Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Dilemmas of Democracy - Chapter 1 Lecture Notes

Chapter OneDILEMMAS OF DEMOCRACYLEARNING OBJECTIVES:1.Describe the impact of globalization upon American Government, politics, and policy.2.Understand the three purposes of government - maintaining order, providing public goods, and promoting equality.3.Apply the basic framework of the text as they relate to (1) what government tries to do and (2) how it decides to do it.4.Identify the critical values, conflicts, and political ideologies that affect the decisions and policies made by the American government.5.Identify the criteria that can be used to determine whether our government is democratic.6.Classify the four major ideologies found in the American experience and culture: liberal, conservative, libertarian and communitarian ideologies.7.To compare and contrast procedural democracy and substantive democracy.8.Identify the challenges of establishing and maintaining true democratic governments around the world.OVERVIEW:The 8thedition of Janda, Berry, Goldman & Hula introduces the student to the impact of globalization upon national sovereignty and international law. The authors ask students to begin considering the impact of American politics and foreign policy upon foreign governments. To fully appreciate the impact of the American government, the authors present a clearly defined framework of analysis to address two questions: (1) How does government serves its citizens and (2) What are the critical values, conflicts, and political ideologies that affect the decisions and policies made by government. The first chapter clearly defines primary democratic values and the resultant political ideologies that emphasize order, liberty and equality. These ideologies include anarchism, libertarianism, capitalism, liberalism, conservatism, socialism, and totalitarianism. The debate between procedural and more substantive models of democracy are described and defined to explain three fundamental paradigms of American politics: majoritarian model, pluralist model and the elite theory model. The authors conclude that all governments, especially newly democratic systems, face challenges to their system to maintain true democratic rule.CHAPTER OUTLINE:I.The Globalization of American GovernmentA.Governmentis defined as the legitimate use of force within specified geographical boundaries to control human behavior.1.The term government also refers to the body authorized to exercise that power.B.National sovereigntyis a political entitys externally recognized right to exercise final authority over its affairs.1.Simply put, eachnational governmenthas the right to govern its people as it wishes, without interference from other nations.2.National sovereignty, however, is threatened under globalization.C.The U.S. government is worried about the trend of holding nations accountable to international law.1.In 2002, the United States annulled its signature to the 1998 treaty to create an International Criminal Court that would define and try crimes against humanity.2.Should the United States be above international law if its sovereignty is threatened by nations that dont shareourvalues?II.The Purposes of GovernmentA. Throughout history, government has served two major purposes: maintaining order and providing public goods. More recently, some governments have pursued a third and more controversial purpose: promoting equality.B. Maintaining order is the oldest objective of government.1. Establishing the rule of law to preserve life and to protect property.C. Classical Theories on the Order and the State1. Hobbess believed government should provide peoples survival.2. Other theorists believed that government protected order by preservingprivate property.3. InTwo Treatises on Government(1690), John Locke wrote that the protection of life, liberty, and property was the basic objective of government.4. Locke strongly influenced the Declaration of Independence.D. Marxist Theory and the Order of the State?1. The German philosopher Karl Marx (18181883) rejected the private ownership of property used in the production of goods or services.2. Marxs ideas form the basis ofcommunism,a complex theory that gives ownership of all land and productive facilities to the people.E. Providing Public Goods1. Using the governments coercive powers to tax citizens, funds may be spent onpublic goodslike education, sanitation, and parks.2. Benefit every citizen, but are not likely produced by the voluntary acts of individuals.3. Some are politically controversial or even unacceptable in the United States. For example, running railroads, operating coal mines and generating electric power.F. Promoting Equality1. Has not always been a major objective of government, but gained prominence in the twentieth century.2. Thekey issueis the governments role in redistributing income, that is, taking from the wealthy to give to the poor.a. Charity has a strong basis in Western religious traditions.b. Use of the State to redistribute income was originally a radical idea set forth by Marx.c. Over time, taking from the rich to help the needy has become alegitimatefunction of most governments.3. Since the Great Depression, the governments role in redistributing income to promote economic equality has been a major source of policy debate in the United States.III.A Conceptual Framework for Analyzing GovernmentA.Citizens have very different views on how vigorously they want government to maintain order, provide public goods, and promote equality.B. To understand government and the political process, one must recognize the basic tradeoffs and values they entail.1. Aconceptis a generalized idea of a class of items