Introduction to American Government and Politics

Foundations of American Government and Politics

• Distinction Between Government and Politics

  • Government: The formal institutions, procedures, laws, and administrative structures that govern a defined territory and its population.

  • Politics: The ongoing conflict, debate, and negotiation over leadership, governmental structure, and specific policies; fundamentally concerned with who gets elected to governing bodies and how power is distributed and exercised.

  • Harold Lasswell's Core Formulation: Politics is classically defined as the struggle over "who gets what, when, and how."

• The Necessity and Role of Government

  • Government provides essential public goods and societal structures that individuals or private entities cannot easily provide for themselves.

  • National Defense: Paramount responsibility of the federal government to protect national territory and security.

  • Maintenance of Public Order: Internal policing, rule of law, and civil protection.

  • Economic Stability: Maintenance of a stable currency, enforcement of contracts, and protection of private property rights.

  • Public Services and Regulations: Local and state services such as fire protection, law enforcement, utility regulation, public health standards, and food safety inspections.

• Government Influence in Daily Life

  • Standardized Time: Federal standard time zones determine morning alarm timing.

  • Utilities and Water: Local public utilities provide municipal water and power (e.g., the City of San Antonio owns its electric utility).

  • Transportation Infrastructure: Surface roads and speed limits are built and enforced by local governments; state and federal partnerships manage interstate highways.

  • Higher Education: Public universities receive state subsidies that reduce tuition costs compared to private institutions, where tuition is typically two to three times higher.

  • Food Safety Standards: Federal inspections (such as beef inspection by national authorities) prevent widespread outbreaks of foodborne illnesses like E. coli.

  • Three Tiers of Government: Power in the United States is structured across National, State, and Local levels.

• Civic Action and Individual Impact

  • A common misconception among citizens across age groups is that an individual or a small group cannot affect policy changes.

  • Montana Student Lawsuit Example: A group of young students in Montana sued the state over environmental pollution, arguing the state failed to exercise sufficient care when issuing new environmental permits. The students successfully won their case in state court.

Systems and Forms of Government

• Types of Governing Structures

  • Autocracy: A form of government in which political power is vested in a single individual (e.g., a monarch, king, queen, emperor, or dictator).

  • Oligarchy: A form of government in which a small, select group of elites holds power (e.g., prominent landowners, military officers, wealthy merchants, or powerful religious leaders).

  • Democracy / Republic: A system of rule where citizens play a significant role in the governmental process, primarily through vesting power in elected representatives.

• Limits on Governmental Power

  • Constitutional Government: A system where formal and effective limits are placed on the powers of the government through a written document (a constitution) approved by the people, featuring procedural checks and balances and protection of individual rights.

  • Authoritarian Government: A system where the government recognizes no formal limits on its power, but may nevertheless be restrained or checked by informal social forces, such as religious institutions or organized social groups.

  • Totalitarian Government: A system where the government recognizes no formal limits on its power and actively seeks to eliminate or absorb all outside social, economic, and political institutions that might challenge its authority.

• Philosophical Foundations and Early Political Thought

  • John Locke: English philosopher who asserted that legitimate government requires the explicit consent of the governed to protect natural individual rights. While theoretical concepts of governance trace back to ancient thinkers like Plato and Aristotle, Locke's principles provided the framework for modern constitutional democracy.

  • John Stuart Mill: English philosopher whose treatise On Liberty emphasized individual liberty and argued that governments should not infringe upon personal freedoms.

  • 18th-Century Commercial Class (Bourgeoisie): Wealthy business owners pushed to limit governmental power in Europe to safeguard economic activity, but did not support inclusive universal democracy.

  • Early Voting Restrictions: Early American democracy limited voting eligibility exclusively to white male property owners. Successful non-property-owning merchants, women, enslaved individuals, and Native Americans were excluded from political participation. Many constitutional framers, including George Washington, held enslaved Black people and supported property qualifications for suffrage.

Forms of Democracy, Direct Action, and Political Participation

• Representative vs. Direct Democracy

  • Representative Democracy (Republic): Citizens do not vote directly on every law or policy; instead, they select representatives (city council members, county commissioners, state legislators, members of the U.S. House of Representatives, and U.S. Senators) to handle daily legislative and governing decisions.

  • Direct Democracy: Systems where citizens vote directly on laws, policies, or constitutional modifications.

• Direct Democracy Mechanisms and Usage

  • Constitutional Amendments: In Texas, direct democracy occurs through voting on state constitutional amendments, of which there are over $550$

  • Initiatives and Referenda: Processes allowing citizens to gather petition signatures to place legislative proposals or official recalls directly on the ballot.

    • California makes extensive use of citizen initiative processes.

    • In $2022$, there were $137$ referenda placed on state ballots across the United States.

    • Texas does not allow statewide ballot initiatives or referenda in its state constitution, though local governments (such as the City of San Antonio) permit local ballot measures.

• Avenues of Political Participation

  • Voting: The most widespread and common form of political engagement.

  • Campaign and Cause Contributions: Donating financial resources directly to political candidates, parties, or advocacy groups.

  • Petitions: Signature-gathering to influence legislative action or qualify independent candidates for ballot placement (qualifying state petitions often requires registered voter status).

  • Direct Advocacy: Attending public municipal meetings, commenting on political forums online, and directly lobbying elected representatives.

