Classical liberalism and theory

Liberal governmenr- government by the people for their individual and collective benefit

Locke: indv have "natural rights" to life, liberty, and property

·    Also argues that we have an obligation to care for others but govt should be limites

·    Adam smith (wealth of nations) echoes this philoshopy

John stuart Mill argeus that govt shouls also promote social justice and poses a good pt

·    Inequality is a function of the development of societies

·    Suggest that maybe lockee is right about some thins not eveyrhting

Modern Liberalism

·     Based on human reason in establishing vsion of "good" public policy and governence

o   Deals with Mills critique: limits to a limited governence 

Roussau and modern liberalism

·     Suggests a more community-based approach

o   Govt should promotre equality and freedom (both are relative)

o   Positive freedom - freedom to act within societal  boundaries

o   Public policy is best determined by community involvement in government

General Will- a

Immanuel Kant

·    Suggest there is a religious element to political philosophy

o  Human understanding is not uniform and that may apply to Locke's thoughts about the socual contact

Three reasons

·    A creator (god)

·    Human uniqueness in a social system

·    Role of science in a society and an evolving general will

John Rawls

·    Justice as fairness: individuals seek their private interests while preserving the rights of others freedom to maximize benefits too

o  Equal representation

·    Everyone should be able to gain and benefit from the social contract theory

A third way?

COMMUNITARIANISM

·       Egalitarian view of groups whintin a the larger u.s context

·       Finf that loack e is idealistics and its hard to conform to an orthodox version

LEC 2

American Bueracracy and interest groups

Bureaucracy

• Mostly under exec branch

Interest groups

• Private interest

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

4:24 PM

Crash Course In Civics and Federalism

The evolution of the American Presidency

• Framer's design for a limited executive

• Qualifications and conditions for the presidency

  • Chosen by electoral college (modified by twelfth-amendment)

  • Natural-born citizen; resident 14yrs

  • At least 35 yrs old

  • Vice president after death/incapacitated/impeachment/ resign (20th and 25th amendment)

  • Removal form office by house and senate

    • High crimes and misdemeanors

Federalism

The federalist papers

• Separation of powers

• Clear delination of powers

• Centralized gov

• Basic rights to citizens at federal level

The Supreme Court (SCOTUS)

-9 members

-appointed by president

• Confirmed by senate

Only hear limited amount of cases per year

Federalism- the concept of where fovenrmental powers are spilt into level

Dual federalism: national and state gov responsible for separate policy areas

• "layer cake": model of federalism

  • Ideal model before The New Deal (1930s)

The double expectations

Head of state vs. head of govt

Head of state: the apolitical, unifying role of the president as symbolic representative fo the whole  country

Head of Gov: the political role of the president as leader of a political and chief arbiter of who gets what resources

• Must please party, broker delas, work to pass legislation

• Most nations separate these roles so that symbolic duties won't be contaminates by politics

Cooperative federalism: national and state governments share responsibleiltes for most domestic policy areas

• No ending of jurisdiction

• "marble cake: model of federalism

  • Model after 1930s

Issues: no action is aciton

• Difficult to assess who should be responsible for issues

The changing balance: federalism overtime

• Because founder's disagreement over how power should be distributed, the final wording about naitonal and state powers was kept vague intentially

• It wsn't clear how much power different levels hels, it has been possible ever since for both federalist and state's right advocates to find support for their positions in the docu ment

………more

How bill becomes a law

Bill introduces -> committee and subcommittee consider bill -> house and senate consider bill and vote -> confrence committee resolves any differences -> bills pass both houses -> president signs or vetoes bill

• Filibuster can pause train

The politics of cintemory federalism

Devolution: the transfer of powers and responsibilites from federal gov to the states

• Trend late 80's- early 90s

• Most says died after 9/11

Congress continues to try to influence state policy bc it was beneficial politically

Checks and Balances…Congress and the President

• Congress passes bills; president signs or vetos

• President's state of the Union adress formulates policy

• President eecutes laes and is in charge of administrating exec branch; congress excercises oversight of exec branch activities (epa

• President appoints cabitnets; ambassadors, judges to federal courts; senate has "advise and consent" role

• President represents national constituentcy congress represents district or state consituentiec

Congress makes the laws; courts interprests them

Congress sets up lower federal courts-> determines salaries

……More neded

Quiz 1 topics

• Syllubu

• Public polsicy and philoshopy

• Crash course in civics

• Federalism??

2pt two philoshopers in the modern liberals?

