The Democratic Republic PDF

The Democratic Republic Politics, for many people, is the “great game,” and it is played for high stakes. After all, the game involves vast sums and the very security of the nation. In the last few years, the stakes have grown higher still. In 2020, American voters picked former vice president Jose...

The Democratic Republic Politics, for many people, is the “great game,” and it is played for high stakes. After all, the game involves vast sums and the very security of the nation. In the last few years, the stakes have grown higher still. In 2020, American voters picked former vice president Joseph Biden to be the next president of the United States. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica, was the new vice president. The elections were hard fought. Allega tions of election fraud by the outgoing Donald Trump administration were not successful. Biden’s popular vote margin was large. As we explain in this text, however, Americans choose their president through the electoral college, not the popular vote. There, the margin between the candidates was closer. Pending runoff elections, the Republicans appeared to have kept control of the U.S. Senate. Democrats continued to hold the House, though they lost seats. The Biden administration was poised to reverse many of the changes that Trump had made to the executive branch of government, but new legislation seemed unlikely. Politics and Government What is politics? Politics can be understood as the process of resolving conflicts and decid ing “who gets what, when, and how.”1 More specifically, politics is the struggle over power or influence within organizations or informal groups that can grant or withhold benefits or privileges. We can identify many such groups and organizations. In every community that makes decisions through formal or informal rules, politics exists. For example, when a church decides to construct a new building or hire a new minister, the decision is made politically. Politics can be found in schools, social groups, and any other organized collection of indi viduals. Of all the organizations that are controlled by political activity, however, the most important is the government. What is the government? Certainly, it is an institution—that is, an ongoing organiza tion that performs certain functions for society. An institution has a life separate from the lives of the individuals who are part of it at any given moment in time. The government is an institution within which decisions are made that resolve conflicts and allocate benefits and privileges. The government is also the preeminent institution within society because it has the ultimate authority for making these decisions. Politics - The struggle over power or influence within organizations or informal groups that can grant or withhold benefits or privileges. Institution - An ongoing organization that performs certain functions for society. Government - The institution that has the ultimate authority for making decisions that resolve conflicts and allocate benefits and privileges within a society. Order - A state of peace and security. Maintaining order by protecting members of society from violence and criminal activity is one of the oldest purposes of government. Why Is Government Necessary? Perhaps the best way to assess the need for government is to examine circumstances in which government, as we normally understand it, does not exist. What happens when mul tiple groups compete violently with one another for power within a society? There are places around the world where such circumstances exist. A current example is the Middle Eastern nation of Syria, run by the dictator Bashar al-Assad. In 2011, the government killed peace ful protesters, which led to an armed rebellion. The government lost control of much of the country, and its forces repeatedly massacred civilians in contested areas. Some rebels, such as the so-called Islamic State (ISIS), were extreme Islamists. Others were more moderate. By 2013, rebels were fighting each other as well as the government. In much of Syria, law and order had broken down completely. By 2020, when the government forces had regained control of most of the country, almost 500,000 people had been killed, and more than half of the country’s people had been driven from their homes. As the example of Syria shows, one of the foundational purposes of government is the maintenance of security, or order. By keeping the peace, a government protects its people from violence at the hands of private or foreign armies and criminals. If order is not present, it is not possible for the government to provide any of the other benefits that people expect from it. Order is a political value to which we will return later in this chapter. Limiting Government Power A complete collapse of order and security, as seen in Syria, actually is an uncommon event. Much more common is the reverse—too much government con trol. In January 2020, the human rights organiza tion Freedom House judged that 51 of the world’s countries were “not free.” These nations contain 37 percent of the world’s population. Such countries may be controlled by individual kings or dictators. Saudi Arabia’s king, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un are obvi ous examples. Alternatively, a political party, such as the Communist Party of China, may monopolize all the levels of power. The military may rule, as in Thailand since 2014. In all of these examples, the individual or group running the country cannot be removed by legal means. Freedom of speech and the right to a fair trial are typically absent. Dictatorial governments often torture or execute their opponents. Such regimes may also suppress freedom of religion. Revolution, whether violent or nonviolent, is often the only way to change the government. In short, protection from the violence of domestic criminals or foreign armies is not enough. Citizens also need protection from abuses of power by their own government. To protect the liberties of the people, it is necessary to limit the powers of the government. Liberty—the greatest freedom of the individual consistent with the freedom of other individuals—is a second major political value, along with order. We discuss this value in more detail later in this chapter. Liberty - The greatest freedom of the individual that is consistent with the freedom of other individuals in the society.  