POLS 206 Lecture 2 Outline of Previous Lecture What is government What is politics Political Participation Policy Making System o People Make Policy Traditional Democratic Theory o Key Principles of the Democratic Process Outline of Current Lecture I Three Contemporary Theories of American Democracy II Challenges to Democracy III American Political Culture and Democracy IV How active is the American Government Lecture Three Contemporary Theories of American Democracy a Pluralism i Groups of minorities working together ii Good policy will prevail because groups must compromise iii Groups compete Compromise policy making Government is stronger than any individual group b Elitism i Power is held by wealthy b Hyper pluralism i Too many groups try to control policy ii Government is too weak to do anything iii Leads to gridlock and nothing getting done iv Key to pluralism is that groups compete and something gets done Challenges to Democracy a Increased complexity of issues i Requires the need of informed politicians and informed electorate b Limited participation in government i Only 55 voting participation in United States b Diverse political interests i Policy gridlock ii Too many people want too many different things b Escalating campaign costs i Money is very important in elections American Political Culture and Democracy a Political culture based on American creed i Liberty 1 Liberty for all ii Egalitarianism 1 Equality 2 Equality under the laws ii Individualism 1 Limited government 2 Self reliant life should based on self abilities and not what the government does for you ii Laissez Faire 1 Hands off economy 2 Free market or capitalism ii Populism 1 For the people How Active is the American Government a Gross Domestic Product GDP i Sum of all goods and services produced by the country ii Government spends 1 3 iii Government employs 24 million people 1 Number is growing and makes the US government the largest employer on the planet 2 Own 1 4 1 5 of land in the country b Americans expect the government to solve problems i Unemployment terrorism illegal immigration energy education lack of access to health care Chapter 2 The Constitution The Constitution a Does not set up neutral rules for politics i Has a conservative not ideology bias favoring status quo 2 1 Origins of the Constitution a Road to the Revolution i No taxation without representation 1 Sending troops to protect colonies 2 Colonists were not keeping any wealth all was going to England 3 Starts very peacefully
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