Chapter 1

American Government

Chapter 1 The Study of Government

I. Government - those institutions that create and implement public policy. constitutionally. defined as

Legislative—Congress
Executive headed by President.
Judicial—Supreme Court and lower courts
Bureaucracies (also included)

Regulatory agencies—EPA, FDA, FAA, SEC, and ATF.
Regulatory agencies ensure the compliance of legislation and enforcing rules on certain issues and industries.
Independent executive agencies—Federal Reserve Board (FED), FTC, FCC, FEMA, and FEC.
IEAs are self-governed and not directly controlled by the President.
Government corporations—Amtrak, NPR, USPS, and Freddie/Fannie MAC.
A government corporation is a company that is owned by the government and operates with the same independence of a private business. The corporation is owned by the government and is created where…

a. A natural monopoly exists.

b. It is vital to the infrastructure of the country.

c. Valuable natural resources are at stake.

d. There is a public benefit at stake.

Cabinet—State, Treasury, Defense (War), Justice (currently 15 departments)
Exists (similarly) on the state and local levels.

II. Proposed Constitution

James Madison argued the federal government needed its own power of taxation and that its overall powers would be few and defined.
Patrick Henry argued that over time there would be an immense increase in taxes.

III. Government today

Federal budget for fiscal year 2020 was $4.79 trillion.
U.S. federal income tax takes an average of 29.8% of taxpayers’ income as of 2019.
Debates then and now over government finances were and are at bottom about:

Size of government
Competency of government
Legitimacy of government
Dividing responsibility between state and federal governments

4. Government involvement in the everyday lives of Americans today compared to the 1950s is greater because issues that were once considered private have become public.

II. Constitution and Democracy

A. Influenced by philosophers.

1. Aristotle—lived four centuries before Christ, defined as direct of participatory democracy as the rule of the many; rule by ordinary people, most of whom would be poor.

a. Democracy can easily decay into an oligarchy—rule of the rich or a tyranny—the rule of a despot.

b. To prevent this, a good political system will be a mixed regime, combining elements of democracy and oligarchy: most people will vote, but talented people will play a significant role in managing affairs.

c. 4th century BCE Greek city-state, practiced by free adult male property owners and New England town meetings.

2. Thomas Hobbes—Leviathan (1651) argued that people live in a “war of all against all” and so an absolute, supreme ruler was essential to prevent civil war.

a. Men’s lives in the state of nature are “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”

b. Individuals must give up more to governments as a trade-off in order to maintain an ordered society.

c. Without a single, strong leader, Hobbes saw little hope for humankind.

d. Without government, Hobbes envisioned that men would compete with each other, become enemies in order to subdue and destroy one another.

e. Hobbes noted three principal reasons for men to quarrel and these factors include: competition, diffidence, and glory.

3. John Locke—the 17th century English writer—argued against powerful kings and in favor of popular consent.

a. Second Treatise of Civil Government (1690) argued that people can exist in a state of nature—that is, without any ruler—so long as they can find enough food to eat and a way to protect themselves.

b. Decent government must exist with the consent of the governed and be managed by majority rule. To prevent a majority from hurting a minority, Locke wrote, the government should separate its powers, with different and competing legislative and executive branches.

B. Representative democracy or elitist theory of democracy—government in which leaders make decisions by winning a competitive struggle for the popular vote.

1. Elite—persons of an identifiable group who possess a disproportionate share of some valued resource, like money or power

a. Elitist theory—disapproving term for representative democracy

b. Elitism—a few top leaders, drawn from the major sectors of the United States polity, will make all important decisions; rule by identifiable group of persons who possess a disproportionate share of political power.

II. Politics—the activity (negotiation, argument, discussion; use of force, persuasion) by which issues are agitated and settled; exists because people normally differ over who gets what, when how and why

A. Issues—the raw materials of politics; defined as a conflict, between the interests, ideas, or beliefs of different citizens.

B. Two distinct, great questions

1. Who governs? — those who govern will affect us?

2. To what ends? — tells how government affects our lives.

C. Text focuses on who governs and, in answering this question, looks at how the government makes decisions on a variety of issues; each is considered with the other in mind.

III. Political power

A. Power—the ability of one person to cause another person to act in accordance with the first person’s intentions; found in all human relationships.

1. May be obvious president sends soldiers into combat.

2. May be subtle—president’s junior speechwriters take a new tone when writing about a controversial issue.

3. Text’s concern—power as it is used to affect who will hold government office and how government will behave.

4. Most power exists because of shared understanding, common friendships, communal or organizational loyalties and different degrees of prestige.

5. Political power used to determine who holds government office and how government will behave; is inextricably tied to political purposes.

