National Politics: Culture, Constitutions, Citizens

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National Politics Culture, Constitutions,
Citizens

• POSC 120
• Intro to Politics and Political Action
• Braunwarth

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Guiding Question

• Given that politics is a struggle between power
  and freedom, which political patterns further
  cooperation, advance accommodation, and handle
  conflicts in domestic politics?

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What are the political patterns that further
Cooperation, Accommodation, and Conflict
Resolution in Politics?

• Agreement on constitutional fundamentals
• Opportunities for interest articulation
• Acceptable ways of legitimating public policy
  choices (why do people obey?)
• Need to modestly fulfill objectives of security,
  liberty, justice, and welfare
• Regular and effective controls on government

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Political Culture

• Comprises the distinguishing attitudes, habits,
  and behavior patterns that characterize a
  political community--the ethos of a place (i.e.
  freedom or order)
• Agreements on the fundamentals of Political
  Culture is important even if the society is
  heterogeneous
• Thus, in America, Protestants, Catholics, Jews,
  Muslims, atheists, agnostics, Democrats,
  Republicans, independents, African Americans,
  whites, Hispanics--these and other groups all
  strive to work out successful patterns of
  accommodation because of agreement on the basic
  principles of the U.S. Constitution.

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Constitutional Features

• Limited or unlimited government
• Representative government or direct democracy
• Separation or connection of powers
• Federalism or unitary government

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(De)Centralization of Powercon-federal,
federal, or unitary systemsWhat are the
tradeoffs with more or less centralization?

• Decentralized
• Closer to People
• More Responsive
• Flexible
• Open to Innovation

• Centralized
• Uniform Policy
• Equity
• Less Conflict
• Coherent
• Clear Action
• Which is Better?

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Nongovernmental Actors in Democracies

• Well examine each of the following in turn
• Citizens
• Interest groups
• Political parties
• Media

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Citizen Actions in Democracies

• Voting
• Public opinion
• Civil disobedience
• Mass Movements

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What are Mass Movements?

• What is a mass movement?
• Much broader scale than interest group activities
• Designed to mobilize passive bystanders and draw
  attention to the issue
• Operate outside of ordinary political action
• Change a way of thinking
• Can you think of any examples?

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Is Civil Disobedience Necessary?

• We have many avenues of participation available
  in a democracy
• Why do some groups resort to protest politics and
  civil disobedience?
• These groups often lack resources and a voice
• Difficult to overcome inertia and create change

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Significance of Mass Movements

• What would a mass movement look like that
  directly threatened the economic or political
  position of the ruling class?
• It would challenge the economic system from which
  elites have benefited
• Examples of these types of movements?
• The U.S. Revolution, Socialism, the labor
  movement, the recent anti-globalization movement,
  etc.

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Significance of Mass Movements

• How did established interests respond to these
  protests?
• Violently Repressed
• Social Gains must be fought for and are important
  but elites will go to great lengths to repress
  groups that threaten the power of elites

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Interest Group Actions in Democracies

• Provide information
• Tender advice
• Exert pressure

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Interest Groups

• Why do people with similar interests get together
  as a group?
• Can be much more effective
• Organization is the weapon of the weak against
  the strong
• How many of you are consumers?
• Taxpayers?
• Care about the Environment?

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Collective Action Problem

• Do you belong to an appropriate Interest Group?
• Why not if it is important to you?
• Can be a Free Rider because you know someone else
  will pick up the slack
• Do business-related interest groups make the same
  assumption?
• No, is often a cost of doing business
• Example?Eisenhowers military-industrial complex

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Interest Groups Eisenhower Warned Us

• Aichinger article follows the trajectory of the
  politics of interest groups and Pluralism
• Madison (Publius) in Federalist 10 in the 18th
  c. felt that interest groups are basically good
• The formation of groups was natural and
  competition between groups was good for democracy
• But Factions could develop that would capture
  government how could this problem could be
  avoided?
• If there were enough groups to provide checks on
  each other (Pluralism)
• According to DeTocqueville in the 19th c., this
  is what developed in the U.S.
• 20th c. pluralists such as David Truman, Dahl,
  and other saw pluralism as the savior of democracy

