4:02 Political Ideologies

Getting on the Grid

• Politics involves diverse beliefs, reflecting individual ideologies about the government's role.
• Ideology: An individual's ideas on how the government should function.

Political Spectrum

The political spectrum ranges from Socialism to Liberalism, Moderate, Conservatism, and Libertarianism.

• Socialism
  • A powerful government controls the economy to promote equality.
• Liberalism
  • A strong government promotes equality of opportunity and protects fundamental liberties, including personal privacy.
• Moderate
  • Government powers are balanced to protect security, stability, and economic freedoms, meeting the needs of workers and businesses.
  • Supports nondiscrimination in opportunity.
• Conservatism
  • Limited government powers support economic freedom, property rights, traditional values, order, and stability.
  • Few restrictions on fundamental rights.
• Libertarianism
  • A weak government ensures absolute economic and social freedom.
  • No regulation of the economy or limitations on fundamental rights.

Ideological Blending

• The spectrum is an oversimplified comparison that doesn't account for blended ideologies.
• Individuals may hold conservative, liberal, libertarian, or socialist views on different issues.
• Political socialization impacts a person's ideas.
• Ideology often aligns with a political party.
  • Democratic Party: Generally liberal ideology.
  • Republican Party: Generally conservative ideology.
• Wide range of political attitudes within each party.

Ideology Shapes Policy

• Ideology influences government policy through participation.
• Representative democracy is shaped by the Constitution and laws.
• Individual participation alters the expression between participatory, pluralist, and elite forms.
• A mixture of the three models is always present within the United States.
• Higher participation leans toward the participatory form, while low participation leans toward the elite form.
• Participation is key for those who value democracy.

Civic Engagement Study (Pew Internet, 2008)

• At least 63% of adults participated in one political act.
• Examples:
  • Signing a petition: 32%
  • Contacting a government official: 30%
  • Working with fellow citizens: 28%
  • Attending a political meeting: 24%
  • Contributing money: 18%
  • Active member of a group: 15%
  • Attending a political rally: 12%
  • Sending a letter to the editor: 10%
  • Working for a political party: 8%
  • Making a speech: 7%
  • Attending an organized protest: 4%
• Margin of error: \pm 2 \% (n=2,251)

Shaping Policy

• Diverse ideologies in U.S. society influence public policies.
• More active individuals have a greater impact.
• Examples of policy areas:
  • Redistricting
  • Environmental Policy
  • Immigration Policy
  • Healthcare

Civic Action: Redistricting

• California's Voters First Act (2008) authorized the California Citizens Redistricting Commission.
• A panel of citizens redraws state districts for the state legislature and congressional elections.
• This reduces gerrymandering and helps voters express their wishes with less partisan influence.

Civic Action: Environmental Policy

• Citizen concern about environmental issues increased from 17% to 53% between 1965 and 1970.
• First Earth Day (1970): 200,000+ people gathered in Washington, D.C., and 20 million across the country.
• Organized by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-Wisconsin).
• Led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
• Trend data indicate concerns about the environment and global warming tend to characterize the Democratic Party rather than the Republican Party.
• Priority - Global Warming
  • Democrats:
    • 2001: 89%
    • 2017: 79%
  • Republicans:
    • 2001: 64%
    • 2017: 42%
• Priority - Environment
  • Democrats:
    • 2000: 78%
    • 2017: 63%
  • Republicans:
    • 2000: 35%
    • 2017: 40%

Civic Action: Immigration Policy

• Immigration reform highlights disagreements between parties, stalling legislative processes.
• The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) halted Chinese immigration for over forty years due to Americans attributing unemployment and declining wages to Chinese workers.
• Citizen views on immigration have shifted since then.
• Viewpoints on immigration policy may relate to those on indirectly-related types of policy.
• Priority - Immigration Decreased
  • Republicans:
    • 2003: 53%
    • 2016: 60%
  • Democrats:
    • 2003: 42%
    • 2016: 20%
• The Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform advocates for immigrants' rights.

Civic Action: Healthcare

• Healthcare policy is affected by ideology and partisan lines.
• 1949: President Harry Truman called for Congress to overhaul the country's healthcare system.
  • The American Medical Association lobbied against the healthcare plan.
• President Lyndon Johnson signed legislation enacting Medicare.
  • Medicare provides health insurance to those receiving Social Security benefits or over 65.
• Priority - Government Health Care
  • Democrats:
    • 2001: 75%
    • 2016: 77%
  • Republicans:
    • 2001: 45%
    • 2016: 24%
• 1993: President Bill Clinton proposed a national healthcare plan, but faced opposition.
• President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010.
  • The ACA affected Medicare and Medicaid.
  • Expanded coverage for preventative services and certain prescription medicines.
  • Medicare is a federal program; Medicaid is jointly financed but administered by states.
• Republicans tend to oppose expansion of government involvement in social issues, including healthcare.
• Policy trends reflect the success of conservative or liberal perspectives in political parties.

Fiscal Policy

• Harold Lasswell: Politics is "who gets what, when, and how."
• Government and economics are connected; the government needs a healthy economy to fulfill its role.
• Government controls the economy through:
  • Fiscal policy
  • Regulatory policy
  • Trade policy
  • Monetary policy
• Everyone agrees high unemployment is not good, but people don't agree on how to best control it.
• Political ideologies influence whether the government should be involved in the economy, to what degree, and how fiscal and monetary policy should be determined.
• Liberal ideologies support more government regulation of the economy and marketplace.
• Conservative ideologies support fewer regulations.
• Libertarian ideologies support little or no regulation of the marketplace, beyond the protection of property rights and voluntary trade.