B. Authority—the right to use power; not all who exercise political power have authority to do so.

1. Comes with a title—Mother/father; teacher; police officer; president, senator, congressperson.

2. Formal authority—right to exercise power is derived from a government office.

C. Legitimacy—political authority conferred by law or by a state or national constitution; in the U.S., the Constitution is the primary source of legitimate political authority.

1. Struggles over what makes authority legitimate constitute much of U.S. history.

a. 1787 Constitutional Convention

· Can the new more powerful federal government be made legitimate?

b. 1789-1809 First presidential administrations/Washington, Adams, Jefferson

· Preoccupied with disputes as to what was legitimate for the federal government to do.

c. 1861-1865 Civil War—struggle over legitimacy of federal union

d. 1933 New Deal—was it legitimate for federal government to intervene in the economy?

e. 2004 Presidential election—issue of gay marriage—federal or state question?

f. 2010 Affordable Care Act—challenged as unconstitutional.

2. Necessary for government to be in some sense “democratic” in the United States in order to be perceived as legitimate.

C. Five views/ theories of political power and elite decision making.

1. Marxist theory/class view—set forth by Karl Marx; argues that government is merely a reflection of underlying forces controlled by the dominant social class—the rich/capitalists—or the leaders of multinational corporations, the bourgeoisie/capitalists versus the working class, the proletariat.

2. Non-governmental theory/power elite view—set forth by C. Wright Mills; argues that government is dominated by a three key groups—key political leaders, corporate leaders, and top military officials.

3. Bureaucratic theory/view—set forth by Max Weber (a German scholar); argues that power is in the hands of appointed officials who can exercise vast power when deciding how public laws are to be turned into administrative actions without consulting the public.

4. Creedal passion/view—Samuel P. Huntington articulated this; belief that morally impassioned elites drive important change; while each of the other four views is correct with respect to how power is distributed on certain issues or during political “business as usual” periods, each also misses how the most important policy decisions and political changes are influenced by morally impassioned elites who are motivated less by economic self-interest than they are by an almost religious zeal to bring government institutions and policies into line with democratic ideals.

· Examples: Patrick Henry and the revolutionaries of the 1770’s, the advocates of Jackson-style democracy in the 1820’s, the progressive reformers of the early 20th century, and the leaders of the civil rights and anti-war movements in the mid-20th century.

5. Pluralist theory/view—David Truman; belief that competition among all affected interests shapes public policy; argues that no single elite has a monopoly on power; hence all elites must bargain and compromise while being responsive to followers; politicians, business, union leaders, journalists, professors, lawyers; in general journalists and political scientists agree with this view

D. Expanding Political Agenda— issues that people believe require governmental action.

1. Affected by:

a. Shared political values determine what is legitimate for the government to do if poverty is caused by individual failure and not social forces, then no need for government interference.

b. Weight of custom and traditions—people accept what’s been done but are leery of new proposals; today there are far fewer debates about the legitimacy of proposed policies than in the 1920s and 1930s.

c. Impact of events—alters people’s sense of the proper role of government.

1) Wars—most rapid growth

2) Depressions—unemployed, elderly, poor

3) Mining (or other) disasters—safety requirements

4) Hijackings—greater security measures

d. Terms of debate—changes in the way political elites think and talk about politics.

2. Impacted by behavior of groups, workings of institutions, the media, action of state governments.

3. Current political agenda is much longer compared to the 1930s and before.

a. Includes taxes, energy, welfare, and civil rights.

b. Steadily expands because of historical crises, interest groups’ activity, competition from voters and the operation of key institutions: courts, bureaucracy, mass media and the action of states.

4. None of these issues is inevitably political.

a. Taxes on incomes—unconstitutional until the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913

b. Energy—a non-issue: trees were chopped for fireplace fuel; became an issue in the 1930s.

c. Welfare—overseen by communities and wealthy individuals.

d. Civil rights—about private behavior/choice

IV. Politics of Different Issues

A. Nature or type of issues affects politicking--

1. Kind of groups that become politically active.

2. Intensity of political conflict

B. The costs and benefits of a proposed policy provide a way to understand how an issue affects political power

1. Cost—any burden, monetary or nonmonetary that some people must, or expect to bear from the policy; money, taxes, a foreign policy initiative that may lead to war.

a. Widely distributed cost—spread over many, most or all citizens; income tax; Social Security tax; high rate of crime.

b. Narrowly concentrated cost—limited to a small number of citizens or some identifiable, organized group; expenditures by a factory to reduce pollution; government regulations on doctors, hospitals; restrictions on free speech to a dissident political group.