or thoughts that groups various events, objects, or qualities under a common classification or label.2. The framework consists of five concepts that figure prominently in political analysis.C. The five concepts can be organized into two groups:1. Concepts that identify the values pursued by government:a. Freedomb. Orderc. Equality2. Concepts that describe the models of democratic government.a. Majoritarian democracyb. Pluralist democracyD. The concepts of Freedom, Order, and Equality1. Freedom can be used in two major senses: Freedom of and freedom from.a.Freedom ofis the absence of constraints on behavior.b.Freedom fromsuggests immunity from something undesirable or negative, such as fear and want.c. When the authors use freedom, they mean freedom of.2. Social orderrefers to established patterns of authority in society and to traditional modes of behavior.a. In the narrow sense, order refers to the protection of life and protecting property rights.b. In the broad sense, order means preserving the social order.c.Police poweris a governments authority to safeguard residents safety, health, welfare, and morals.d. Most governments are inherently conservative and resist social change. Societies can change social patterns gradually through the legal process.3. Equality is used in different ways to support different causes.a. Political equality in elections is defined as: each citizen has one and only one vote. This is basic to democratic theory.b. Social equality or the equality in wealth, education, and status is necessary for true political equality.c.Equality of opportunitymeans that each person has the same chance to succeed in life.d. True social equality meansequality of outcomes,where society must redistribute wealth and status so that economic and social equality are achieved.e. The concept of government-supportedrightsthe idea that every citizen is entitled to certain benefits of government, that government should guarantee its citizens adequate (if not equal) housing, employment, medical care, and income. If citizens are entitled to government benefits as a matter of right, government efforts to promote equality of outcome become legitimized.E.Two Dilemmas of Government: The original and modern1.The Original Dilemma: Freedom Versus Order.The conflict between freedom and order originates in the very meaning ofgovernmentas the legitimate use of force to control human behavior.a. How much freedom a citizen must surrender to government is a dilemma that has occupied philosophers for hundreds of years.b. In a democracy, policy choices hinge on how much citizens value freedom and how much they value order.2.The Modern Dilemma: Freedom Versus Equality.Popular opinion has it that freedom and equality go hand in hand. In reality, these two values usually clash when governments enact policies to promote social equality.a. If social equality is a relatively recent government objective, then, deciding between policies that promote equality at the expense of freedom is the modern dilemma of politics.3. The clash between freedom and order is obvious, but the clash between freedom and equality is more subtle.a. When forced to choose, Americans are far more likely to choose freedom over equality.F.Ideology and the Scope of Government: Americans hold an assortment of values and beliefs that produce contradictory opinions on government policies.1.Political ideology:a consistent set of values and beliefs about the proper purpose and scope of government.a.How farshould government go to maintain order, provide public goods, and promote equality?2.Totalitarianismis the belief that government should haveunlimited power. All sectors of society are controlled including:a.Businessb.Laborc.Artsd.Religionse.Sports3.Socialismis an economic system based on Marxist theory.a.Under socialism (and communism), the scope of government extends to ownership or control of the basic industries that produce goods and services (communications, heavy industry, transportation).b.Socialism allows more room than under communism for the private ownership of productive capacity.c.In theory, the state would wither away under Communism, but in practice Communist governments tended toward totalitarianism, controlling through economic, political, and social life via a dominant party organization.d.Democratic socialismpracticed by socialist parties and governments in Europe. They guarantee civil liberties, free elections and competitive political parties. e.g. Britain, Sweden, France and Germany.4.In contrast to socialism and Communism,capitalismsupports free enterpriseprivate businesses operating without government regulations.a.According to Milton Friedman, free enterprise is necessary for free politics.b.Both liberals and conservatives embrace capitalism, but they differ on the nature and amount of government intervention in the economy that is necessary or desirable.5.Libertarianismopposes all government action except that which is necessary to protect life and property.a.All social programs that provide clothing, food, and shelter are outside the proper scope of government.b.Libertarians oppose all government action except that which is necessary to protect life and property; advocates of economic policy calledlaissez faire,or let people do as they please.6.Anarchismstands opposite totalitarianism on the political continuum. Anarchists oppose all government in any form.a.As a political philosophy,anarchismvalues absolute freedom above all else.b.Like totalitarianism, it is not a popular philosophy, but it does have adherents on the political fringes.7.Liberals and Conservatives: Do you promote equality over order or promote order over equality?a.Liberalsare willing to use government to