American Democracy Flashcards

Foundations of American Democracy

Ideals of Democracy

• The U.S. government is based on ideals of limited government, natural rights, popular sovereignty, republicanism, and social contract.

  • Limited government: Restrictions on government power, usually found in a constitution.

  • Natural rights: Rights that people are born with that cannot be infringed upon, including life, liberty, and property (or pursuit of happiness).

  • Popular sovereignty: Consent of the governed.

  • Republicanism: Representative democracy.

  • Social contract: Consent to be governed in return for protection of natural rights.

• These ideals are found in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

Types of Democracy

• Representative democracies can take several forms:

  • Participatory democracy: Emphasizes broad participation in politics and civil society.

  • Pluralist democracy: Recognizes group-based activism by nongovernmental interests striving for impact on political decision making.

  • Elite democracy: Emphasizes limited participation in politics and civil society.

• Foundational documents argue the merits of these types of representative democracies.

  • Federalist 10: Advocates for pluralist democracy to limit factions.

  • Brutus 1: Expresses fear that a powerful central government will result in more elite democracy and limitations to participatory democracy.

  • U.S. Constitution: Contains elements of elite democracy (Electoral College, indirectly elected U.S. Senate) but also participatory democracy.

• The three models of representative democracy continue to be reflected in contemporary institutions and political behavior (e.g., Electoral College, representation, voting, social movements).

Government Power and Individual Rights

• Federalists and Anti-Federalists debated the merits of the U.S. Constitution and the power of the national government.

  • Federalists: Favored the Constitution and a more powerful centralized government.

    • Madison’s arguments in Federalist No. 10 focused on the superiority of a large republic in controlling factions, delegating authority to elected representatives, and dispersing power between the states and national government.

  • Anti-Federalists: Did not favor the Constitution as it was; some wanted a Bill of Rights, others voiced concern about the central government having too much power.

    • Anti-Federalist writings, including Brutus No. 1, adhered to popular democratic theory that emphasized the benefits of a small, decentralized republic while warning of the dangers to personal liberty from a large, centralized government.

Challenges of the Articles of Confederation

• Articles of Confederation: First governing document of the independent U.S. government.

  • Weak central government, no independent executive or judicial branch, hard to amend the constitution (all 13 states unanimous) or make national laws (9 of 13 states, each state getting a vote), unicameral.

• Major drawbacks include:

  • Lack of tax law enforcement power by the national government.

  • Inability to regulate commerce.

  • Lack of national military powers, heightened by events like Shays’ Rebellion.

Ratification of the U.S. Constitution

• Debate at the Constitutional Convention led to compromise on the document.

  • Connecticut Compromise: Combination of the Virginia and New Jersey Plans, creating a bicameral legislature with one chamber based on population and another on equal representation.

  • Electoral College: Debate over the election of the president resulted in the creation of the Electoral College; elites would have a say over the presidential election (in theory).

  • ⅗ Compromise: Representation of the enslaved population resulted in counting enslaved people as ⅗ of population, leading to slave states with disproportionate representation.
    (\frac{3}{5})

  • Compromise on the importation of slaves: Foreign slave trade could not be banned until 1808.

• Debates about self-government during the drafting of the Constitution necessitated the drafting of an amendment process in Article V.

  • It entailed either a two-thirds vote in both houses or a proposal from two-thirds of the state legislatures, with final ratification determined by three-fourths of the states.

• Other examples include voting rights, which were left to the states to decide.

• The debate over the role of the central government, the powers of state governments, and the rights of individuals remains at the heart of present-day constitutional issues about democracy and governmental power.

  • Examples include debates about government surveillance resulting from the federal government’s response to the 9/11 attacks and the role of the federal government in public school education.

Principles of American Government

Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances

• The powers allocated to Congress, the president, and the courts demonstrate the separation of powers and checks and balances features of the Constitution.

• Federalist 51 explains how constitutional provisions of separation of powers and checks and balances control abuses by majorities.

• Separation of powers allows for multiple access points for citizens (i.e., groups can influence/lobby different branches for policy changes).

• Impeachment and removal and other legal actions taken against public officials deemed to have abused their power reflect the purpose of checks and balances.

