Post English Final, Study Notes for American National Government Final

Section 3 notes for American National Government

Chapter 4, Political Culture and Ideology… (Theories; not facts, plausible explanations of why things happen…not science!)

Social Science, including political science, has a lot of theories, not a lot of laws, due ot the level of complexity. “Behavioral Science” is another name for it.

Patriotism, is a theoretical concept; it can’t be measured with a meter, but it can be with a survey.

 OPERATIONALIZATION is the process of taking a theoretical concept and breaking it down into smaller, more-measurable parts. It is kind of like taking an onion and peeling back the layers…can lead to serious discussions/arguments. Operationalize: designing to reveal.

Political culture- “The widely shared beliefs, values and norms most people hold concerning
the relationships between you, government, and one another.”

The Civic Culture – book in MSC library by Almond and Verba (?), American political scientists, survey done in late 50’s, early 60’s, first major political study in social sciences, measured differences between various cultures, asked questions, gathered data, arrived at hypothesis, one of top 100 (what?) post WWII…found Americans to be more patriotic!

Scale created…”patriotism scale”…based on answers from survey.

“time-bound”- Consider date researched and published; it is out of date. Consider how research was done. “Time-series analysis” uses same questions delivered over lengthy period of time. Again: theories are plausible explanations for why things happen the way they do!

Major political aspects of American political culture:

USC, Bill of Rights, and capitalism. Capitalism is based on supply and demand. Anything that has intrinsic value is capital.

We have always had a two-party political system; it has not always been the same two parties, though.

Political culture is a widely held set of beliefs, values and norms. They are group-shared.

Ideology is an integrated, interrelated set of attitudes and beliefs about political values, and the role of power and government. Think of ideology like wearing a pair of  glasses. Everything you see is coming is filtered; then it goes to your brain. You see the world in a different way, based on your particular ideology. Remember “Crossfire” on CNN? Each of their views is filtered through ideological perspectives, or filters.

After the French Revolution,

 Liberals were seated on the left,                         Conservatives were seated on the right.

LEFT                                                                                                                          RIGHT

LIBERALS ON LEFT                                        CONSERVATIVES ON THE RIGHT

The ideological continuum could be thought of as a circle; with the ends almost meeting.

From the left, moving right:

Radical, Socialist, Mainstream Liberal, Moderates, Mainstream Conservatives, Libertarians, and finally Reactionary.

To the left of the “middle of the road”, to find more support for more government.

To the right of the “middle”, you find less support for more government.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt (“FDR”), was a Democrat that leaned to the left, to the liberal side of the middle.

President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, was conservative, he leaned to the right.

Remember that Libertarians (and Reactionaries) are more conservative than Conservatives, and

Socialists (and Radicals) are more liberal than Liberals.

The “public sector” is the government, and anyone who works for the government.

The “private sector” is anyone who is not part of the government.

Remember Ted Koppel’s interview with the person who talked about black helicopters rounding-up citizens and putting them in concentration camps?

Normal Distribution Curve: American politics aim for middle because of nl dist. of voters

                                                                     BULLSEYE

                                           Mainstream                M                   Mainstream

     LEFT                             Liberal                        o                  Conservative       RIGHT

                                                                               d

                                                                               e

                                                                               r

                                                                               a

                                                                               t

                                                                               e

                                                                               s

Above is the ideological continuum. Most Americans look like the normal distribution curve—a bell-shaped curve—because most say they are Moderates. Most, but not a majority! We have a normal distribution ideologically. We are normally distributed.

Our hand-out listed Moderates as representing 36% of the votes, slightly liberal 14%, slightly conservative 13%, Liberals 11%. Conservatives 15%, extremely liberal 3%, and extremely conservative 4%. Again, most voters are Moderates, and parties direct their appeals to them.

Plurality means most, not majority. Majority is 50% plus one or more.

The three M’s of a curve are the:

Mean: the average; the symbol is an X with a line over it. (AKA “the X bar”)

Median: like the strip of grass that grows in the middle of the interstate.

Mode: number that appears the most.

In a normal distribution curve, the mean, median, and mode are all in the middle, they are identical. Human height and I. Q. have a normal distribution.

 Our professor does not curve grades for two reasons. One, grades may go down, and two, he took advice from a Dr. Spear who said-- curves only belong in three places: baseballs, ____(basketballs?), and women’s bottoms, none of which belong on exam scores.

Affirmative Action- refers to policies and programs created by the government to even out the playing field. The vast majority of debate has focused almost solely on areas surrounding ethnic minorities. By far, the group that has benefited the most has been females! Females have been discriminated against in employment. WWII was the turning point. Females left home and went to work in the factories to build tanks, etc.; remember “Rosie the Riveter”? Our professor’s mother knew the first day of school that she wanted to be a teacher! She came home and told his grandmother. The majority of college students are female and have been for awhile. At MSC (thank God!) the percentage is 60% female, 40 % male.

See hand-out on the characteristics of Liberalism vs. Conservatism.

ON the left of the ideological continuum are the Radicals. They either demand violence, think violence is likely, will use violence as a last resort, or may be a pacifist. The Radical desires immediate fundamental change, is frustrated, impatient, and revolutionary. Examples include Chairman Mao of China who led the People’s Republic of China; and  Che`, who was a patriot of Fidel Castro-- he ratcheted up a Communist movement and Venezuela and was assassinated. And even our Founding Fathers could have been considered Radical.  

Moving right, but still way to the left of the middle, there are the Liberals. Liberals will violate the law. They desire rapid, far-reaching change, believe people can improve their lives through the reason. The Classical Liberal believes in natural law, believes private property was unalienable …

UNALIENABLE.
The state of a thing or right which cannot be sold. Things which are not in commerce, as public roads, are in their nature unalienable. Some things are unalienable, in consequence of particular provisions in the law forbidding their sale or transfer, as pensions granted by the government. The natural rights of life and liberty are UNALIENABLE.

, …and that government oppressed people. The Contemporary Liberal believes private property is a social right, believes government should be used to improve life through social experimentation.

Liberals and Radicals want a “Progressive Change”! They  support human rights, rationalism, Egalitarianism (advocating full equality for all), personal liberty and Internationalism.

In the middle of the spectrum of political attitudes, there are the Moderates. Moderates are in the middle of the road and are fairly content with the society; they support a gradual change. Their status may be considered a “cop-out”.

To the right of the middle, are the Conservatives. They like the Status Quo. Conservatives are the most contented with society; they are actively defending it against challenges to the status quo. Conservatives are pessimistic about human capacity to improve through the use of reason. Conservatives depend on the “tried and true” institutions. Conservatives believe private property is an inalienable right (Natural rights, also called inalienable rights, are considered to be self-evident and universal. They are not contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of any particular culture or government); they desire order—they will use the law.

Desiring retrogressive change, and to the right of Conservatives, are the Reactionaries.

The Reactionary wishes things were as they used to be. The frustration level of the extreme reactionary is equal to that of the extreme radical.  An example of a reactionary would be the late Timothy McVey. He was convicted by the US Government and received the death penalty. SOME people within the Tea Party are considered reactionary. These reactionary people are to the extreme right!

Conservatives and Reactionary support property rights, irrationalism, Elitism, Authoritarianism, and Nationalism. 

More to come, I hope!