Authority -The right and power of a government or other entity to enforce its decisions. Legitimacy - Popular acceptance of the right and power of a government or other entity to exercise authority. Authority and Legitimacy Every government must have authority—that is, the right and power to enforce its deci sions. Ultimately, the government’s authority rests on its control of the armed forces and the police. In normal times, few people in the United States, however, base their day-to-day activities on fear of the government’s enforcement powers. Most people, most of the time, obey the law because this is what they have always done. Also, if they did not obey the law, they would face the disapproval of friends and family. Consider an example: Do you avoid injuring your friends or stealing their possessions because you are afraid of the police—or because if you undertook these actions, you no longer would have friends? Under normal circumstances, the government’s authority has broad popular support. People accept the government’s right to establish rules and laws. When authority is broadly accepted, we say that it has legitimacy. Authority without legitimacy is a recipe for trouble. Events in several Arab nations since 2011 can serve as an example. The dictators who ruled Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia had been in power for decades. None of these nations had a tradition of democracy, and so it was possible for undemocratic rulers to enjoy a degree of legitimacy. After years of oppressive behavior, these regimes slowly lost that legitimacy. The rulers survived only because they were willing to employ violence against any opposi tion. In Egypt and Tunisia, the end came when soldiers refused to use force against massive demonstrations. Having lost all legitimacy, the rulers of these two countries then lost their authority as well. In Libya, the downfall and death of the dictator Muammar Gaddafi came only after a seven-month civil war. (Egypt’s shaky new democracy collapsed in 2013, how ever, when the army seized power.) Democracy and Other Forms of Government The different types of government can be classified according to which person or group of people controls society through the government. Totalitarian Regime - A form of government that controls all aspects of the political, social, and economic life of a nation. Authoritarianism - A type of regime in which only the government itself is fully controlled by the ruler. Social and economic institutions exist that are not under the government’s control. Democracy - A system of government in which political authority is vested in the people. Direct Democracy - A system of government in which political decisions are made by the people directly, rather than by their elected representatives. TYPES OF GOVERNMENT At one extreme is a society governed by a totalitarian regime. In such a political system, a small group of leaders or a single individual—a dictator—has ultimate control over all decisions for the society. Every aspect of political, social, and economic life is con trolled by the government. The power of the ruler is total (thus, the term totalitarianism). Examples of such regimes include Germany under Adolf Hitler and the former Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. A second type of system is authoritarian government. Authoritarianism differs from totalitarianism in that only the government itself is fully controlled by the ruler. Social and economic institutions, such as churches, businesses, and labor unions, exist that are not under the government’s control. Many of our terms for describing the distribution of political power are derived from the ancient Greeks, who were the first Western people to study politics systematically. One form of rule was known as aristocracy, literally meaning “rule by the best.” In practice, this meant rule by wealthy members of ancient families. Another term from the Greeks is theocracy, which literally means “rule by God” (or the gods). In practice, theocracy means rule by self- appointed religious leaders. Iran is a rare example of a country in which supreme power is in the hands of a religious leader, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. One of the most straightforward Greek terms is oligarchy, which simply means “rule by a few.” The Greek term for rule by the people was democracy. Within the limits of their culture, some of the Greek city-states operated as democracies. Today, in much of the world, the people will not grant legitimacy to a government unless it is based on democracy. Direct Democracy as a Model The Athenian system of government in ancient Greece is usually considered the purest model for direct democracy because the citizens of that community debated and voted directly on all laws, even those put forward by the ruling council of the city. (Women, resi dent foreigners, and slaves, however, were excluded because they were not citizens.) This form of government required a high level of participation from every