AP Government Unit 1 Review

government

government

The institutions through which public policies are made for a society

Congress, the president, the courts, and federal administrative agencies (the bureaucracy)

In the U.S. government, the institutions are __, __, __, and __.

How should we govern? What should government do?

What are the two fundamental questions about governing?

defense, provide, order, socialize, collect

All governments have certain functions in common. National governments throughout the world perform the following functions:

• Maintain a national __.

• __ public goods and services.

• Preserve __.

• __ the young.

• __ taxes.

collective goods

Goods and services, such as clean air and clean water, that by their nature cannot be denied to anyone.

politics

The process determining the leaders we select and the policies they pursue. Politics produces authoritative decisions about public issues.

political participation

All the activities by which citizens attempt to influence the selection of political leaders and the policies they pursue.

Voting is the most common means of this in a democracy. Other means include contacting public officials, protest, and civil disobedience.

Maintain a national defense

A government protects its national sovereignty, usually by maintaining armed forces.

Provide public goods and services

Governments in this country spend billions of dollars on schools, libraries, hospitals, highways, and many other public goods and services. These goods and services are of two types: collective goods, or other goods and services.

Preserve order

The function of government that provides police and fire assistance and also creates laws. Every government has some means of maintaining order.

Socialize the young

Governments politically socialize the young -- that is, instill in children knowledge of and pride in the nation and its political system and values. Most modern governments pay for education, and school curricula typically include a course on the theory and practice of the country's rituals; the pledge also serves to this effect.

Collect taxes

Approximately one out of every three dollars earned by American citizens goes to national, state, and local taxes -- money that pays for the public goods and services the government provides.

Who gets what, when, and how

Political scientists often cite Harold D. Lasswell's famous definition of politics: "___."

Harold D. Lasswell

Who wrote this definition of politics? "Who gets what, when, and how."

Who, what, how

Lasswell's Who gets What, When, and How: __ = includes voters, candidates, groups, and parties. __ = the substance of politics and government (ex: benefits and burdens) __ = the says in which people participate in politics (voting, supporting, compromising, lobbying, and so forth).

political participation

Many judge the health of a government by how widespread __ __ is. America does quite poorly when judged by this.

single-issue groups

Groups that have a narrow interest on which their members tend to take an uncompromising stance.

Groups so concerned with one issue that members often cast their votes on the basis of that issue only, ignoring a politician's stand on everything else (ex: pro-choice or antiabortion activist groups).

policymaking system

The process by which policy comes into being and evolves. People's interests, problems, and concerns create political issues for government policymakers. These issues shape policy, which in turn impacts people, generating more interests, problems, and concerns.

People, linkage institutions, policy agenda, policymaking institutions, policy, people

The Policymaking System: __ > __ > __ > __ > __ > __.

linkage institutions

The political channels trough which people's concerns become political issues on the policy agenda. In the U.S., __ __ include elections, political parties, interest groups, and the media.

elections, political parties, interest groups, media

What are some examples of linkage institutions in the United States?

policy agenda

The issues that attract the serious attention of public officials and other people actively involved in politics at the time. A government's __ __ changes regularly (whether the economy, foreign policy, etc. is more critical at the time).

interest groups

Organized groups of people with a common interest; groups of people who work together for similar interests or goals.

BAD

In general, __ news--particularly about a crisis situation--is more likely than good news to draw sufficient media attention to put a subject on the policy agenda. As the old saying goes, "Good news is no news."

political issue

An issue that arises when people disagree about a problem and how to fix it.

policymaking institutions

The branches of government charged with taking action on political issues. The U.S. Constitution established three of these institutions -- Congress, the presidency, and the courts. Today, the power of the bureaucracy is so great that most political scientists consider it a fourth.

public policy

A choice that government makes in response to a political issue. A policy is a course of action taken with regard to some problem.

president, Congress, bureaucracy, courts

Very few public policies are made by a single policy making institution. For example: ___ may urge a policy > ___ Congress May respond by passing legislation > __ have to implement new policies and create rules and regulations that define how policies are to be implemented > ___ make decisions about what policies mean and whether they conflict with the Constitution.

policy impacts

The effects a policy has on people and problems. Impacts are analyzed to see how well a policy has met its goal and at what cost.

statute, presidential action, court decision, budgetary choices, and regulation

Public policies are of various types, depending in part on which policymaking institution they originated with. Some of the most important types are: __, __, __, __, and __.

democracy

A system of selecting policymakers and of organizing government so that policy represents and responds to the public's preferences.

Traditional Democratic Theory

___ ___ ___ rests on a number of key principles that specify how governmental decisions are made in a democracy. Robert Dahl suggests that an ideal democratic process should satisfy the following five criteria:

• Equality in voting

• Effective participation

• Enlightened understanding

• Citizen control of the agenda

• Inclusion

of, by, for

Government has always been "___ the people" in the U.S. because the Constitution forbids granting titles of nobility. It's a physical impossibility for it to be "___ the people" in a nation of over 300 million. The serious debate begins in whether political leaders govern "___ the people," as there are always significant biases in how the system works.

