Download AP Government and Politics

AP Government and Politics
…the beginning…
AP Government & Politics
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
3. What has government done?
-- What has government
achieved?
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.
Discuss:
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?
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
Political Science Looks at
Two Things
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)
Americans Agree:
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?
democracy
What is it?
What are the different
theories of democracy?
How could this information be
organized graphically?
Direct Democracy
Representative Democracy
Participatory Democracy
Republicanism
Aristotelian “rule of the many”
Elitist theory
Greek city-state
Schumpeter’s definition:
acquisition of power by
leaders via competitive
elections
New England town meeting
where each individual votes
Impractical because of time,
expertise of citizens, etc.
Generally used as the American
system of representative
government
Hedges against the people
making unwise, emotional
decisions
Democracy is the worst form of
government, except for all the
others.
– Winston Churchill
Direct Democracy
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
Representative Democracy
An elitist theory of democracy
Defined by Schumpeter: acquisition of
power by leaders via competitive
elections
Democracy
“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
…justifications continued:
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)
Distribution of Power
How is political power distributed in our
current democracy?
How are decisions made?
Wilson says,
“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.”
Majoritarian Politics
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
Elites:
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
Marxist:
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)
Bureaucratic View
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
Pluralism
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.”
Pluralism
The most reasonable and
accurate description of
how decisions are made
So what?
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?
Sounds like ideas that could
show up in a United States
Constitution…
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