  • Campaign Work and Grassroots Mobilization: Volunteering for political campaigns or participating in organized protest marches and public demonstrations.

  • Non-Citizen Participation: Legal citizenship is required for voting and registering to vote, but non-citizens can participate in nearly all other forms of political advocacy (donating, protesting, lobbying, commenting online).

• Pluralism and Direct Action

  • Pluralism (Group Politics): The theoretical concept that public policy is the result of competition among diverse, organized interest groups attempting to influence governmental decisions.

  • Direct Action: Political tactics involving nonviolent civil disobedience (e.g., boycotts, rallies, public marches) or violent confrontations designed to generate media coverage, shock decision-makers, and force changes in public policy or leadership behavior.

Citizenship, Political Knowledge, and Political Efficacy

• Legal Citizenship and Educational Mandates

  • Citizenship: Formal legal status within a political community conferring specific rights, obligations, and the constitutional right to participate in elections.

  • State Educational Requirements: To ensure basic political knowledge, the Texas Legislature mandates that high school seniors complete a course in American Government, and all public higher education students (including community college associate degree candidates) successfully complete courses in both American Government and Texas Politics.

• Current State of Political Knowledge

  • Despite educational mandates, nationwide surveys demonstrate low levels of public political literacy, making the public susceptible to political disinformation and undermining democratic stability.

  • $2021$ Civics Knowledge Survey Statistics:

    • Only ${56}\%$ of surveyed U.S. adults could correctly identify all three branches of the federal government (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial).

    • Only ${35}\%$ of surveyed U.S. adults knew that the term of office for a U.S. Senator is $6\text{ years}$.

• Political Efficacy

  • Definition: The belief that ordinary citizens can influence government decisions and affect public policy outcomes.

  • Historical Decline in Efficacy:

    • In $1960$, only ${25}\%$ ($\frac{1}{4}$) of polled Americans believed that public officials did not care about what ordinary citizens thought.

    • By $2019$, nearly ${75}\%$ ($\frac{3}{4}$) of polled Americans felt that public officials did not care what ordinary citizens thought.

    • In $2019$, ${51}\%$ of respondents disagreed with the proposition that the government is run for the benefit of all people.

• Case Study in Political Efficacy: Midland, Texas Asthma Medication

  • In the early $1990\text{s}$, federal environmental regulators under the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sought to ban specific chemical propellants used in aerosol sprays (like Lysol) to protect the atmospheric ozone layer.

  • The proposed regulatory ban applied to high-propellant inhalers required by individuals suffering from severe asthma.

  • A $12\text{--}\text{year-old}$ girl from Midland, Texas traveled with her mother to give direct public testimony before the FDA regulatory committee, explaining that losing access to that specific delivery mechanism presented a direct threat to her life.

  • The direct testimony convinced regulators to create a specific policy exception permitting the continuation of the necessary asthma medication.

Demographic Evolution of the United States

• Population Growth Statistics

  • $1790$ First U.S. Census: recorded approximately $3,900,000\text{ residents}$ concentrated along the East Coast.

  • $2022$ Population Estimate: recorded approximately $333,000,000\text{ residents}$.

• Racial and Ethnic Shifts

  • $1790$: ${81}\%$ of the population traced their ancestry to Northern Europe and England.

  • $1900$: Increased immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe; Black Americans constituted ${12}\%$ of the total population.

  • $2020$ Census Breakdown:

    • White (non-Hispanic): ${61.6}\%$

    • Hispanic or Latino: ${18.7}\%$

    • Black or African American: ${12.4}\%$ (a proportion that has remained consistent around ${12}\%$ for decades)

    • Asian American: ${6.0}\%$

    • Multiracial (Two or More Races): ${10.0}\%$ (approximately $1\text{ in }10$ citizens)

  • Foreign-Born Population: As of the $2020\text{s}$, ${13.2}\%$ of the U.S. population was born outside the United States.

• Legislative and Legal History of Naturalization and Immigration

  • Naturalization Act of $1790$: Restricted citizenship options exclusively to "free white persons."

  • Fourteenth Amendment ($1868$): Granted constitutional citizenship to formerly enslaved Black Americans following the Civil War.

  • Act of $1870$: Expanded naturalization eligibility to include individuals of African descent, lifting the total ban on non-white naturalization.

  • Chinese Exclusion Act of $1882$: Explicitly banned Chinese laborers from entering the country after thousands had immigrated to construct the Transcontinental Railroad. Bans were not repealed until $1943$

  • Indian Citizenship Act of $1924$: Extended full citizenship rights to Native Americans (who were excluded from personhood counts in the original $1790$ census criteria).

  • Immigration Act of $1924$ (National Origins Quota): Established rigid immigration quotas based on the $1890$ census population, explicitly favoring immigrants from Northern Europe and Great Britain while sharply curtailing immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe.

  • World War II Internment ($1941$): Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, over $100,000$ Japanese Americans were forcibly incarcerated in internment camps. Internment facilities (including a site south of San Antonio, Texas) also held individuals of German and Italian descent.

  • Evolution of Hispanic/Latino Census Classifications:

    • $1930$: Classified as a non-white racial category.

    • $1940$: Reclassified legally as white.

    • $1960$: Latin American immigrants classified as white.

    • $1970$: Introduction of the separate