Roger Sherman

__ __, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, said, "The people should have as little to do as may be about the government."

This shows how the writers of the U.S. Constitution had no fondness for democracy, as many of them doubted the ability of ordinary Americans to make informed judgements about what government should do.

Robert Dahl, equality in voting, citizen control of the agenda, effective participation, enlightened understanding, and Inclusion

Which one of America's leading theorists suggests that an ideal democratic process should satisfy these five criteria?

• __

• __

• __

• __

• __

Equality in voting

The principle of "one person, one vote" is basic to democracy. No one's vote should count more than anyone else's.

Effective participation

Citizens must have adequate and equal opportunities to express their preferences throughout the decision-making process.

Enlightened understanding

A democratic society must be a marketplace of ideas. A free press and free speech are essential to civil understanding. If one group monopolizes and distorts information, citizens cannot truly understand issues.

Citizen control of the agenda

Citizens have the collective right to control the government's policy agenda. If particular groups, such as the wealthy, have influence far exceeding what would be expected based on their numbers, then the agenda will be distorted--the government will not be addressing the issues that the public as a whole feels are most important.

Inclusion

The government must include, and extend rights to, all those subject to its laws. Citizenship must be open to all within a nation if the nation is to call itself democratic.

majority rule

A fundamental principle of traditional democratic theory. In a democracy, choosing among alternatives requires that the majority's desire be respected.

minority rights

A principle of traditional democratic theory that guarantees rights to those who do not belong to majorities.

representation

A basic principle of traditional democratic theory that describes the relationship between the few leaders and the many followers.

pluralism

A theory of American democracy emphasizing that the policymaking process is very open to the participation of all groups with shared interests, with no single group usually dominating. Pluralists tend to believe that as a result, public interest generally prevails.

Who really governs in our nation?

All theories of America democracy are essentially theories about who has power and influence. What question do all theories of American democracy, in one way or another, ask?

pluralism, elitism, and hyperpluralism

What are the three Contemporary Theories of American Democracy?

Robert Dahl

Pluralists believe that, rather than speaking of majority rule, we should speak of groups of minorities working together. __ __ expresses this view when writing that "all active and legitimate groups in the population can make themselves heard at some crucial stage in the process."

Alexis de Tocqueville

What Frenchman observed these influencial ideas about America?

• Writing in the 1830s, described America is a "nation of joiners" and cited the high level of associational activities as one of the crucial reasons for the success of American democracy.

• Cited egalitarianism in the U.S. as involving equality of opportunity and respect in the absence of monarchy and aristocracy. He accurately foresaw the social equality observed in America in the 1830s developing the create political equality and an equal chance to participate in democratic governance (right to vote).

Robert Putnam

__ __ argues that many of the problems of American democracy today stem from a decline in group-based participation. He argues that Americans are becoming less tied to institutions and more self-defined. If people are indeed participating in politics alone rather than in groups, then pluralist theory is becoming less descriptive of American politics today.

Elitism (elite and class theory)

A theory of American democracy contending that an upper-class elite holds the power and makes policy, regardless of the formal governmental organization.

According to this theory, a few powerful Americans do not merely influence policymakers -- they are the policymakers.

Jacob Hacker, Paul Pierson

Political scientists __ and __ write that "America's political market no longer looks like the effectively functioning market that economic textbooks laud. Rather, it increasingly resembles the sort of market that gave us the Enron scandal, in which corporate bigwigs with privileged information got rich at the expense of ordinary shareholders, workers, and consumers."

Hyperpluralism

A theory of American democracy contending that groups are so strong that government, which gives in to the many different groups, is thereby weakened.

Whereas pluralism maintains that input from groups is a good thing for the political decision-making process, __ theory asserts that there are too many ways for groups to control policy (many groups together render the government unable to act or act effectively).

Challenges to Democracy

There are a number of continuing ___ ___ ___. Many of these apply to American democracy as well as to other democracies around the world.

• Increased complexity of issues

• Limited participation in government

• Escalating campaign costs

• Diverse political interests

policy gridlock

A condition that occurs when interests conflict and no coalition is strong enough to form a majority and establish policy, so nothing gets done.

Political Action Committee (PAC)

A committee set up by a corporation, labor union, or interest group that raises and spends campaign money from voluntary donations.

political culture

An overall set of values widely shared within a society. In the view of many scholars, this is the key factor that holds American society together.

Ronald Inglehart, Christian Welzel

__ and __ argue in their book on cultural change and democracy that "Democracy is not simply the result of clever elite bargaining and constitutional engineering. It depends on deep-rooted orientations among the people themselves. These orientations motivate them to demand freedom and responsive government... Genuine democracy is not simply a machine that, once set up, functions by itself. It depends on the people".

G. K. Chesterton

__ __ ___, the noted British observer of American politics, wrote in 1922, "America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence".