citizen. The Athenians believed that although a high level of participation might lead to instability in government, citizens, if informed about the issues, could be trusted to make wise decisions. Direct democracy also has been practiced at the local level in Switzerland and, in the United States, in New England town meetings. At these town meetings, important decisions— such as levying taxes, hiring city officials, and deciding local ordinances—are made by major ity vote. Some states provide a modern adaptation of direct democracy for their citizens. In these  states, representative democracy is supplemented by the initiative or the referendum. Both processes enable the people to vote directly on laws or constitutional amendments. The recall process, which is available in many states, allows the people to vote to remove an official from state office before his or her term has expired. Initiative - A procedure by which voters can petition to vote on a law or a constitutional amendment. Referendum - An electoral device whereby legislative or constitutional measures are referred by the legislature to the voters for approval or disapproval. Recall - A procedure allowing the people to vote to dismiss an elected official from office before his or her term has expired. The Dangers of Direct Democracy Although they were aware of the Athenian model, the framers of the U.S. Constitu tion were opposed to such a system. They considered democracy to be dangerous and a source of instability. But in the 1700s and 1800s, the idea of government based on the consent of the people gained increasing popularity. Such a government was the main aspiration of the American Revolution of 1775–83. At the time of the revolution, however, ordinary people were still considered to be too uneducated to govern themselves, too prone to the influence of demagogues (political lead ers who manipulate popular prejudices), and too likely to subordinate minority rights to the tyranny of the majority. James Madison, while defending the new scheme of government set forth in the U.S. Constitution, warned of the problems inherent in a “pure democracy”: A Democratic Republic The framers of the U.S. Constitution chose to craft a republic, meaning a government in which sovereign power rests with the people, rather than with a king or a monarch. A repub lic is based on popular sovereignty. To Americans of the 1700s, the idea of a republic also meant a government based on common beliefs and virtues that would be fostered within small communities. The U.S. Constitution created a form of republican government that we now call a democratic republic. The people hold the ultimate power over the government through elec tions, but all national policy decisions are made by elected officials. For the founders, even this distance between the people and the government was not sufficient. The Constitution made sure that the Senate and the president would not be elected by a direct vote of the people. Senators were chosen by state legislatures (although a later constitutional amend ment allowed for the direct election of senators). The founders also established an electoral college to choose the president, in the hope—soon frustrated—that such a body would prevent voters from ultimately making the choice. Despite these limits, the new American system was unique in the amount of power it granted to the ordinary citizen. Over the course of the following two centuries, democratic values became more and more popular, at first in Western nations and then throughout the rest of the world. The spread of democratic principles gave rise to another name for our system of government— representative democracy. The term representative democracy has almost the same meaning as democratic republic, with one exception. Recall that in a repub lic, not only are the people sovereign, but there is no king. What if a nation develops into a democracy but preserves the monarchy as a largely ceremonial institution? That is exactly what happened in Britain. The British, who have long cherished their kings and queens, found the term democratic republic unacceptable. A republic, after all, meant there could be no monarch. The British therefore described their system as a representative democracy instead. Republic A form of government in which sovereign power rests with the people, rather than with a king or a monarch. Popular Sovereignty The concept that ultimate political authority is based on the will of the people. Democratic Republic A republic in which leaders elected by the people make and enforce laws and policies. Representative Democracy A form of government in which leaders elected by the people make and enforce laws and policies, but in which the monarchy may be retained in a ceremonial role. PRINCIPLES OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT. All representative democracies rest on the rule of the people as expressed through the election of government officials. In the 1790s in the United States, only free white males were able to vote, and in some states they had to be property owners as well. Women in many states did not receive the right to vote in national elections until 1920, and the right to vote was not secured in all states by African Americans until the 1960s. Today, universal suffrage is the rule. Because everyone’s vote counts equally, the only way to make fair decisions is by some form of majority will. But to ensure that majority rule does not become oppressive, modern democracies also provide guarantees of minority rights. If political minorities were not protected, the majority might violate the fundamental rights of members of certain groups—especially groups that are unpopular or dissimilar to the majority