Relationship Between the States and Federal Government

• The Constitution sets up a federal system of government. Federalism is the sharing of power between the national and state governments. Debate about the extent of national power continues today.

• Powers of the government:

  • Exclusive powers: Powers only for the federal government, like declaring war.

  • Enumerated powers: Powers found in the Constitution for the federal government.

  • Concurrent powers: Powers shared or allowed for both the federal and state governments.

  • Reserved powers: Powers granted to the states or people via the 10th Amendment, not guaranteed to the federal government.

  • Implied powers: Congressional powers beyond enumerated through the necessary and proper clause. Stretches the power of the federal government.

• Shifts in federalism due to societal changes have led to changes in policies.

  • Dual Federalism to Cooperative federalism: separate spheres of power to more sharing of powers

  • Fiscal federalism: use of federal monies to influence policy

  • Categorical grants: federal monies for state governments for specific purposes, strings attached to the money

  • Block grants: federal monies for state governments for broad purposes, less/no strings attached. Welfare example today.

  • Categorical grants could be a federal grant for highway construction, block grants could be for “infrastructure”, allowing states more freedom to decide how money is spent.

  • Unfunded mandates: required by the federal government to do, but not funded by them. Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), No Child Left Behind, and Clean Water Act are all examples of this.

  • Revenue sharing: distribution of tax money to the state government. General revenue sharing discontinued in the 1980s due to high deficits

Constitutional Interpretations of Federalism

• The interpretation of the Tenth and Fourteenth Amendments, the commerce clause, the necessary and proper clause, and other enumerated and implied powers is at the heart of the debate over the balance of power between the national and state governments.

  • Tenth Amendment: Reserved powers to states or people. Limits federal powers.

  • Fourteenth Amendment: Due process and equal protection clauses protect civil liberties and civil rights from the states. Limits state power.

  • Commerce clause: the federal government can regulate interstate commerce. Used to expand federal power.

  • Necessary and Proper clause: Congress implied powers, expands federal power.

• The balance of power between the national and state governments has changed over time based on U.S. Supreme Court interpretation of such cases as:

  • McCulloch v. Maryland (1819): Declared that Congress has implied powers necessary to implement its enumerated powers and established the supremacy of the Constitution and federal laws over state laws.

  • United States v. Lopez (1995): Ruled that Congress may not use the commerce clause to make possession of a gun in a school zone a federal crime, introducing a new phase of federalism that recognized the importance of state sovereignty and local control.

Federalism in Action

• Multiple access points for stakeholders and institutions to influence public policy flows from the allocation of powers between national and state governments. Federal system can create contradictory or inefficient policies. Think about abortion laws or education funding that differ from state to state or challenges to national laws by state governments.

Interactions Among Branches of Government

Congress: The Senate and the House of Representatives

• The Senate represents states equally (2 per state) and serves 6-year terms. The House of Representatives is based on population and serves 2-year terms.

  • Because of differences in size of the chambers, rules on debate, differrs

  • Because of differences in terms, coalitions differ.

• House members tend to represent smaller districts/less people than Senators and can be closer to their constituents

• The enumerated and implied powers in the Constitution allow the creation of public policy by Congress, which includes:

  • Passing a federal budget, raising revenue, and coining money.

  • Declaring war and maintaining the armed forces

  • Enacting legislation that addresses a wide range of economic, environmental, and social issues based on the necessary and proper clause

Structures, Powers, and Functions of Congress

• By design, the different structures, powers, and functions of the Senate and the House of Representatives affect the policy-making process.

  • Senate was seen as the “saucer” that cooled down the more “passionate” House

  • Congress is seen as slower and more deliberate, but the House is “quicker” with making policy

• Though both chambers rely on committees to conduct hearings and debate bills under consideration, different constitutional responsibilities of the House and Senate affect the policy-making process.

  • Standing committees: permanent committees that consider legislation, have oversight power, leadership based on majority party

  • Select committees: tends to be temporary and investigative in nature

  • Conference committees: temporary joint committees between the House and Senate that reconcile differences in a bill.