promote equality but not order. Generally favor generous government support for education, wildlife protection, public transportation, and a whole range of social programs.b.Conservativeswant smaller government budgets and fewer government programs. They support free enterprise and argue against government job programs, regulation of business, and legislation of working conditions and wage rates. Prefer to use government to promote order rather than equality.c.In other areas, liberal and conservative ideologies are less consistent.Conservatives support the original purpose of government: to maintain social order. Willing to use the coercive power of the state to force citizens to be orderly, e.g. traditional social roles for women.Liberals are less likely than conservatives to want to use government power to maintain order. Do not shy away from using government coercion, but they use it for a different purpose: to promote equality, e.g. homosexual civil rights to marry.G.A Two-Dimensional Classification of Ideologies:To classify liberal and conservative ideologies more accurately, we have to incorporate the values of freedom, order, and equality into the classification.1. The four types are defined by the values they favor in resolving the two major dilemmas of government: how much freedom should be sacrificed in the pursuit of order and equality?2. Libertarians value freedom more than order and equality. They want minimal government intervention in both economic and social spheres. Oppose affirmative action, laws that restrict sexually explicit material, etc.3.Liberals value freedom more than order, but not more than equality. Oppose laws that ban sexually explicit publications but support affirmative action.4. Conservatives value freedom more than equality but would restrict freedom to preserve social order. Oppose affirmative action but favor laws that restrict sexually explicit materials.5.Communitariansare a group that values both equality and order more than freedom. Its members support both affirmative action laws and laws that restrict pornography.a.Rejects both the liberal-conservative classification and the libertarian argument that individuals should be left on their own to pursue their choices, rights, and self-interests.b.Like liberals, communitarians believe that there is a role for government in helping the disadvantaged.c.Believe that government should be used to promote moral values preserving the family through more stringent divorce laws and limiting the dissemination of pornography.d.Communitarians favor government programs that promote both order and equality, somewhat in keeping with socialist theory.6. Libertarians and communitarians are consistent in their attitudes toward the scope of government, whereasliberals and conservatives, in contrast, favor or oppose government activity depending on its purpose.7. Large groups of Americans fall into each of the four ideological categories.IV.The American Governmental Process: Majoritarian or Pluralist?In the introduction to this section, the authors use the example of the Democratic and Republican partys conflicting views on what the role of the government ought to be in the wake of the broad economic downturn in 2008. The question at hand is should Congress follow the president, who was elected by a majority of Americans, or is majority opinion a blunt and imprecise instrument which should not be given a great deal of weight?A. The Theory of Democratic Government1. Who should govern?a. The people too simple an answer.B. The Procedural View of Democracy1.Procedural democratic theory sets forth principles that describe how government should make decisions. These principles address three distinct questions:2.Whoshould participate in decision making?a.Universal participation3.How muchshould each participants vote count?a.All votes count equally political equality.4.How manyvotes are needed to reach a decision? Majority rule a group should decide to do what the majority of its participants wantC. A Complication: Direct Versus Indirect Democracy1. Participatory ordirectdemocracy occurs in simple and small societies in which all members of a group or community meet to make decisions.2. Framers of the U.S. Constitution institutedrepresentative democracya. system in which citizens participate ingovernment by electing public officials to make government decisions on their behalf.b. The United States adheres to the principles of universal participation, political equality, and majority rule within the context of representative democracy.3.Responsivenessmeans that elected representatives should follow the general contours ofpublic opinionas they formulate complex pieces of legislation.D. The Substantive View of Democracy1. Substantive democratic theory focuses on the substance of government policies, not on the procedures followed in making those policies.2. Argues that in a democratic government, certain principles must be embodied in government policies.3.The core of the substantive principles of American democracy is embedded in the Bill of Rights and other amendments to the U.S. Constitution.a.Government policies should guaranteecivil liberties(freedom of behavior) andcivil rights(powers or privileges that government may not arbitrarily deny to individuals).b.Agreement among substantive theorists breaks down when discussion moves from civil rights tosocial rights(adequate health care, quality education, decent housing) andeconomic rights(private property, steady employment).E.Procedural DemocracyVersusSubstantiveDemocracy1. Substantive view of democracy does not provide clear, precise criteria that allow us to determine whether a government is democratic.2. The procedural viewpoint presents