population, such as racial minorities. To guarantee the continued existence of a representative democracy, there must be free, competitive elections. Thus, the opposition always has the opportunity to win elective office. For such elections to be totally open, freedom of the press and freedom of speech must be preserved so that opposition candidates can present their criticisms of the govern ment to the people. Universal Suffrage The right of all adults to vote for their government representatives. Majority Rule A basic principle of democracy asserting that the greatest number of citizens in any political unit should select officials and determine policies. Constitutional Democracy. Another key feature of Western representative democracy is that it is based on the principle of limited government. Not only is the government dependent on popular sovereignty, but the powers of the government are also clearly limited, either through a written document or through widely shared beliefs. The U.S. Constitution sets down the fundamental structure of the government and the limits to its activities. Such limits are intended to prevent political decisions based on the whims or ambitions of individuals in government rather than on constitutional principles. Limited Government - A government with powers that are limited either through a written document or through widely shared beliefs. What Kind of Democracy Do We Have? Political scientists have developed a number of theories about American democracy, includ ing majoritarianism, elite theory, and pluralism. Advocates of these theories use them to describe American democracy either as it actually is or as they believe it should be: Some scholars argue that none of these three theories, which we discuss next, fully describes the workings of American democracy. These experts say that each theory captures a part of the true reality but that we need all three theories to gain a full understanding of Ameri can politics. Democracy for Everyone Many people believe that in a democracy, the government ought to do what the majority of the people want. This simple proposition is the heart of majoritarian theory. As a theory of what democracy should be like, majoritarianism is popular among both political scientists and ordinary citizens. Many scholars, however, con sider majoritarianism to provide a surprisingly poor description of how U.S. democracy actu ally works. Policies adopted by the U.S. gov ernment are often strikingly different from the ones endorsed by the public in opinion polls. One example is religion in the public schools. Solid majorities have long advocated a greater role for religion in the public schools, even to the point of teachers leading students in prayer. Most elected officials, however, have tried to uphold the constitutional principle of “separation of church and state.” Democracy for the Few If ordinary citizens are not really making policy decisions with their votes, who is? One theory suggests that elites really govern the United States. Elite theory holds that society is ruled by a small number of people who exercise power to further their self-interest. Ameri can democracy, in other words, is a sham democracy. Few people today believe it is a good idea for the country to be run by a privileged minority. In the past, however, many people believed that it was appropriate for the country to be governed by an elite. Consider the words of Alexander Hamilton, one of the framers of the Constitution. Some versions of elite theory assume that there is a small, cohesive elite class that makes almost all the important decisions for the nation,4 whereas others suggest that voters choose among competing elites. Popular movements of varying political persuasions often advocate simple versions of elite theory. Majoritarianism, A political theory holding that in a democracy, the government ought to do what the majority of the people want. Elite Theory The argument that society is ruled by a small number of people who exercise power to further their self-interest. Pluralism A theory that views politics as a conflict among interest groups. Political decision making is characterized by bargaining and compromise. Democracy for Groups A different school of thought holds that our form of democracy is based on group interests. Even if the average citizen cannot keep up with political issues or cast a deciding vote in any election, the individual’s interests will be protected by groups that represent her or him. Theorists who subscribe to pluralism see politics as a struggle among groups to gain benefits for their members. Given the structure of the American political system, group conflicts tend to be settled by compromise and accommodation. Because there are a mul titude of interests, no one group can dominate the political process. Furthermore, because most individuals have more than one interest, conflict among groups need not divide the nation into hostile camps. Many political scientists believe that pluralism works very well as a descriptive theory. As a theory of how democracy should function, however, pluralism has problems. Poor citizens are rarely represented by interest groups. At the same time, rich citizens may be overrepresented. (Still, the unorganized poor do receive useful representation from religious and liberal groups.) There are also serious doubts as to whether group decision making always reflects the best interests of the nation. Indeed, critics see a danger that groups may grow so powerful that all policies become compromises crafted to satisfy the interests of the largest groups. The interests of the public as a whole, then, are not considered. Critics of pluralism have suggested that a democratic system