• Kant

• Rawls

• Mills

5pt Where would we see locke social contract in govt today

• Define: social contract

• Then example

How do values affect politcs

• Interests

• Different prioties

• Political socailization affects what you think abt the govt

Executive

• Bureaucracies

Majority leader sen

Thune

Minority sen

IGR continued

IGR continued

Values

Buercracy

Lect and class

Challenger

LEC 4

What is Bureaucracy

• An organization characterized by hierarchal structure, explicit rules, and advancement by merit

• Goal is neutral competence: the principle that bureaucracy should be depoliticized by making it more professional 

• Classic definition form maz weber highlights

  • Hicharcy : clear chain of command and responisbilty

  • Specialization: tasks divided by expertise

  • Explicit rriles: rules rather than preferences govern decsions have standardization predictibilty

  • Merit: hiring based on exams and experience nto politcs

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

4:19 PM

Government structure, federalism, and congress

Values of state cultures:

Moralistic cultures

• Policies that focus on collective good

  • Community

  • Horizonal strategy

  • Encourage participate

• California

• New England

• Higher voter turnout

Individualistic

• Economic rights.   - individual freedoms

• Basic rights

• Cynicism toward govt

• Hard to sue landlords (IND)

• Low voter turnout

Tranditionalistic

• Social order

• Stratified (elitsim)

  • Political familes Texas family

• Stagnated structure

• Low community participation some more than others

• Southern states

How do rights conflict?

1.) through individuals (

• Going to the courts to solve can be too permanent

• Executive order \

• Interest groups

2.) individual rights vs the good of society

Civic Engagement and social captial

• Civic engagement: how individuals participate and engage civic and governmental activities

• Social capital- how we measure civic engament, political activity, social trust, and connectdness to sociopolitical systems

Economics and societal change

Materialist- those who are interest in their own individual economic benefits

Post materialist- those who are interested in societal issues such as quality of life  as social and economic fairness

Advanced economies: tend to move towards post-materialism

Technocracy: government by experts post-materialist value expert opinion

Corporatism-public (funded by government to exeent stock)

and private (driven by its stock value)

DO values change over time

• Yes, and when you were born might dictate this

• Political socailization: how an individual is conditioned to think about politics but this isnt the whole reason why you hold values but may dictate how you feel about them

Sources of values (NEED TO FINISH NOTES)

• Gender

  • Gender gap

  • Marriage gap

• Race and ethnicity

• Age

• Education

• Partissanship

• religion

LEC 5

Who are the federal buercrats

• Rank and file members of agencies and dept not dep or agancy heads

• Usually reflect public accuratlu

• Countless employees because we have more than 500 bureaucracies entities in the U.S

Thursday, January 30, 2025

4:24 PM

Bureaucracy, interest groups, and agenda setting

Organization of the federal bureaucracy

Departments: major subdivision of the federal government represented in the president cabinet d

 Ex: sec of defense, homeland security (15 divisions )

Independent agencies: government organizations independent of the department but with narrower policy focus

E.g: EPA, CIA, Peace corps (humanitarian aid)

Organization of the federal bureaucracy

• Independent regulatory boards and commisions: gov org that regulate various businesses, industries, or economic secotrs

  • FDA, FCC, National Labor relations board

• Government corporation: companies created by congress to provide goods or services to the public that private enterprise cannot or will not provide profitably

  • Amtrak, Postal service, FDIC

Politics inside the bureaucracy

• Bureaucratic culture: the accepted values and procedures of an org

• Policy commitment

  • Believe agency issue is most critical facing country

• Bureaucrats speak bureaucrats and defer to authority

• Specialization and expertise

  • Know more about policy than politicans and public

• Identify with agency

  • Commites to and protective of agency

• Consequenses of B culture

Positive: commitment helps agancy make policy

Negative: resistant to suggestions od change even to the exent of covering up problems- Challenger

Whistle blowers are often the only check against these negatives

Presidential appointees vs career civil servants

• Conflicting agendas

  • "true believers" in agency's mission may conflict if appountees ideology is different

• Conflicting time frames

  • Appointees have short term- outlook so civil servants can just wait until appointee leaves office

• Presidents often start new agency rather than change existing one

Rules of Bureaucracy

• As administrator

  • Implement laws passed by congress

• Bureaucracy as rule maker

  • Congress relies on bureaucratic discretion

• Bureaucracy as judge

  • Interrupts laws within dept or agency

External Bureactic politics

• Interagency politics: competition btw agencies for budget and resources

• Constituency building

  • Build groups of supporters in public and congress

• Guarding the turf

  • Guard own programs and

3And the president

• Appointment power

  • Appoint heads and nect layers of departments

• Budget proposal

  • Omb can cut a dept budget

• Presidential veto agnecy funding

• Power of persuasion

3

And the courts

• Many deal with cases against agencies or dept but rare

• Congress protects agencies and dept from courts

• B rules hinder speedy resolution in court

Iron triangle

• Iron triangles

  • Alliance of congressional committes, interest groups and agencies working together for mutual benefit