2. Benefit—any satisfaction, monetary or nonmonetary that some people must, or expect, to receive from the policy; payments, subsidies, contracts; enhanced security of the nation, protection of a valued ally, vindication of some important principle.

a. Widely distributed benefit—spread over many, most or all citizens, clean air, national security, low crime rate.

b. Narrowly concentrated benefit—limited to a small number of citizens; subsidies to farmers or merchant ship companies; enlarged freedom to speak and protest afforded a dissident group; protection against competition given to and industry because of favorable government regulation.

3. Two aspects of costs and benefits are important.

a. Perception of costs and benefits affects politics; example—auto emission controls.

paid by manufacturer or passed on to consumer in higher prices; political.

conflict will depend on who the consumer thinks will pay for the change.

b. People consider whether it is legitimate for a group to benefit, aid to women with dependent children.

· Noncontroversial—widows and orphans

· Controversial recipients thought to be sexually loose women who had not married.

· Is the beneficiary deserving?

4. Politics is a process of settling disputes over who benefits/pays and who ought to benefit/pay—so ideas and values are as important as interests.

5. People prefer programs that provide benefits to them at low cost.

6. Perceived distribution of costs and benefits shapes the kinds of political coalitions that form but will not necessarily determine who wins.

V. Kinds/Types of Politics

A. Majoritarian politics—political activity with distributed benefits, everyone benefits and distributed costs, everyone pays; Social Security; military defense protecting the nation against attack, government sponsored research for cures for cancer

1. Involves appeals to large blocks of voters, to find a majority.

2. Debate is conducted in ideological or cost terms, e.g., military budgets.

· The military budget went up during the early 1980s, down in the late 1980s, up after 2001, and down again after 2010. These changes reflected different views on how much we need to spend on our military operations abroad.

3. Not dominated by pulling and hauling of rival interest groups

4. Free-rider problem—no incentive to join a group when you will benefit anyway.

5. May be controversial but controversy is over cost or ideology NOT rival groups.

6. Everyone wanted to reduce drug use—controversy was over whether death penalty for drug traffickers.

7. Issues in which elected leaders are delegates of the people and follow closely the preferences of the people.

a. Issues overseen in this fashion command the attention of most citizens.

b. Applies when issues are simple and clear—abortion, prayer in schools, gay marriage, gun control, war.

c. Most pieces of social legislation reflect majoritarian politics.

B. Interest-group politics—political activity with concentrated benefits, one small group benefits and concentrated costs, one small group pays

1. Debate executed by two or more interest groups with minimal involvement by the wider public.

a. Labor-Business

· 1935 labor unions sought government protection for their rights; business firms were in opposition.

· 1988 bill gave labor 60-day notice before plant closings; labor unions benefitted.

· Business firms paid cost.

b. Television broadcasters and cable companies

· Who may send what kind of signals to which homes?

c. Banks and insurance companies

· Struggle over the right to sell insurance.

d. American Nazi Party wanting to march through Jewish neighborhoods carrying swastikas.

e. The Grange—farmers especially outspoken in its criticism of large corporations

C. Client politics—political activity with concentrated benefits/one small group benefits and, everybody pays/widely distributed costs

1. When a small group receives benefits; that group has an incentive to organize and build coalitions (logrolling)

· Logrolling/reciprocity—process in which a majority coalition is formed by a legislator supporting a proposal favored by another in return for support of his/hers trading votes attracts other members of Congress.

2. Costs are distributed widely/everyone pays—so there is little incentive for the

opposition to mobilize.

3. Examples of client politics

a. Farmers benefit from price supports.

· Consumer pays but not aware of how much higher the grocery bill is.

b. Pork barrel legislation—gives tangible benefits to constituents in several districts or states in the hope of winning their votes in return.

· Cities/localities benefit from a dam, harbor, improved navigation.

4. Beneficiaries become “clients” of the government because the policy serves their needs.

5. Not all groups that want something get it―welfare recipients; homeless receive few.

benefits, probably because they lack legitimacy in the public’s eye.

D. Entrepreneurial politics—political activity with distributed benefits to large numbers or society as a whole/everyone benefits, and concentrated costs imposed on a small identifiable group pays

1. Used by liberals and conservatives

2. A crisis or scandal that focuses attention on an issue helps policy making.

3. More common and more visible because of the enlarged role of the media, the decentralization of Congress and the change in the attitude of many citizens

4. Success often depends on

a. Policy entrepreneurs—the people who work on behalf of unorganized majorities.

1) Inside government: Dr. Harvey Wiley—Department of Agriculture, chemist; Pure Food and Drug Act 1906: Food and Drug Administration

2) Outside government Upton Sinclair the Jungle, Meat Inspection Act 1906

· Ralph Nader Unsafe at Any Speed, National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act 1966

· Rachel Carson Silent Spring and the EPA 1970

b. Or many voters or legislators become disgruntled with another’s benefits or sees the need for a new policy.