specific criteria for democratic government, though those criteria can produce undesirable social policies that prey on minorities.a. Minority rights3. Authors favor compromise between the two. Procedural has aserious drawbackin that it allows a democratic government to enact policies that can violate the substantive principles of democracy. Thus, pure procedural democracy should be diluted so that minority rights and civil liberties are guaranteed as part of the structure of government.F.Institutional Models of Democracy1.The Majoritarian Model of Democracy -relies on the public opinions intuitive notion of what is fair. It interprets government by the people as government by themajorityof the people.a. The popular election of government officials is the primary mechanism for democratic government.b. Citizens are expected to control their representatives behavior by choosing wisely in the first place and by reelecting or voting out public officials according to their performance.c. Elections are also the means for deciding government policies.Referendum: election on a policy issueInitiative: policy question is placed upon the ballot by the action of citizens circulating petitions and gathering a required number of signatures.Recall: special election for an up or down vote on a sitting governor or state judge.d. In the United States,no provisions exist for referenda at the federal level2.An Alternative Model: Pluralist Democracya.The pluralist model of democracyinterprets government by the people to mean government by people operating through competing interest groups.b. According to this model,democracy exists when many (plural) organizations operate separately from the government, press their interests on the government, and even challenge the government.c. When an organized group seeks to influence government policy, it is called aninterest group.d. A decentralized, complex government structure offers the access and openness necessary for pluralist democracy.e. Interest groups in Washington are thriving, and the rise of many citizen groups has broadened representation beyond traditional business, labor, and professional groups.f. Political scientist Robert Putnam has documented declining participation in a wide variety of organizations.3.The Majoritarian ModelVersusthe Pluralist Modela. In majoritarian democracy, the mass public, not interest groups, controls government actions.Citizens must be knowledgeable about government and willing to participate in the electoral process.Elections harness the power of the majority to make decisions.Conclusive elections needed for majoritarian model.Centralized structure required for majoritarian model.Cohesive parties needed to provide clear alternative sets of policies in the majoritarian model.b.Pluralism does not demand much knowledge from citizens.Requires specialized knowledge only from groups of citizens, in particular their leaders.Seeks to limit majority action so that interest groups can be heard.Relies on a decentralized government structure that prevents majority rule.Pluralism allows for minorities to rule.4.An Undemocratic Model: Elite Theorya.According to elite theory, important government decisions are made by an identifiable and stable minority that shares certain characteristics, usually vast wealth and business connections.b. According to this theory, the United States is not a democracy but anoligarchy.Voting and elections make it appear like the public has power and control.c. The powerful few in society manage to define the issues and constrain the outcomes of government decisions to suit their own interests. Clearly this theory describes a government that operates in an undemocratic manner.d. Elite theory remains part of the debate about the nature of American government and is forcefully argued by some severe critics of the American political system.e. The authors endorse pluralist democracy as a more accurate description than elitism in American politics without believing that all groups are equally well represented.5.Elite Theory versus Pluralist Theory: The key difference is durability of the ruling minority.a.Pluralist theory does not define government conflict in terms of a minority versus the majority. Instead, it sees many minorities vying with one another in each policy area. Pluralist democracy makes a virtue of the struggle between competing interests. Argues for government that accommodates this struggle and channels the result into government action. So long as all groups are able to participate vigorously in the decision-making process, the process is democratic.V.Democracy and GlobalizationOne research institute has found a global trend toward democratization in every decade since 1975. Democratization is a difficult process. The authors use the difficulties of Afghanistan with the Taliban as an example.VI.American Democracy: More Pluralist Than MajoritarianA. What kind of democracy is practiced inthe United States?The authors argue that American democracy leans more toward the pluralist model than majoritarian.CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS:1. Imagine yourself as a delegate to the 1787 Philadelphia convention and are asked the following question: Which value mattered most to you and the delegates at the constitutional convention: social order, political liberty or economic equality? Why?2. Which ideological type are you: a communitarian, conservative, libertarian, or liberal? Use the exact questions on abortion, affirmative action and immigration that are in the text to help you figure this out. Students can use the political ideology quiz found online at http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_is_your_political_ideology