POL 201: Intro' To American Politics

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POL 201 Intro. To American Politics

• Professor Casey Klofstad

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Last Time Course Introduction

• Get a copy of the syllabus and get up to speed if
  you missed last week
• See/Email me if you have any questions, etc

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Lecture 2 Democracy and American Politics

• What is government, and why do we have it?
• What types of governments exist?
• What is democracy?
• How Democracy Works in the US

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Why Government?

• Government creates and enforces rules that
  protect life and property
• As a society becomes larger and more complex,
  the need for government increases

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Government By One Person

• How?
• past heredity or religious appointment (kings,
  pharaohs, tsars, etc.)
• today military dictatorships
• Problem relies on the benevolence of one person

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Government By A Few People

• How?
• past aristocracy (birth/social standing)
• today oligarchy (e.g., Communist Party)
• Problem relies on the benevolence of a small
  group of people

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Government By the Many

• Democracy government power is shared by all
  (rule by the people)
• demos the people
• kratein to rule

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Direct Democracy
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Representative Democracy
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Elections in the U.S.

• Lots of elected officials
• 500,000 (1 for every 500 people)
• Lots of elections
• federal, state, local, and other (e.g., school
  boards)
• direct propositions (e.g., initiatives,
  referenda)

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3 Essential Components of Representative Democracy

• How do we decide if a representative system is
  democratic?
• popular sovereignty
• political equality
• political liberty

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Popular Sovereignty

• Active and enlightened citizen participation
• Free and fair elections
• Responsive government

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Political Liberty

• Thou Shall Nots for government
• example the government cant restrict free
  speech (1st Amendment)

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Political Equality

• All citizens need an equal say over what
  government does
• Everyone needs to be treated the same by
  government
• equal protection (14th Amendment)

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Liberty and Equality

• Liberty what the government can and cant do
• Equality the law needs to be applied to everyone
  in the same way

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Voter Turnout in US Elections
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Many Americans are Uninterested and Uninformed

• Q how often do you follow what going on in
  government
• 32 say only now and then or hardly at all
• Q How may days in the past week did you read a
  daily newspaper?
• 31 say none
• (Source 2004 NES)

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The Permanent Campaign

• The line between campaigning and governance has
  blurred over time
• So what?
• short-sighted policymaking
• adversarial process
• increased costs of campaigns

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Total Cost of US Elections
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The Schoolhouse Rock Diagram of American
Politics
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Trust in US Government
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Majority Rule Can Threaten Liberty Equality

• Tyranny of the Majority when a majority
  overrules a minority
• past internment of Japanese citizens during WWII
• present race profiling by law enforcement

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Summary Is the U.S. Democratic?

• Yes, but
• threats to sovereignty low levels of citizen
  participation, uniformed citizens, unresponsive
  government, etc
• threats to liberty and equality majority rule
  sometimes takes away liberty (tyranny of the
  majority)

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Is the U.S. System Really That Bad?

• democracy is the worst form of government
  except all those other forms that have been
  tried.
• Winston Churchill

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POL 201 Intro. To American Politics

• Professor Casey Klofstad