1) Price of oil goes up.

2) Smog creating burning eyes.

3) Toxic hazardous waste forced people to leave homes.

· Love Canal, near Buffalo, New York 1977

· Times Beach, Missouri 1980

· Toxic Substance Control Act 1976—Superfund—result of pressure in the wake of these disasters; authorized EPA to identify and cleanup sites that posed imminent danger.

o > 30,000 toxic waste sites

o Forced industries to clean up their own toxic waste.

5. Legitimacy of client claims is important.

a. Clean Air Act 1970—consumer and environmental protection

b. Securities and Exchange Act 1935—market crash in 1929

c. Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act 1994—background check for gun purchase

d. National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act 1966—auto safety

VI. Obamacare 2010—all four categories

a. Medicare 1965—broad bipartisan backing

1. Democrats in the House and Senate voted for it by a wide margin.

2. Half of the Republicans in each chamber also supported it.

b. 2010 health care bill passed without any Republican support.

1. Political coalitions that formed around health care

2. Majoritarian Politics—opposed by most Americans for a variety of reasons.

a. Too expensive ($940 billion over 10 years)

b. Worried about the government regulations the law contained.

3. Client Politics

a. Drug manufacturers looked forward to having many new customers as more people owned health insurance. To get this benefit, the pharmaceutical companies agreed to pay up to $ 85 billion in higher taxes.

b. Hospitals thought they would be helped by having more patients who could pay their bills with health insurance.

4. Interest Group Politics

a. Labor unions wanted health care coverage.

b. Business firms were upset by the higher taxes and fees they would have to pay.

c. Poorer people liked it.

d. Those earning $ 200,000 a year or more would see their taxes escalate.

e. Elderly people on Medicare and many doctors worried that the new law promised to cut payments to physicians.

f. American Medical Association and the AARP (the largest organization representing senior citizens) endorsed the law.

5. Policy Entrepreneurs

a. 2010 the winners were President Obama and the Democratic leaders in the House who got a bill passed over popular and interest group opposition.

b. latter half of 2010 winners were the Republicans who opposed “Obamacare” and used the issue on the way to sweep GOP victories in the November 2010 elections.

VII. Federalist 10 vs. Brutus I

B. Framers created a republic that would protect freedom and private property, a moderate regime that would simultaneously safeguard people and leave them alone.

1. Founders did not intend to create direct democracy.

2. Physical impossibility in a vast country

3. Founders also mistrusted popular passions and were concerned to secure minority rights, feared tyranny of the majority.

4. Intended instead to create a republic based on a system of representation.

C. Popular rule only one element of new government (only in the House of Representatives)

· Popular sovereignty—ensures that all power rests in the hands of the people.

6. Framers strongly favored this over direct democracy.

7. Republican form of government—defined by Joseph Schumpeter as the acquisition of power by leaders via competitive elections.

a. U.S. and most nations who call themselves democratic.

b. At the Constitutional Convention, the view that a democratic government was desirable was far from unanimous.

c. Constitution does not contain the word “democracy” but “republican form of government” (what we call representative democracy)

d. Framers did not think that the “will of the people” was synonymous with the “common interest” or the “public good.”

e. Framers believed government should mediate, not mirror, popular views and that elected officials should represent, not register, majority sentiment.

f. Framers favored representative democracy.

8. Justifications

a. Direct democracy—impractical for reasons of time, expertise, information, energy, and interest for people to make policy etc.

b. Framers believed people in direct democracy were likely to make unwise decisions based on fleeting emotions.

c. Hamilton was the most concerned that the new Constitution was too democratic.

d. People were viewed as lacking knowledge and susceptible to manipulation.

e. Framers’ goal—to minimize the abuse of power by a tyrannical majority or by officeholders.

f. It would prevent sweeping changes in policy and often proceed slowly.

g. Government would mediate, nor mirror, popular views.

9. Representative democracy requires leadership competition if the system is to work—requires meaningful choice for voters, free communication, etc.

· Comes into play when circumstances do not permit majoritarian decision making.

10. John Locke argued against powerful kings and in favor of popular consent.

a. Argued that the desire for self-preservation would lead people to want government.

b. Argued decent government must exist with the consent of the governed and be managed by majority rule.

c. Argued government should separate power with competing legislative and executive branches.

d. Had a decisive influence on the Founders.

11. Thomas Hobbes—Locke’s English rival; argued that an absolute, supreme ruler was essential to prevent civil war.

12. U.S. democracy has many more elective offices than European democracies.

Republic—forego one’s own self-interest for the common good.

Oligarchy features rule by the rich