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Interest Groups Eisenhower Warned Us

• What about C. Wright Mills?
• He argued that pluralism was meaningless as a
  small power elite ran society
• Which side was Eisenhower on?
• He warned us about the extremely powerful
  military industrial complex
• They and other powerful interest groups were able
  to distort public policy to benefit themselves at
  what great costs to the public?
• Suck money from domestic programs, need for a
  constant enemy, perpetuation of fear to justify
  weapons
• No effective pluralist checks on this group
• What can prevent this from occurring?
• An alert and knowledgeable citizenry
• How can this develop?
• Perhaps need more substantive campaigns, media,
  etc.

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Political Party Functions in Democracies

• Important link between the public and government
• Aggregate Interests
• Provide context in which citizens can understand
  a complex political world
• Mobilize Voters
• Leadership recruitment
• Organize Government
• Translate election results into government action

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Political Party Systems

• How many viable parties do we have in the United
  States?
• Two Republicans and Democrats
• How about in most other democracies?
• Most have a multi-party system

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Two Party/Plurality Voting

• Whenever you have winner-take-all races in
  single-member districts, will get two political
  parties
• Move to center to attract voters (just need to
  get one more vote than the next guy)
• Little ideological contestation around issues
• Differentiation by imagegtSubstance
• Other perspectives are disenfranchised

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Multi-Party/Proportional Voting

• Get representation according to proportion of
  vote received
• Results in many ideologically differentiated
  parties
• Political debate around substantive political
  issues
• Image is largely irrelevant
• Which is more democratic?

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Ideal Media Functions in Democracies

• Provide accounts to the public of political
  events
• Contribute to the enactment of policy
• Guard against the abuse of governmental power

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Alienated From Reality

• 99.5 of homes w/ electricity have TVs
• 95 watch some TV every day
• Ave Home TV on 8 hrs/day
• Ave Adult watches 5 hrs/day
• By age 6 more time watching TV than will speak
  to father for rest of your life

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Mediated Reality

• People are increasingly alienated from a direct
  experience of reality
• Especially social and political reality
• Putnam Decreasing Civic Engagement
• Live in a mediated reality
• Social and Political reality are social
  constructions which become the objective reality
  of political action
• Almost entirely occurs through the mass media

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Information and a Democratic Citizenry

• Why important for Political Information?
• Social and political reality is a social
  construction which then becomes the objective
  surroundings of politics
• In order for democracy to function well masses
  require access to both accurate information as
  well as some context of the larger social forces
  within which this information makes sense

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John Stuart Mill On Conformity, Individuality,
and Liberty

• Under what circumstances can one interfere in the
  actions of another?
• Only Self-Protection
• Mill worries about the tyranny of public opinion
• For J.S. Mill, very important to be exposed to a
  variety of opinions and a diversity of ideas
• Marketplace of Ideas
• Lets examine Mills concerns in the context of a
  free media such as that found in the U.S.

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Capitalism and the Media

• News marketplace today is shaped by what will
  maximize an audience
• Drives the news to the lowest common denominator
• Increasing consolidation between news outlets and
  practice of covering same stories leads to
  extremely homogenized content
• To avoid appearance of bias, practice norm of
  objectivity which includes reliance on official
  sources with little commentary or criticism
• Allows public officials virtually free reign to
  construct their spin on political reality
• Very difficult for news spectators to figure out
  because of the lack of context in which these
  constructions could be better understood

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Private Free Media

• What would Mill think?
• Does the mass media contribute to or
  short-circuit the democratic process?
• Do we have the information necessary to make
  well-informed decisions?
• How does our discussion of the mass news media
  relate to the course theme of power v. freedom?
• How is this relevant to The Cuckoos Nest?

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Question

• What roles do citizens, interest groups,
  political parties, and the media play in
  non-democratic states?