Laissez-Faire Economics

• Laissez-faire: French for "allow to do;" the government takes a "hands-off" approach to the economy.
• Adam Smith: Unregulated competition in the marketplace would result in a strong and stable economy.
• The first import tariff was passed by Congress and President George Washington in 1789, and the federal government began to regulate wages and working conditions in the late 19th century.
• Libertarians support laissez-faire economics.

Keynesian Economics

• Keynesian economics recommends that the government engage in deficit spending and decrease taxes during a recession or emergency to stimulate the economy.
• In times of rapid economic growth, this theory recommends a balanced budget and increasing taxes.
• This practice holds to traditional liberal ideology, advocating higher taxes and government spending, yet has been used by both liberal and conservative presidents and Congress.
• First utilized under President Roosevelt, a member of the Democratic Party.
• President George W. Bush, a Republican, used this policy in 2008.
• President Barack Obama, a Democrat, continued this practice in his presidency.

Supply-Side Economics

• Supply-side economics advocates cutting taxes and deregulating business to stimulate the economy.
• President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, used a form of supply-side economics, also called trickle-down economics.
• This theory holds that tax cuts for businesses and high-income earners will, in turn, trickle down to benefit everyone else through lower prices and higher wages.
• This policy supports traditional conservative ideology that believes taxes and government spending should be low.
• Republicans use this theory to guide policy.
• Reagan significantly cut taxes, helping to end the 1980 recession.
• However, he also increased government spending, increasing the federal deficit.
• Political scientists debate whether trickle-down economics was successful or whether the economy bounced back because of the increased government spending.

Monetarism

• Monetarism is an economic theory that advocates government regulation of the amount of money circulating in the economy to promote a healthy market system.
• This theory supports liberal ideas of economics in that it advocates more regulation.
• The Federal Reserve is the central banking system of the United States and was created by the Federal Reserve Act.
• Its responsibility is to set monetary policy, supervise and regulate banking institutions, and to maintain the stability of financial markets.
• It regulates the amount of money circulating in the economy as well as interest rates to promote a healthy market system.

Economic Trends

• Economic trends develop over time and are affected by many variables.
• It's difficult to attribute economic upswings or downturns to any one policy or president.
• President Bill Clinton eliminated deficit spending, but many analysts attributed the economic upswing of the 1990s to the conservative fiscal measures of the 1980s.

Social Policy

• The Constitution does not explicitly state the government's role in caring for the less fortunate, but the Preamble promotes the "general Welfare."
• This "general welfare" clause also appears in Article I, Section 8.
• Complex area of policy debate: Should government provide support for poor Americans? What form should this support take?
• Policy trends reflect more or less government involvement in social issues and the success of conservative or liberal perspectives.

Social Programs

• The New Deal
  • A series of programs created to help Americans after the Great Depression.
  • President Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) worked to enact policies that would affect the economy and welfare of the people.
  • Included:
    • Tennessee Valley Authority Act: Allowed the federal government to build dams to control flooding and generate inexpensive hydroelectric power
    • Agricultural Adjustment Act: Paid farmers to leave their fields unplanted to boost prices and eliminate surpluses
    • Works Progress Administration: Provided jobs for the unemployed
    • Social Security Act: Guaranteed pensions, established unemployment insurance, and helped care for the disabled and dependent children
  • Conservatives criticized the programs, arguing that they were socialism in disguise.
• The Great Society
  • A series of policy initiatives, legislation, and programs organized by President Lyndon B. Johnson (D) to end poverty, reduce crime, abolish inequality, and improve the environment.
  • Included:
    • The Civils Rights Act of 1964: Banned discrimination based on race and gender in employment and ended segregation in all public facilities
    • Economic Opportunity Act of 1964: Created the Office of Economic Opportunity to eliminate poverty, expand educational opportunities, safeguard the poor and unemployed, and tend to health and financial needs of the elderly
    • Elementary and Secondary Education Act: Provided major funding for public schools and enacted regulations on education
    • Medicare: Created to help the elderly with the costs of healthcare
    • Wilderness Protection Act: Prevented industrial development on 9.1 million acres of forestland
    • Food Stamp Act of 1964: Expanded the federal food assistance program for low-income families
• Affirmative Action
  • First initiated by President Lyndon B. Johnson (D) as part of his Great Society campaign to improve opportunities for African Americans.
  • Businesses receiving federal funds were prohibited from using criteria that discriminated against African Americans when hiring.
  • Expanded to cover women, Native Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities.
  • Some conservatives and libertarians argue that these programs support "reverse discrimination" and violate the equal protection clause.
• Social Welfare
  • In 1996, President Bill Clinton (D) signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, limiting welfare assistance to five years.
• Required unwed teen mothers to live with their parents and welfare recipients to work.
• Obamacare
  • The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also referred to as Obamacare under President Barack Obama (D), was a significant overhaul and expansion of the U.S. healthcare system.
  • Set up insurance "exchanges" that offer people without other access to health insurance a choice of health plans.
  • Requires businesses with more than fifty full-time employees to offer health insurance.
  • Main goal is to offset the high costs of health insurance for Americans who can't afford it.
  • Conservatives oppose Obamacare because they argue it imposes too many costs on business.
  • They view it as an intrusion into the matters of private businesses and individuals.