  • House and Senate differences in constitutional responsibility for example: Senate has confirmation powers, ratify treaties, the House: initiate revenue bills

• Chamber-specific procedures, rules, and roles that impact the policy-making process include:

  • Roles of Speaker of the House, President of the Senate, Senate majority leader, party whips, party leadership, and committee leadership in both chambers

  • Senate: filibuster-unlimited debate that can delay a bill. Cloture: 60 votes needed to end a filibuster (except for judicial nominations, need 51 votes)

  • Hold (delays in voting) and unanimous consent in the Senate

  • Role of House Rules Committee, Committee of the Whole, and discharge petitions (A petition signed by a majority of members of the House of Representatives to bring a bill out of committee and onto the floor for a vote.) in the House

• In general know the bill-making process and how the House and Senate have different roles.

• Congress must generate a budget that addresses both discretionary and mandatory spending, and as entitlement costs grow, discretionary spending opportunities will decrease unless tax revenues increase or the budget deficit increases.

• Pork-barrel legislation and logrolling affect lawmaking in both chambers.

  • Pork-barrel legislation: The use of federal funding to finance localized projects, typically bringing money into a representative’s district in order to please constituents and boost the representative’s chances of winning reelection.

  • Logrolling: When two legislators agree to trade votes for each other’s benefit

Congressional Behavior

• Congressional behavior and governing effectiveness are influenced by:

  • Ideological divisions within Congress that can lead to gridlock or create the need for negotiation and compromise. Divided government, polarization

  • Elections that have led to a divided government, including partisan votes against presidential initiatives and congressional refusal to confirm appointments of “lame-duck” presidents of the opposite party

  • Gerrymandering, redistricting, and unequal representation of constituencies have been partially addressed by the Supreme Court

    • Baker v. Carr: opened the door to equal protection challenges to redistricting and started the “one person, one vote” doctrine

    • Shaw v. Reno: no-racial-gerrymandering decision

  • Different role conceptions of “trustee,” “delegate,” and “politico” as related to constituent accountability in each chamber

    • Trustee: A member of Congress who takes into account the views of their constituents and use their own judgment to decide how to vote.

    • Delegate: A member of Congress who always follows their constituents’ voting preferences.

    • Politico: A member of Congress who acts as a delegate on issues that their constituents care about, and as a trustee on issues that their constituents don’t care about.

Roles and Powers of the President

• The Framers of the Constitution wanted to ensure that the executive branch was powerful enough to act, and so in Article II of the US Constitution, they established that executive power in the United States is vested in a president, who has certain powers. Head of State and Head of Government

• Formal powers of the president, The powers of the president outlined in Article II include:

  • Vetoes and pocket vetoes—formal powers that enable the president to check Congress

  • Foreign policy formal (commander-in-chief and treaties)

  • Grant reprieves and pardons for federal offenses (except impeachment)

  • Nominate ambassadors (with Senate confirmation) and receive ambassadors

  • Nominate federal judges (with Senate confirmation)

  • State of the Union to Congress

• Informal powers: Not listed in U.S. Constitution, include

  • Executive agreements: Agreements with heads of foreign governments that are not ratified by the Senate

  • Bargaining and persuasion: working with Congress on legislation and their priorities

  • Executive orders—A presidential order to the executive branch that carries the force of law. Allows president to manage the federal government

  • Signing statements—informs Congress and the public of the president’s interpretation of laws passed by Congress and signed by the president

Checks on the Presidency

• Checks on the executive branch to prevent too much power in the presidency. Has created conflict between executive and legislative branch.

  • Judicial Branch: Courts can rule executive action/orders unconstitutional

  • Senate Checks

    • confirm presidential nominations to Cabinet and other government departments, but not the White House Staff (like Chief of Staff or Press Secretary)

    • Ratification of treaties

    • Confirmation of judicial nominations

    • Confirmation of ambassadors

  • Congressional checks include overriding vetoes, Power of the Purse, legislative oversight, and impeachment and removal from office.

    • House votes on impeachment procedures (simple majority vote), Senate votes to remove (⅔ vote).

• Senate confirmation is an important check on appointment powers, but the president’s longest lasting influence lies in life-tenured judicial appointments.

