• Culture – The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, beliefs & institutions associated with a group.

• Politics – Behaviors associated with making binding decisions for a group.

• Related concepts: power, authority, public policy & government.

• Distinct from economics, where decisions arise from voluntary exchanges of value.

• Political Culture – The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, beliefs & institutions associated with the politics of a group.

• American Political Culture –

• Whatever else it may be, it is extremely (perhaps uniquely) individualistic.

• It provides the context for American Politics.

Yesterday

American Political System

Where’s the American Political Culture in this model?

• Liberty

• freedom to act

• personal autonomy

• emphasis on the individual

• Equality

• fair treatment

• equal opportunity; not equal results

• moral & social equality; not economic equality

• Self-government

• popular sovereignty

• government of, by, for people

• Each expresses individualism

• There is some tension among them

Political Culture ala Patterson:

Core Values

• Democracy

• people govern either directly or through representatives

• responds to numbers: majoritarian

• Constitutionalism

• a set of rules that restricts the lawful use of power

• limits on the power of governments over citizens

• responds to rights: minoritarian

• Capitalism

• private property and free markets

• responds to wealth: plutocratic

• All three rules emphasize the free choice of free individuals--thus consistent with our core belief in individualism.

Rules of American Politics ala Patterson:

Key Institutions

Theories of Power:

• Majoritarianism • Pluralism • Elitism • Bureaucratic Rule

Which theory is correct?

Overview of American Politics: “Five encompassing tendencies”

• Enduring cultural ideals that bind people together

• Extreme fragmentation of governing authority

• Many competing interests• A strong emphasis on individual rights• Relatively sharp separation of the

political and economic spheres

American Political Cultureand the

Constitution

Founding Documents from thePerspective of Political Culture

Declaration of Independence

Liberty: “unalienable rights [to] life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”

Equality: “all men are created equal”

Self-government: “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”

Constitution?

Liberty:

Equality:

Self-government:

The Federalist No. 10, as it appeared in the

New York Daily Advertiser,

November 22, 1787.

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/vc6.7a.jpg

Analyzing Federalist #10

• The goal to be achieved• The definitions

• Faction• Democracy• Republic

• Sources and inevitability of factions• Methods of curing their mischief• Differences between a democracy and

a republic• How the pieces all fit together

Constitutional Principles: 1787

• CONSTITUTIONALISM -- We would have governments of limited and enumerated powers.

• REPUBLICANISM -- The powers of government would be exercised, not by the people directly, but by representatives chosen by the people. These representatives would likely be the right kind of people.

Constitutional Principles: 1787

• FEDERALISM -- The power of government generally would be divided between a national government and a number of state governments, and the states would remain sovereign in their own domain.

• SEPARATION OF POWERS -- To check check the power of the national government executive, legislative, and judicial powers would be entrusted to separate institutions, and these institutions would have to agree before government could act.

Constitutional Principles: 1787

• BICAMERALISM -- To check the power of the most dangerous branch, the legislative branch, Congress would be divided into two chambers responsive to different electorates, and these two chambers would have to agree before laws could be passed.

• CHECKS AND BALANCES -- To check the power of the national government, each of the three branches would be given bits and pieces of the powers belonging in the main to the other branches.

A GOVERNMENT DESIGNED TO RESPOND TO BROAD CONSENSUS -- BUT NOT TO MERE

MAJORITY PREFERENCE.

• This government will frequently be unable to respond at all. Such a structure is an excellent mechanism for preventing tyranny so long as the only threat of tyranny comes from the government itself. A government isn't likely to hurt you if it's not doing anything.

• Such a structure may be less effective in a world where we are subject to the tyranny of a multitude of institutions other than our own government. And we have probably lived in such a world since the industrial revolution and the close of the American frontier.

A GOVERNMENT DESIGNED TO RESPOND TO BROAD CONSENSUS -- BUT NOT TO MERE

MAJORITY PREFERENCE.

• Since emergency or crisis tends to produce a kind of mob consensus, these institutions may continue to work pretty efficiently when we need them the most, even if they hardly work at all the rest of the time.

• In times of crisis, the mob consensus that allows government to function efficiently might form around bad policies as well as good ones.