POLS 207 1st Edition Lecture 7 Outline of Last Lecture I Politics Among the States Outline of Current Lecture II The Role of Government in the Economy III The Role of Government in Society a Ideologies b Institutional differences Current Lecture The Role of Government in the Economy In other countries as resources become more abundant government tends to move closer to socialism Society becomes more civilized and moves closer to a socialist society Socialism includes services such as subsidized public transport and utilities Inglehart s study has a theory about post materialism Answer questions and he defined whether you are post materialist or not He finds that there are a lot of post materialistic societies in Western Europe They find that these societies have a lot of post materialists These societies have surpassed their need for the first 4 four parts of Maslow s law and have moved onto the fifth actualization This means they have moved onto spirituality and other aspects of life such as the environment Europeans cycle to most places because they believe in global climate change so want to help the environment Americans are still classified as materialists The Role of Government in Society Freedom Order Social Freedom o Places a high value on individual liberties even at the expense of having an orderly society Bill of Rights freedom of speech freedom to assemble etc Those that believe in social freedom feel that these are more important than social order because without freedom society would crumble Social Order o Places a high value on public stability and decency even at the expense of individual freedom Political Ideology Liberal Conservative Left wing Right wing Economic Issues T A L C Slavery was a example of a freedom market economy eradicating this has taken it away because there are regulations on how much you have to pay your workers Anarchy less regulation Totalitarianism more regulation Social Issues A T L C Totalitarianism regulations Control over how you must act and how you must dress etc So moving towards A means less regulations and moving towards T means more regulation Patriot Act took away many of our freedoms after 9 11 fear led to this act Government can now check your library subscriptions emails and other details Liberals are against this and don t believe that government should have this power China currently has a free market economy that has created a huge amount of pollution There are no regulations on emissions and therefore companies do nothing to stop them This has created huge amounts of smog covering Beijing FDA is government regulation which is moving towards the T on the scale However it helps stop harmful chemicals arriving in our food etc so we have to decide between total freedom and a little government regulation Even freedom of speech is regulated by Supreme Court decisions Freedom of speech is not absolute Marriage between couples of a different race previously has not been allowed Loving v Virginia changed this in the 60s Now the issue has moved to same sex marriage More and more people are in favor of same sex marriages Abortion is another social issue that is extremely controversial Current rulings is that women should have the freedom to choose The government have however regulated this by trimester However some states have passed laws that state that a Doctor can lie to their patients They can tell the parents that there is not problem with the child even if there is This takes away the freedom of the women to choose Conservatives are more likely to support regulating behavior they want to regulate speech marriage and abortion Whether you are in favor of this or not stems from your political culture Political Ideology 2 Dimensional Liberal Conservative Freedom A Order T Civil Liberties Restrict Behavior Equality Efficiency Social welfare programs Free Market It is often the case that the dimensions are not consistent with one another In other words if a person values social freedom they will not necessarily value equality also Liberal Conservative Equality Efficiency Freedom Order add regulation by government takes away regulation by government College Station is fairly heavily regulated sound regulations and regulations on housing Such as the rule in some districts that states no more than two unmarried people can share a house Neither ideology believes in total regulation or total freedom Belief in Freedom Efficiency is Libertarianism Belief in Equality Order is Populism Conservative high value for social order and economic efficiency Govt power must be used to regulate individual choices Oppose use of government power to regulate economy Economic inequality is the natural consequence of human ability and energy They see the need to use government power to guide and limit human behavior in the realm of morals but oppose the use of government to restrict human behavior in the economic realm Liberal high value for social freedom and economic equality Value private property and market and willing to support govt intervention to promote individual welfare and regulate the economy Libertarian high value for social freedom and economic efficiency minimal government involvement in all aspects of life Emphasize the autonomy of the individual and minimal role of govt individual should be free from government restraint in both economic and non economic spheres NOT ANARCHY as may be perceived They believe in minimal intervention of government not a society without government Populist favor government intervention in the economy to benefit the average or little guy Populists are not anti capitalists They accept most of the assumptions of liberalism especially emphasizing individualism equality of opportunity and property rights Populists support the use of government power to regulate individual behavior so that it conforms to traditional moral and social values NOT TOTALITARIAN for the same reason that libertarians are not anarchists The Texas Political Culture Conservatism o The conservatism characterized by Thomas Jefferson s statement that that government is best which governs least has dominated Texas politics since the end of the Civil War o Conservatism refers to a general hostility to government activity or laissezfaire especially in the economic sphere and is consistent with the individualist political culture on economic issues and consistent with the traditionalist political culture on social issues o Texas conservatism