Seymour Martin Lipset

___ ___ ___ writes that "the United States is a country organized around an ideology which includes a set of dogmas about the nature of good society."

When speaking of populism, writes that the people at large "are possessed of some kind of sacred mystique, and proximity to them endows the politician with esteem—and with legitimacy."

liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, laissez-faire, populism

Seymour Martin Lipset argues that the American creed can be summarized by five elements: __, __, __, __, and __.

Patrick Henry

He wrote one of the most famous statements of the American Revolution, "Give me liberty or give me death."

Better Dead than Red, Live free or die

What was a popular bumper sticker during the Cold War? What is New Hampshires State Motto?

Thomas Jefferson

In the Declaration of Independence, __ __ placed liberty right along with life and the pursuit of happiness as an "unalienable right."

unalienable right

A right not awarded by human power, not transferable to another power, and not revocable.

liberty

Freedom -- especially freedom of speech, of religion, and from government control. When immigrants are asked why they came to America, by far the most common answer is to live in freedom.

egalitarianism

A belief in the equality of all people; the belief that all people should have equal political, economic, social, and civil rights.

Individualism

The belief that people can and should get ahead on their own;a social theory favoring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control. This aspect of American political culture has greatly shaped the development of American democracy.

Laissez-faire

Idea that government should play as small a role as possible in economic affairs; an important result of American individualism are these preferred economic policies promoting free markets and limited government.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...

The most famous phrase in the history of democracy is the Declaration of Independence's statement:

Louis Hartz

__ __ writes in his The Liberal Tradition of America that the major force behind limited government in America is that it was settled by people who fled from the feudal and clerical oppressions of the Old World. Once in the New World, they wanted little from government other than for it to leave them alone.

Frederick Jackson Turner

___ ___ ___ famous work on the significance of the frontier in American history argues that "the frontier is productive of individualism."

John Kingdon

__ __ writes in his book America the Unusual, "Government in the United States is much more limited and much smaller than government in virtually every other advanced industrialized country on earth."

populism

Support for the concerns of ordinary people; the political doctrine that supports the rights and powers of the common people in their struggle with the privileged elite.

A common pledge is "put the people first."

Abraham Lincoln

__ __ summarized American democracy as "government of the people, for the people, and by the people."

James Q. Wilson

___ __ ___ defines polarization (into rival liberal versus conservative political cultures) as "an intense commitment to a candidate, a culture, or an ideology that sets people in one group definitively apart from people in another, rival group."

James Q. Wilson

Arguing that the intensity of political divisions in twenty-first-century America is a major problem, ___ __ ___ writes that "a divided America encourages our enemies, disheartens our allies, and saps our resolve--potentially to fatal effect."

Morris Fiorina, Wayne Baker

Some scholars believe that there is relatively little evidence of a so-called culture war going on among ordinary American citizens. Two such scholars are __ __ and __ __.

Morris Fiorina

__ __ concludes that "There is little indication that voters are polarized now or that they are becoming more polarized...if anything public opinion has grown more centrist on such issues and more tolerant of the divergent views, values, and behavior of other Americans."

traditional values, key values, moral differences

Wayne Baker outlines three ways in which America might be experiencing a crisis of cultural values: (1) a loss over time of __ __ (2) an unfavorable comparison with the citizens of other countries in terms of __ __ such as patriotism (3) the division of society into opposes groups with irreconcilable __ __.

Dick Armey

__ __, one of the key figures in the Tea Party Movement, wrote "There is more wisdom in millions of individuals making decisions in their own self-interest than there is in even the most enlightened bureaucrat (or congressman) making decisions on their behalf."

Ronald Reagan

__ __ argued in his farewell presidential address, "As government expands, liberty contracts."

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

The sum total of the value of all the goods and services produced in a year in a nation.

President Obama, John Boehner

Amidst the economic woes of 2009, __ __ stated, "It is true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or long-term growth, but at this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe." Republican House leader __ ___ countered, "This bill makes clear that the era of Big Government is back, and the Democrats expect you to pay for it."

national defense, social security, Medicare, local and state governments

When it comes to allocating the federal budget,

• About 1/6 = __ __.

• A little over 1/5 = __ __.

• A little over 1/10 = ___.

• Around $600 billion = __ and __ ___.

Clinton

The federal government ran a budget deficit every year from 1969-1997. The last few __ budgets showed surpluses, but soon after George W. Bush took over, the government was running a deficit once again. Each fiscal year from 2009-2012, the annual deficit exceeded one trillion dollars. It fell below one trillion in 2013-14. All this deficit spending has left the country with a national debt of OVER $17 TRILLION.

level, activity

The American government is vast on any measure--whether dollars spent, persons employed, or laws passed. Our concern is not so much about the absolute size of the government as about whether the __ of government __ is what we want it to be.

Central Tenet of Pluralism

Many groups vie for control over policy, with no one group dominating.