  • Issue networks: more complex relationsho

  • \

• Congress controls bueracracy through committes tha hav influence b responds

LEC 6

Citizens and interest groups

• Pluralist argue that interest groups are great equalizing force in American politics

• Elitist suggest interest group resource advantages )money staff) mean interest groups skew toward wealthy

• Equalizing positions of groups depends on citizens being wiling to participate (grassroots org)

• May argue that interest groups are so popular because they can achieve progress much more quickly than political parties because interest groups need to fixes only one issue

• Free-rider problem

Types of interest groups

• Econmic interst groups: organize to influence government policy for the benefit of members

  • Corporations and business associations

    • Nat aso of manufactureres, chamber of commerce, tobacco institute

• Unions and professional associations

  • Afl-cio team

• NOT FINISHES

• Public interest groups: org to influence govt to produce collective goods or services that benefit the general public

  • Environmental groups '

    • Sierra club, Greenpeace

  • Consumer groups

    • Public citizen consumers union

  • Religious groups

    • Christian coalition, anti defamation league

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

4:26 PM

Interest groups, and agenda setting

Iron triangles

• Alliance of congressional committees, interest groups, and agencies working together for mutual benefit

Issue networks: more complex relationships

• Congress controls bureaucracy through committees that have influence and bureaucracy responds

Direct lobbying: congress

Stragies for congressional lobbying

• Personal contacts

• Campaign contributions

  • PACs: recent regulation and loopholes

• Use of professional lobbyists

  • Revolving door: tendency of public officials, journalist and lobbyist to move btw public and private sector

• Providing expert testimony

  • Accurate information to congress

The president

• Target president and executive office os the white house

• Office of public liaison

• Revolving door exists here, as well

The bureaucracy

• Lobby to get laws implemented favorably

• Strong relationship with regulators and private sector

• Iron triangles

The judiciary

• Lawsuits and amicus curiae briefs

Roles of interest groups

Represent specific public interest

• Lobbying: interest group activities aimed at persuading policymakers to support the group's positions

  • Participation

  • Education

  • Agenda building

    • Goals, defined community,

  • Provision of program alternatives

  • Program monitoring

    • Fix issues that hurt them directly

Interest group resources

Money

• Needed to purchase

  • Staff

  • Professional assistance

• Also needed to make campaign contributions

  • PACs limited to donated 5k per primary and general election campaign

  • Pac spending continues to increase faster than inflation

  • Mos PAC donations fo to incumbents (79%)

  • Most spending goes to incumbents and committee members

  • Contribution buy access , not necessarily votes

Leadership

• Effective leaderhsip can offset other resouse disadvantages )money influence

Membership size: size and intensity

• Larger groups generally have advatages (AARP)

• Intensity can make up for lack of numbers (NRA)

• BEST Possible situation to have both

Information

• Can defeat powerful interest with solid information

• EDUCATE THE PUBLIC

*maybe on test

• Expertise on specific issues

  • Politician may not know as much

• NRA, AARP

Formation of interest groups

• Common problem or threat

• Resource advantages

• Effective leadership

  • Cesar Chavez, ralph Nader, candy Lightner

Agenda setting

• The first step of the polciy process

• In order to get anything done you need to get your ideas on the agenda

• The agensa is what the most important policy problems that need to be addressed and acted on

Current topics

• Immigration, tariffs, DEI, dep of education, aid

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

4:22 PM

Constitutionalism- narrow legal reasoning that steered the courts away from policy

Judicial positivism- legal reasoning to determine substantive meaning and outcome of policy

• Things that may become policy

Legal precedent- usining the past to determine legal outcomes

• Courts are not immune to public oppion, even though we like to think of them that way

Sometimes the court decide larger cases that define policy

• Planned parenthood vs casey (1990)

• Obergefell v. hodges (2015)

Agenda Setting

• First step of the policy process

To get anyhting done

• Have to get it on the agenda

  • Agenda: what is the most important policy problems that need to be addressed and acted on

    • What topics are currently on the agedly? -> widely discussed

John Kindon's "garbage can model"

Problem stream- policy problems where some are more likely to be solved than others

Policy stream- a series of solutions to the problems

Politics stream- where policy and problem stream combine

Focusing event- where streams combine

• Somebody dies on interstate

• Bridge collapse

• Cannot be ignored

Policy window- when policymakers realize ther's a point where a policy problem can be on the agenda

• So when policy does get on agenda

  • Solution is often moisture that emerges from this garbage can

  • Haphazard solution at best

Pressure groups and agenda setting

Well organized groups that aggressively attract members

• They raise a lot of money and are organized

• Think tanks can advocate on their behalf

Public interest groups

• They lobby congress

• Lobbying is not corrupt

  • Anyone can do it but most of the time money = more access

  • Reform?