can be almost paralyzed by the struggle among interest groups. Fundamental Values The writers of the U.S. Constitution believed that the structures they had created would pro vide for both popular sovereignty and a stable political system. They also believed that the nation would be sustained by its political culture—the patterned set of ideas, values, and ways of thinking about government and politics that characterized its people. Even today, there is considerable consensus among American citizens about certain concepts—including the rights to liberty, equality, and property—that are deemed to be basic to the U.S. political system. Most Americans are descendents of immigrants who came from diverse cultural and political backgrounds. You can see how immigration will continue to change the composi tion of the nation in future years in Figure 1.1. Given the changing nature of our population, now and in the past, how can we account for the broad consensus that exists around basic values? Primarily, it is the result of political socialization—the process by which political beliefs and values are transmitted to new immigrants and to our children. The two most important sources of political socialization are the family and the educational system. The most fundamental concepts of the American political culture are those of the dominant culture. The term dominant culture refers to the values, customs, and language established by the groups that traditionally have controlled politics and government in a society. The dominant culture in the United States has its roots in Western European civili zation. From that civilization, American politics inherited a bias in favor of individualism, private property, and Judeo-Christian ethics. Political Culture A patterned set of ideas, values, and ways of thinking about government and politics that characterizes a people. Political Socialization The process by which people acquire political beliefs and values. Liberty Versus Order In the United States, our civil liberties include religious freedom—both the right to practice whatever religion we choose and the right to be free from any state-imposed religion. Our civil liberties also include freedom of speech—the right to express our opinions freely on all matters, including government actions. Freedom of speech is perhaps one of our most prized liberties, because a democracy could not endure without it. These and many other basic guar antees of liberty are found in the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Liberty, however, is not the only value widely held by Americans. A substantial portion of the American electorate believes that certain kinds of liberty threaten the traditional social order. The right to privacy is a particularly controversial liberty. The United States Supreme Court has held that the right to privacy can be derived from other rights that are explicitly stated in the Bill of Rights. The Supreme Court has also held that under the right to privacy, the government cannot ban either abortion or private homosexual behavior by consenting adults.5 More recently, the Court also held that the government cannot prohibit same-sex marriage.6 Some Americans believe that such rights threaten the sanctity of the family and the general cultural commitment to moral behavior. Of course, others disagree with this point of view. Security is another issue that follows from the principle of order. When Americans have felt particularly fearful or vulnerable, the government has emphasized national security over civil liberties. Such was the case after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, which led to the U.S. entry into World War II. Thousands of Japanese Americans were held in internment camps, based on the assumption that their loyalty to this country was in question. Civil Liberties Those personal freedoms, including freedom of religion and of speech, that are protected for all individuals in a society. Bill of Rights The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution Liberty Versus Equality The Declaration of Independence states, “All men are created equal.” The proper meaning of equality, however, has been disputed by Ameri cans since the Revolution. Much of American history—and indeed, world history—is the story of how the value of equality, the idea that all people are of equal worth, has been extended and elaborated. First, the right to vote was granted to all adult white males, regardless of whether they owned property. The Civil War resulted in the end of slavery and established that, in principle at least, all citizens were equal before the law. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s sought to make that promise of equality a reality for African Americans. Other movements have sought equality for additional racial and ethnic groups, for women, for persons with dis abilities, and for LGBTQ individuals. Although many people believe that we still have a way to go in obtaining full equality for all of these groups, we clearly have come a long way already. No American in the nine teenth century could have imagined that the 2008 Democratic presidential primary elections would be closely fought contests between an African American man (Illinois senator Barack Obama) and a white woman (New York senator Hillary Rodham Clinton). The idea that same-sex marriage could even be open to debate would have been mind-boggling as well. Promoting equality often requires limiting the right to treat people unequally. In this sense, equality and liberty can be conflicting values. Today, the right to deny equal treatment to the members of a particular race has very few defenders. Yet as recently as sixty years ago, this right was a cultural