• Policy initiatives and executive orders promoted by the president often lead to conflict with the congressional agenda.

Expansion of Presidential Power

• Justifications for a single executive are set forth in Federalist No. 70.

  • Hamilton argues that a single executive (led by one person as president) is the best form for the executive branch of the United States. He reasons that one president can act more quickly, and with more secrecy when necessary, than a larger group of leaders. He also argues that a single executive is less dangerous to democracy than a council, because it is easier to identify and remove one corrupt person than to discover who among several leaders is a bad actor. The energetic executive

• Term-of-office and constitutional-power restrictions, including the passage of the Twenty-Second Amendment (president can only serve 2 terms), demonstrate changing presidential roles.

• War Powers Act: Also called the War Powers Resolution, the War Powers Act limits the president’s power to deploy US armed forces. Every president since Nixon has contested the War Powers Act as an infringement of their role as Commander in Chief of the armed forces

• Different perspectives on the presidential role, ranging from a limited to a more expansive interpretation and use of power, continue to be debated in the context of contemporary events.

Presidential Communication

• Advances in communication technology have changed the president’s relationship both with other branches of government and with the electorate, increasing presidential influence over the legislative agenda

• Presidents have leveraged changes in communication technology to enhance their power by appealing directly to the American public. For example, Franklin D. Roosevelt broadcast his fireside chats over the radio, keeping the public informed of his policy goals aimed at righting the economy after the Great Depression. In the twenty-first century, presidents have used social media to reach large audiences of Americans and to respond rapidly to political issues.

• The State of the Union is an opportunity for presidents to inform Congress and the American public of policy goals, and to signal which legislation they may veto.

• Use of the Bully pulpit: president’s use of media coverage to promote an agenda directly to the American public.

The Judicial Branch

• The design of the judicial branch protects the Supreme Court’s independence as a branch of government. The Supreme Court wields the power of judicial review to check the actions of the other branches of government

• The foundation for powers of the judicial branch and how its independence checks the power of other institutions and state governments are set forth in:

  • Article III of the Constitution: Establishes the judicial branch of the US government. It explicitly created one Supreme Court, but gives Congress the power to create all other inferior courts. Article III guarantees judicial independence by granting lifetime appointments for justices and preventing Congress from lowering the salaries of sitting justices

  • Federalist 78: Hamilton describes the proposed form for the new government’s judicial branch. He argues that judges should serve for life pending good behavior to ensure judicial independence, and that the judicial branch will be the “least dangerous” branch of government since it can neither wage war nor collect taxes. Hamilton also provides an early argument for the power of judicial review, stating that the courts’ duty is “to declare all acts contrary to . . . the Constitution void.”

  • Marbury v. Madison (1803): An early Supreme Court case that affirmed the Court’s power of judicial review by striking down a law made by Congress as unconstitutional. In his written opinion, Chief Justice John Marshall declared that “an act of the legislature repugnant to the Constitution is void.”

Legitimacy of the Judicial Branch

• Precedents and stare decisis play an important role in judicial decision making.

  • Precedent: A legal decision that establishes a rule for similar cases going forward.

  • Stare decisis: The principle of making legal decisions based on past precedents. From the Latin for “let the decision stand.”

• Ideological changes in the composition of the Supreme Court due to presidential appointments have led to the Court’s establishing new or rejecting existing precedents.

• Presidents appoint judges who share similar ideological viewpoints a majority of the time. Since judges serve for life and long after a president leaves office, they can continue a president’s agenda long after the president has left office.

The Court in Action

• When the Supreme Court's decisions are controversial or unpopular, the other branches may question the Court's legitimacy and take actions to curb its influence.

• Controversial or unpopular court decisions can lead to challenges to the court’s legitimacy and power that Congress and the president can address only through future appointments, legislation changing the Court’s jurisdiction, or refusing to implement decisions

Checks on the Judicial Branch

• Two key characteristics of the Supreme Court—its practice of judicial review, and its justices’ life tenure—can lead to debate over the legitimacy of the Court’s power, as well as attempts by the other branches to challenge and limit that power.

