2011 Cengage Learning.

Chapter 1: Freedom,
Order, or Equality
Why Is Government Necessary?
• Order
• Liberty
• Authority and
Legitimacy
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Forms of Government
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•
•
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Totalitarian
Authoritarianism
Aristocracy
Democracy
• Derived from the Greek words demos (“the
people”) and kratos (“authority”)
• Political authority comes from citizens
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Direct Democracy
• Political decisions are
made by the people
directly, rather than by
elected representatives
• Attained most easily in
small communities
Voter registration in Chicago
AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh
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Representative Democracy
• Constitution established a representative
democracy
• Framers called this a Republic
• Experimental
• Power (votes) resides with citizens
• Representatives make policy and law
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Direct Democracy Today
• Initiative: voters can propose a law or a
constitutional amendment
• Referendum: referred by the legislature to the
voters for approval/ disapproval
• Recall: allows voters to dismiss an elected
official from office before term expires
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Is Direct Democracy Dangerous?
• Founders believed in government based on the
consent of the people, but were highly distrustful
of anything that might look like “mob rule.”
• Feared tyranny of majority over rights of the
minority.
• Believed “masses” were too uneducated to make
informed decisions.
• Devised institutions to filter the popular will through
elected elites.
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A Democratic Republic
Democratic republic and
representative democracy
really mean the same
thing—government based
on elected representatives—
except for the historical
quirk that a republic cannot
have a vestigial king.
National Portrait Gallery
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A Democratic Republic (cont.)
• Principles of Democratic Government
• Universal suffrage
• Majority rule
• Constitutional Democracy
• Limited government
• Usually includes constitutional checks
• Multiple points of access to power
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What Kind of Democracy Do We Have?
• Majoritarianism
• Government ought to do what majority of people
desire
• Elite theory
• Society is ruled by small group who wish to further
their own self-interests
• Pluralism
• Views politics as a conflict among interest groups,
with decision-making characterized by bargaining
and compromise
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Fundamental Values
• Political Socialization
• Liberty versus Order
• Equality versus Liberty
• Economic Equality
• Property Rights
• Capitalism
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Tensions Over Big Government
• How much power should the American
government have and what role should it play in
the lives of citizens?
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Gulf oil spill and cleanup
Mining safety regulations
Recalls (auto, food, pharmaceutical)
Taxes
National security policies
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Ideologies:
Liberalism versus Conservatism
• Conservatives
• Favor limited government involvement in economy
• Often favor government involvement in social issues
to preserve traditional values
• Liberals
• Favor government regulation of economy to benefit
society
• On social issues, prefer limited government role
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A Four-Cornered
Ideological Grid
In this grid, the colored
squares represent four
different political ideologies.
• The vertical choices range
from cultural order to
cultural liberty.
• The horizontal choices range
from economic equality to
economic liberty.
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Ideologies:
The Traditional Political Spectrum
• Socialism: strong support for economic and
social equality
• Libertarianism: skepticism toward government
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Classical Liberalism
• Liberal once meant limited government and no
religion in politics.
• Liberal evolved into its modern American meaning
along with the political evolution of the Democratic
Party, once the party of limited government, but now
the party of (relative) economic equality.
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The Traditional Political Spectrum
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Other Ideologies
• Communism: a revolutionary variant of socialism
• Government control of all enterprises
• Partisan dictatorship
• No free markets
• Fascism: often totalitarian
• Absolute ruler
• Rejection of individualism
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Ideologies in the Islamic World
• While communism and fascism are the historical
ideologies that totalitarianism was coined to
describe, our current international concern is with
the radical and fundamentalist interpretation of
Islam known as Islamism.
• Islamism rejects Western democratic values
• Desires worldwide Islamic political order
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A Demographic Profile of America
“Here is not merely a nation but
a teeming Nation of nations”
Walt Whitman
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Obama Election Night
Click the icon to open the movie
A news story showing
brief clips of Obama
speaking in Chicago’s
Grant Park after his
election win was
confirmed.
Air Date: 11/5/2008
Video Supplied by Motion Gallery
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Video Questions
1. Was Obama’s election a direct result of the
changing demographic breakdown in the
U.S.?
2. After this election, did ethnic background
become more or less important for future
candidates?
3. Where does Obama fall on the ideological
grid? Has this changed since his election?
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Religious Diversity
• Although a large majority (83%) of Americans
still identify as Christians, Americans now
claim affiliation with 1600 different religious
affiliations and denominations.
• About 16% are not religiously affiliated.
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The Changing Face of America
• Aging
• Population Growth
• Ethnic Change
• Changes in Hispanic community
• Women
• In the workforce
• In Congress and state government
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Illegal Immigrants
SOURCE: Washington Post, National Weekly Edition, May 29–June 4, 2006, 8.
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The U.S. Population
© The New Yorker Collection 1992. J.B. Handelsman
from cartoonbank.com. All rights reserved.
Click here to go to the U.S. POPClock Projection
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The Aging
of America
*Data for 2025 and 2050 are projections.
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census.
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Changing U.S. Population
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Questions for
Critical Thinking
1. Do you think a direct democracy is a rational
option for governing in the United States?
2. Describe the forms of direct democracy that
exist. Discuss the pros and cons of these
mechanisms.
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Questions for
Critical Thinking
3. Do some Americans equate security and
order with protection against fellow citizens
who are racially, culturally, or economically
different?
4. Is protection against discrimination an
important issue today? Which groups in
American society most need protection?
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Web Links
• U.S. Census Bureau
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
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