Bureaucracy and agenda setting

• Tasked with taking the law and interpreting and execting it

• Bureacracy falls under the executive branck

Conservers

The goal is neutral competence and that your agency is most important

• Once something is politized = hard to get unpolitical 

President as an agenda setter

FILL IN SLIDE

Congress and agenda setting

535 members of congress

• 100 senators

• 435 REP

Congressional agenda setting comes from a number of places

• Committee chairs

• Parties in majority/ minority

• Congressional leaderships

• Cauceses

  • Freedom

Divided gov can impact the success or failures of policy

Lec 8

What is the future of the internet

• Probably somewhere in between

• Isp;s have been known to speed up and slow down internet when there is competition

  • Google fiber vs comcast kansas city

• ISPs also been known to use lawsuits to tie ip the process of internet distribution

  • Chattanooga vs comcast

• Comast in a potential merger with time warner would relinquish subsicrbers to a thierd party in certain areas of the county so they wouldn't be monoploy

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

4:31 PM

The role of regulators

• There has been a lot of research on regulators and where they come from and what they do

• Regulators often think short term

• Regulators are no always from the same industry which has its benefits and drawbacks

• Seen as a stepping stone for larger positions

• Can be used as a reward for support

  • Obama ambassadors to smaller nations

EXAM Review

Regulation: the case of net neutrality

• Idea that you can access internet websites without interference from your internet service provider

• Stance of the FCC on this issue has changed many times

  • Tom wheeler's approach

How net neutality and internet policy has changed

• Before 2013, the head of FCC was someone who has not been involved in the communication industry

  • Obama's selection of tom wheeler's was the first to be involved I the sector

  • Ajit Pai was a lawyer of Verizon

• Classification of the internet as a utility

  • Wheeler put a process in motion, Pai has since ended this movement

  • Much of this argument is one that illustrates that congress knowledge of this field is limited

  • Also illustrates that is a private entity lobbies a commission they can benefit

What are the argument about the internet as a utlity

• The internet is treated as a luxury , when in relaity it might be a neccesity

• There is a limited competition btw ISPs which means that prices never change and companies could raise them if they want

• This requires a public/ private relationship because much of the internet infrastructure is privately owned

• Regulation is needed to help curb policies by private industries that might throttle internet traffic because there are times where is ISPs compete with web traffic while also supplying it

• Itner is best self regulated by the private industries

The orgins of American Federalism

• The federalist papers

Ideas of paper:

• Separation of powers

  • Exec, legislative, judicial

• Clear delineation of powers

• Centralized government

  • Needed so o

• Basic rights to citizens at federal level

  • Natural rights

  • Bill of Rights

The politics of contempory federalism

Devolutions: the transfer of powers and responibilites from the federal government to the states.

• Late 1980s-90s

• Most agree dies after 9/11

• Congress continues to try to influence state policy because it is beneficial politically

The politics of contempoary federalism, cont'd

• Congress influences sate policy by:

  • No national government influence (no funding)

  • Categorical grants

    • Strict ways states can use money  given by fed gov

  • Block grants

    • Money given under general idea

    • States are able to use money however under gen idea

  • Unfunded mandates

    • Federal gov creates laws with no money to states

• The desire for devolution has not died away, but its fate is unclear because issues favor federal government

• Terrorism

• Social issues

  • Same-sex marriage

  • Abortion

• Recession

  • Federal-spending increases

Two views of federalism

Federalism: the concept of where governmental powers are split into levels

Dual federalism: national and state governments responsible for separate policy

• Layer cake: model of federalism

• Model prior to the New Deal Era

Cooperative federalism: national and state governments share responsibilities for most domestic policy areas

• Marble cake: model of federalism

• Model after 1930s

The Changing balance

Federalism over time:

• Founder's disgreement over how power should be distributed, the final word

  • Btw national/state kep

    t vague

• Wasn’t clear how much power different levels held, it has been possible ever since for both federalists and state's rights adivcated to find support for their positions in the document

Two current trends:

• Government is growing at federal and state levels

• Gradual strengthen of federal govt at expense of states

Intergovernmental relations, and how the government interacts with itself

• Definition: focus of attention on the challenges of policy-making and implementation

• Policy Standards and rescoures: usually are money, but they can be other things that are distributed

• Professionalism: the knowledge skills and abilities of people that work in public plocy and public agences. Variations have effects in the success of polices being made

• Agency cultue- similar to bureaucracy where there are nroms and informal rules that affect decsion makings

IGR continued

• Socioeconmic concerns can affect policies

Political cultures

• Moralistic

• Individualistic

• Traditionalistic