• Restrictions on the Supreme Court are represented by:

  • Congressional legislation to modify the impact of prior Supreme Court decisions

  • Constitutional amendments

  • Judicial appointments and confirmations

  • The president and states evading or ignoring Supreme Court decisions

  • Legislation impacting court jurisdiction

• Political discussion about the Supreme Court’s power is illustrated by the ongoing debate over judicial activism versus judicial restraint

  • Some justices favor a policy of judicial restraint, viewing their role as strict interpreters of precedent and the Constitution, and deferring decisions that impact policymaking to the other, elected branches of government

  • Other justices believe in judicial activism: that the Court should be bolder in upholding rights that may not be explicitly stated in the Constitution, and in striking down legislation that infringes those rights.

The Bureaucracy

• The bureaucracy carries out the responsibilities of the federal government. The merit system, in which bureaucrats are hired and promoted based on their skills rather than their political connections, has enhanced the effectiveness of the bureaucracy

• Political patronage, civil service, and merit system reforms all impact the effectiveness of the bureaucracy by promoting professionalism, specialization, and neutrality

• The bureaucracy is nonpartisan and career civil servants tend to span many presidential administrations, allowing for continuity in the public sector.

• Tasks performed by departments, agencies, commissions, and government corporations are represented by:

  • Writing and enforcing regulation

  • Issuing fines

  • Testifying before Congress

  • Issue networks and “iron triangles”

Discretionary and Rule-Making Authority

• After the president signs a bill into law or issues an executive order, the federal bureaucracy is responsible for implementing that policy. Laws may lack clear, concrete details on how they should be enacted, so the federal bureaucracy has discretionary authority to make decisions on what actions to take—or not take—when implementing laws

  • Discretionary authority: An agency’s ability to decide whether or not to take certain courses of action when implementing existing laws

• Bureaucracy also has rulemaking authority to create regulations about how government programs should operate.

  • Rule-making: An agency’s ability to make rules that affect how programs operate, and to force states and corporations to obey these rules as if they were laws

• Departments or Agencies to know:

  • Department of Homeland Security

  • Department of Transportation

  • Department of Veterans Affairs

  • Department of Education

  • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

  • Federal Elections Commission (FEC)

  • Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Holding the Bureaucracy Accountable

• Oversight and methods used by Congress to ensure that legislation is implemented as intended are represented by:

  • Committee hearings (oversight)

  • Power of the purse

• As a means to curtail the use of presidential power, congressional oversight serves as a check of executive authorization and appropriation.

• Presidential ideology, authority, and influence affect how executive branch agencies carry out the goals of the administration. (Executive orders)

• Compliance monitoring can pose a challenge to policy implementation.

Policy and the Branches of Government

• Each branch of the government has different powers, structures, and functions by design. Congress comprises the House of Representatives (designed to represent the population) and the Senate (designed to represent the states equally), each of which is affected by chamber-specific rules and election processes. The power of the presidency has expanded over time, and the president uses both formal and informal powers to implement their policy agenda. The judicial branch exercises the power of judicial review to determine the constitutionality of the acts of the other branches and of state governments

• Competing policymaking interests

  • The interactions between the branches are complex by design. Congress, the executive branch (including the bureaucracy), and the judiciary must both compete and cooperate in order to enact policy. The implementation process is likewise difficult, as each branch must struggle to maintain the accountability of a vast federal bureaucracy charged with putting policy into action.

Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

The Bill of Rights

• The U.S. Constitution includes a Bill of Rights specifically designed to protect individual liberties and rights.

  • Bill of Rights: First ten amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Includes freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, right to bear arms, and rights of the accused.

  • The application of the Bill of Rights is continuously interpreted by the courts. What constitutes speech? Freedom of religion, what is an unreasonable search, etc.

• Civil liberties are constitutionally established guarantees and freedoms that protect citizens, opinions, and property against arbitrary government interference.

First Amendment: Freedom of Religion

• The interpretation and application of the First Amendment’s establishment and free exercise clauses reflect an ongoing debate over balancing majoritarian religious practice and free exercise

  • Establishment Clause: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” This prevents the federal government from supporting an official religion.