norm. It can also be argued that liberty and equality are complementary. For example, people or groups cannot really enjoy liberty if they do not have equal rights under the law. Equality - As a political value, the idea that all people are of equal worth. Economic Equality. Equal treatment regardless of race, religion, gender, or other characteristics is a popular value today. Equal opportunity for individuals to develop their talents and skills is also a value with substantial support. Equality of economic status, however, is a controversial value. For much of history, the idea that the government could do anything about the division of society between rich and poor was not something about which people even thought. Most people assumed that such an effort was either impossible or undesirable. This assumption began to lose its force in the 1800s. As a result of the growing wealth of the Western world and a visible increase in the ability of government to take on large projects, some people began to advocate the value of universal equality, or egalitarianism. Some radicals dreamed of a revolutionary transformation of society that would establish an egalitarian system—that is, a system in which wealth and power were redistributed more equally. Many others rejected this vision but still came to endorse the values of eliminating poverty and at least reducing the degree of economic inequality in society. Antipoverty advocates believed then and believe now that such a program could prevent much suffering. In addition, they believed that reducing economic inequality would promote fairness and enhance the moral tone of society generally. Property Rights and Capitalism. The value of reducing economic inequality is in conflict with the right to property. This is because reducing economic inequality typically involves the transfer of property (usually in the form of tax dollars) from some people to others. For many people, liberty and property are closely entwined. Our capitalist system is based on private property rights. Under capitalism, property consists not only of personal possessions but also of wealth-creating assets such as farms and factories. Capitalism is also typically characterized by considerable freedom to make binding contracts and by relatively unconstrained markets for goods, services, and investments. Property—especially wealth-creating property—can be seen as giving its owner politi cal power and the liberty to do whatever he or she wants. At the same time, the ownership of property immediately creates inequality in society. The desire to own property, however, is so widespread among all classes of Americans that radical egalitarian movements have had a difficult time securing a wide following in this country. Property Anything that is or may be subject to ownership. Capitalism An economic system characterized by the private ownership of wealth-creating assets, free markets, and freedom of contract. The Proper Role and Size of Government Americans have substantial differences of opinion on the values just described—liberty, order, and equality. Americans also have a wide variety of needs and interests. From the very beginning of the republic, these opinions and interests have yielded different conceptions of what government ought to do and how large it should be. Traditionally, these varying conceptions have taken the form of arguments over the size of government. Many Americans believe that “That government is best which governs least,” a motto popularized by Henry David Thoreau.7 The flaw in Thoreau’s slogan is that opposition to “big government,” taken by itself, is a somewhat empty idea. Almost invariably, those who oppose big government do so because there are things that they do not want the government to do. Thoreau, for example, was opposed to the Mexican-American War and to federal support for the institution of slavery. Citizens often express contradictory opinions on the size of government and the role that it should play in their lives. Americans tend to oppose “big government” in principle even as they endorse its benefits. Those who complain about the amount of taxes they pay each year may also worry about the lack of funds for more teachers in the local schools. Such tensions have done much to shape American politics from the Revolutionary Era to the twenty-first century. Big Government and the Great Recession. In September 2008, a financial meltdown threatened the world economy. The impact of the Great Recession was so strong that the share of Americans with jobs did not return to the 2008 level until the beginning of 2020, just before the pandemic struck, as you can see in Figure 1.2. The immediate result of this disaster in the November 2008 elections was to guarantee Democrat Barack Obama the presidency and grant the Democrats unusually large margins in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. The newly empowered Democrats passed major spending programs….. Who Benefits From Government? It soon became clear that neither Trump nor his most ardent followers were particularly enamored of the traditional small-government conservatism endorsed by most Republican officeholders. This attitude had also been common among supporters of the Tea Party, an earlier conservative movement.8 While the Tea Party built itself around rhetorical opposition to big government, most Tea Party supporters had no problems with programs such as Medicare and Social Security that benefited older voters, many of whom were white. They did oppose programs such as Obamacare that were seen as primarily benefiting poorer Americans and minority group members. The question, in other words, was not so much the size of government but who benefits from government. Under Trump, this underlying theme became dominant. For example, after Hurricane Michael devastated the Florida Panhandle in 2018, many Floridians worried that the federal government’s response was inadequate. As one Trump supporter put it, “He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.” 