Government

• Government: the institutions through which a society makes and enforces its public policies.

  • All people who exercise the government’s authority and control over other people in a society are part of the government.

  • These individuals can be elected, appointed, or hired into government jobs.

• Role in Democratic Political System:

  • As per enlightenment ideals: to protect basic natural rights.

  • As per U.S. Preamble: to promote community, tranquility, establish justice, common defense, & secure general welfare of people living in U.S.A.

• Limits on this in US Democracy:

  • Constitution provides boundaries for what govt. powers are. This is constitutionalism.

  • Principles of our representative democracy include: limited government, social contract, constitutionalism, rule of law, federalism, powers reserved/denied to states, checks and balances, including judicial review, separation of powers, and bill of rights.

  • Treason, bribery, high crimes, can lead to impeachment, removal from office, criminal trials of officials who violate requirements of job

• What is not limited?

  • Interpretation of Constitution changes over time, with culture, depending on individuals interpreting it

  • Can amend Constitution

  • Legislation can change aspects of Constitution (ex: War Powers Act)

  • Custom & usage

  • Executive Action—gray area

  • Court Decisions

  • Party Practices (Keep in mind the constitution does not limit actions of political parties)

Politics

• Politics: activities, actions, policies used to gain and hold power; the process by which a society decides how power and resources will be distributed within that society, who will reap the benefits and who will pay the cost of public policies

• Role in Democratic Political System: politics in a democratic society decides who gets in power via voting and appointments, and how decisions/votes are swayed.

  • In our democracy, a chief political concern/debate has been over the role of government to provide for basic needs, vs. staying out of individual’s lives with less bureaucracy, regulation, taxation, etc.

• Limits on this in US Democracy:

  • While elected officials, party organizations, and special interest groups seek often to influence politics disproportionately, citizens in a democracy can also:

    • Influence politics individually or by joining/starting political parties and other interest groups.  This includes expressing opinions via writing, protests, art, and other means are ways to achieve political efficacy (one’s own influence or effectiveness on politics).

    • Choosing who/how to vote and working on campaigns

    • Running for office yourself

  • Treason, bribery, high crimes, can have public officials removed.

    • Actions must be constitutional and legal.

  • Free press can expose reality of these workings.

  • Campaign finance laws and Ethics Rules limit financial activities and contributions obtained

• What is not limited?

  • Media can influence in one direction or other

  • Lobbyists and perks they can provide to sway decisions

  • Money needed/used to run a campaign

  • Can have more political parties

  • Amount of citizens’ participation---no requirement to vote or voice opinions for citizens---best organized efforts get the vote and get decisions pushed through into law.

    • Apathetic citizens ensure vocal and organized groups gain power.

  • Gerrymandering

Law

• Law: the system of rules that a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and may enforce by the imposition of penalties.

  • Can be passed by legislative bodies, modified by powers of agencies writing regulations, or via common law and judicial decisions.

• Role in Democratic Political System:

  • Regulate behavior to ensure protection of rights….human actions must be limited to ensure enjoyment of rights by all.

  • Concept of Rule of Law—(see prior) handout—essential to democracy

  • Specify civil rights of individuals as well as procedures, funding, organizational systems, etc.

• Limits on this in US Democracy:

  • Executive veto makes it harder to override

  • Constitutionality and judicial review limits what can be passed

  • Citizen input, protest, fear of losing votes can impact new laws passed or not passed

  • Committees limit what actually comes to floor of a chamber of Congress to be voted upon.

  • Issues of filibuster and bicameralism can block passage of laws at federal levels.

• What is not limited?

  • How many exist

  • Types and topics of legislation

  • Special interests that influence passage

  • Interpretation

  • Overturning laws/amending at future date

  • Legal challenges and new interpretations based on court decisions

  • How well they are enforced

  • Criminality—lack of respect for laws and attempts to avoid penalties—erodes entire concept of rule of law/democracy

  • Civil disobedience: the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power.

    • Civil disobedience is a symbolic or ritualistic violation of the law, rather than a rejection of the system as a whole.

    • Those who engage in it recognize there will be consequences.

Media

• Media: the plural form of medium, which (broadly speaking) describes any channel of communication.

  • This can include anything from printed paper to digital data, and encompasses art, news, educational content and numerous other forms of information.

  • Digital media, which makes up an increasingly vast portion of modern communications, is comprised of intricately encoded signals that are transmitted over various forms of physical and virtual media, such as fiber optic cable and computer networks.

• Role in Democratic Political System:

  • Citizens needed to be able to express views on issues in order to debate and reflect to reach compromises, have access to information to educate themselves, and be able to form opinions and choose how to vote or what policies to advocate for. Thus, the media plays this role and the ways in which we have access to information have evolved greatly—from print, to radio, to tv, to now online and social media sources.

• Limits on this in US Democracy:

  • Laws limit slander and libel and inciting of violence.

  • Journalistic codes of ethics, training to be objective

  • Increasing concerns over social media companies being able to limit/control search engines and other access to articles

  • Citizens can be taught how to evaluate credible/reliable sources and select media sources accordingly.

  • Govt. of U.S. does not own/run a media service.

  • Free market capitalism—media can go out of business if it does not have a following.

• What is not limited?

  • Internet age has removed many barriers to freedom of expression and allows information to spread faster than before—whether fact or opinion—making it harder to discern both.

  • Education for literacy, skills to foster credible reporting and identifying credible sources, fact from opinion more and more difficult.

  • No regulations on number of sources available but key to seeing different views.

  • Capitalism/wealth linked in for profit media can monopolize/control and lead to great bias and monopolization of what is being presented.

  • Wide variety of sources means less and less coherent public discourse on common ideas. More distractions (ads, video games, other things to look at online) lead some to avoid interaction with media articles on critical issues for our democracy.

  • Efforts to criticize one media source over the other

Individual

• Individual: citizens and non-citizens have some different rights and responsibilities in a democracy, but all individuals living in the U.S. have many common responsibilities/roles.

  • Citizen: a legally recognized subject or national of a state or commonwealth, either native or naturalized

• Role in Democratic Political System:

  • All individuals have duty to know, care, & act within our democracy or it will cease to exist.

    • This is the essence of popular sovereignty.

  • All individuals also must follow laws unless conscientiously engaging in civil disobedience while acknowledging and being willing to accept the penalties of breaking the law.

    • Without this foundational respect for rule of law, democracy ceases to be democracy.

  • All individuals can use democratic processes (courts, lobbying, elections, protests, donations, etc) to change laws, voice opinions about public policy issues to elected and government officials and in other public forums.

  • Paying taxes and signing up for draft (if male at 18) are also basic requirements of all individuals.

• Limits on this in US Democracy

  • You can’t engage in slander, libel, violence, or other criminal acts in the process of activism.

  • Non citizens can’t vote or run for office and you must be 18 years old, registered, and in most states cannot be a felon in prison, on parole, or probation.

  • People in Guam, Puerto Rico can’t vote in Federal Elections

  • Illness, age, racism, sexism , classism, complexities of reality of survival in 21st century can hinder ability to be involved in political processes.

  • Campaign finance contribution regulations exist.

• What is not limited?

  • Creative ways to change society through art, music, drama, unique technological initiatives, non-profits, business/financial donations are unlimited.

  • Ongoing struggle and lack of limits on gerrymandering and campaign finance issues can create disproportionate influence of special interests.

  • Apathy, disengagement, distraction from, trivialization of political responsibilities grows and is limitless in a culture that overemphasizes individualism and materialism and leisure activities.