  • Free Exercise Clause: prevents the federal government from interfering with its citizens’ religious beliefs and practices. The Supreme Court has upheld some limits on religious practices that conflict with secular laws, such as religious drug use or polygamy.

• Required Supreme Court cases dealing with freedom of religion

  • Engel v. Vitale (1962): Declared school sponsorship of religious activities/prayer violates the establishment clause

  • Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972): Held that compelling Amish students to attend school past the eighth grade violates the free exercise clause

First Amendment: Freedom of Speech

• The Supreme Court has held that symbolic speech is protected by the First Amendment, as seen in required in court case

  • Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969): In which the court ruled that public school students could wear black armbands in school to protest the Vietnam War.

• Efforts to balance social order and individual freedom are reflected in interpretations of the First Amendment that limit speech, including

  • Time, place, and manner regulations

  • Defamatory, offensive, and obscene statements and gestures

  • Schenck v. United States (1919): required court case, speech that creates a “clear and present danger” can be limited

First Amendment: Freedom of the Press

• In New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), the Supreme Court bolstered the freedom of the press, establishing a “heavy presumption against prior restraint” even in cases involving national security.

  • Prior restraint: Government censorship of free expression by preventing publication or speech before it takes place. Courts will likely protect media freedom of press.

Second Amendment: Right to Bear Arms

• Second Amendment: the right to bear arms

• In both District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and McDonald v. Chicago (2010), the Supreme Court struck down laws that placed restrictions on gun ownership. The majority in both cases argued that gun control legislation gave the government too much power and violated individual liberties.

• The current Supreme Court has been consistent in its commitment to individual liberty, upholding an individual’s right to own a gun with little to no government interference.

Amendments: Balancing Individual Freedom with Public Order and Safety

• Court decisions defining cruel and unusual punishment involve interpretation of the Eighth Amendment and its application to state death penalty statutes.

  • Eighth Amendment: Protects individuals from the government enforcing excessive bails or fines, or from inflicting cruel and unusual punishment.

• The debate about the Second and Fourth Amendments involves concerns about public safety and whether or not the government regulation of firearms or collection of digital metadata promotes or interferes with public safety and individual rights.

  • Fourth Amendment: Protects individuals’ homes, persons, and belongings from unreasonable search and seizure.

• In general balance between liberty and security has been challenged by laws and executive action

Selective Incorporation

• Selective Incorporation: Supreme Court applies the provisions of the Bill of Rights (which are the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution) to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

• Using the doctrine of selective incorporation, the Supreme Court has ruled that many provisions of the Bill of Rights apply to the states. This represents a limiting of state power by federal oversight; any state attempt to regulate individual rights could potentially be ruled unconstitutional by the Court.

• Not every right or provision of the Bill of Rights has been incorporated to the states

Amendments: Due Process and the Rights of the Accused

• The Court has on occasion ruled in favor of states’ power to restrict individual liberty, as, for example, when speech can be shown to increase the danger to public safety.

• Due Process Clause: In the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments that limit the power of the government to deny people “life, liberty, or property” without fully respecting their legal rights and the correct legal procedure

• Miranda Rights: A requirement that law enforcement officers inform a person subject to an interrogation of their right not to incriminate themselves under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments; created after the decision in Miranda v. Arizona (1966).

• Pretrial rights of the accused and the prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures are intended to ensure that citizen liberties are not eclipsed by the need for social order and security, including:

  • The right to legal counsel, speedy and public trial, and an impartial jury

• The due process clause has been applied to guarantee the right to an attorney and protection from unreasonable searches and seizures, as represented by:

  • Gideon v. Wainwright (1963): guaranteed the right to an attorney for the poor or indigent (incorporated to the states)

  • Exclusionary Rule: A requirement that any evidence found during an illegal search or seizure cannot be used to try someone for a crime. Incorporated in Mapp v. Ohio

Amendments: Due Process and the Right to Privacy

• While a right to privacy is not explicitly named in the Constitution, the court has interpreted the due process clause to protect the right of privacy from state infringement. This interpretation of the due process clause has been the subject of controversy.

  • Roe v. Wade

Social Movements and Equal Protection

• Movements for civil rights and social equality for African Americans, women, LGBTQ people, and other groups have based their challenges to discriminatory practices on the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

• Civil rights: Rights of individuals against discrimination based on race, national origin, religion, sex, ability, sexual orientation, age, or pregnancy.

• The leadership and events associated with civil, women’s, and LGBT rights are evidence of how the equal protection clause can support and motivate social movements, as represented by:

  • Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and the civil rights movement of the 1960s

  • The National Organization for Women and the women’s rights movement

  • The pro-life (anti-abortion) movement

Government Responses to Social Movements

• The government can respond to social movements through court rulings and/ or policies.

  • Court rulings include

    • Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which declared that race-based school segregation violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause

  • Legislative action includes

    • The Civil Rights Act of 1964: Legislation barring discrimination in public accommodations

    • Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972: A provision of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prevents schools and universities receiving federal funding from discriminating against female students

    • The Voting Rights Act of 1965: Legislation prohibiting racial discrimination in voting, including the use of literacy tests

  • Presidential action:

    • Executive orders to desegregate the military, rescind “don’t ask, don’t tell”

Balancing Minority and Majority Rights

• Decisions demonstrating that minority rights have been restricted at times and protected at other times include:

  • State laws and Supreme Court holdings restricting African-American access to the same restaurants, hotels, schools, etc., as the majority white population based on the “separate but equal” doctrine. Plessy v. Ferguson

  • Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which declared that race-based school segregation violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause

  • The Supreme Court upholding the rights of the majority in cases that limit and prohibit majority-minority districting.

Affirmative Action

• Affirmative Action: Efforts to improve opportunities for underrepresented or disadvantaged groups, especially in relation to employment or education.

• In the 1960s, the executive branch began calling for the use of affirmative action in hiring practices and admission processes to help create equal opportunities for members of disadvantaged groups

• Since then, the Supreme Court has ruled on several cases relating to the constitutionality of affirmative action. These decisions highlight the debate between justices about the constitutionality of racial classifications to help minorities. At times, the Supreme Court has upheld affirmative action practices, while at other times it has struck them down.

American Political Ideologies and Beliefs

American Attitudes About Government and Politics

• Different interpretations of core values, including individualism, equality of opportunity, free enterprise, rule of law, and limited government, affect the relationship between citizens and the federal government and that citizens have with each other.

  • Equality of opportunity

  • Individualism: the belief that individuals should be responsible for themselves and for the decisions they make

  • Free enterprise: laissez-faire, capitalism, less gov’t restrictions on business

  • Rule of law: no one is above the law, transparency, equal application of the law

  • Limited government: A principle of constitutional government; a government whose powers are defined and limited by a constitution.

• Different ideologies and political values can define and interpret differently these core values.

Political Socialization

• Political socialization: process by which a person develops political values and beliefs

  • Factors include: Family, schools, peers, media, and social environments (including civic and religious organizations)

  • Globalization: resulted in U.S. political culture both influenced and been influenced by the values of other countries

Changes in Ideology

• Generational and life cycle effects also contribute to the political socialization that influences an individual’s political attitudes..

  • Generational effects derive from common experiences shared by a portion of the population that came of age at the same time. Think of your generation and the pandemic.

  • Life-cycle effects: describe the changes in one person’s life as they age, marry, have children, buy a home, or retire. Different events in one life might influence political beliefs.

Influence of Political Events on Ideology

• The relative importance of major political events to the development of individual political attitudes is an example of political socialization

  • Political events can strongly influence an individual's ideology, in both the short- and long-term..

Measuring Public Opinion

• Public opinion data can impact elections and policy debate

• Types of polls

  • Tracking polls: track public opinion over time

  • Exit polls/entrance polls: polls on election day about votes, helps predict outcome and helps with demographic voting habits.

  • Focus groups: smaller groups that are asked more in-depth questions.

  • Benchmark polls: often used by candidates when running for office to see where they stand.

• Scientific polling requires the following

  • Random sampling

  • Representative sample; usually between 400-2000 people and of course random

  • Proper wording and question order: don’t want to push respondents to an answer

Evaluating Public Opinion Data

• Public