9 The point was not just that Trump was failing to help his supporters. This voter also appeared to believe that “hurting people” is one of the legitimate tasks of government. Trump’s Supporters. ----- Trump won the presidency in part because loyal Republicans rallied to his campaign. Still, a new block of voters—many of whom had not voted in previous elections— put him over the top. Trump’s strongest support came from white voters without a college education. This group is commonly called the white working class. By 2016, it was clear that many members of this class were experiencing a social crisis marked by despair, falling life expectancies, and drug abuse. In fact, county by county, poor health was as much an indicator of Trump support as low levels of education. The Reaction Against Trump ---- Trump's election surprised many and led to various reactions. The 2018 mid-term elections and subsequent policy actions reflected the nation's ongoing debates over fundamental values Political Ideologies Ideology - A comprehensive set of beliefs about the nature of people and about the role of an institution or government. Conservatism - A set of beliefs that includes a limited role for the national government in helping individuals, support for traditional values and lifestyles, and a cautious response to change. Liberalism - A set of beliefs that includes advocacy of positive government action to improve the welfare of individuals, support for civil rights, and tolerance for political and social change. Socialism - A political ideology based on strong support for economic and social equality. Socialists traditionally envisioned a society in which major businesses were taken over by the government or by employee cooperatives. Libertarianism - A political ideology based on skepticism or opposition toward most government activities. A political ideology is a closely linked set of beliefs about politics. The concept of ideology is often misunderstood. Many people think that only individuals whose beliefs lie well out on one or the other end of the political spectrum have an ideology. Actually, almost everyone who has political opinions can be said to have an ideology. Indeed, many “non-ideological” people actually carry two or more ideologies in their heads, which is why they can hold some opinions that are conservative and others that are liberal. Political ideologies offer people well-organized theories that propose goals for society and the means by which those goals can be achieved. At the core of every political ideology is a set of guiding values. The two ideologies most commonly referred to in discussions of American politics are conservatism and liberalism. Conservatism - Those who favor the ideology of conservatism seek to conserve traditional practices and institutions. In that sense, conservatism is as old as politics itself. Compared with other political tendencies, conservatives place a high value on order, specifically in-group loyalty and respect for authority. This includes patriotism and support for a firm hand by the police. The conservative vision of the world includes a place for everyone, but also everyone in their place. Men and women have their appropriate roles. Many conservatives see members of the LGBTQ community12 as violating the natural order. The rich and the poor also have their natural place: success is attributed to hard work and other virtues, while poverty is the consequence of personal failings. It is appropriate for employers to exercise authority over employees. These attitudes have major implications for economic policy. In the past, enterprises were largely free to act as they pleased in the marketplace and in managing their employees. Government regulation of business increased greatly in the 1930s, as Democratic president Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–45) initiated a series of massive interventions in the economy in an attempt to counter the effects of the Great Depression. Many conservatives consider the Roosevelt administration to be a time when America took a wrong turn. The Conservative Movement. It was in the 1950s, however, that American conservatism took its modern shape. The conservative movement that arose in that decade provided the age-old conservative impulse with a fully worked-out ideology. The new movement first demonstrated its strength in 1964, when Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona was nominated as the Republican presidential candidate. Goldwater lost badly to Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson, but from that time forward movement conservatives have occupied a crucial position in the Republican Party. Conservative Values. Modern conservatives strongly endorse liberty, but they generally define it as freedom from government imposition of nontraditional ideals such as gay rights or government interference in business. Conservatives believe that the private sector probably can outperform the government in almost any activity. Conservatives place a relatively low value on equality. Believing that individuals and families are primarily responsible for their own well-being, they typically oppose high levels of antipoverty spending and government expenditures to stimulate the economy, favor ing tax-rate cuts instead. Trump supporters, with their anti-immigrant, nationalist views, emphasized different aspects of the conservative tradition than those championed by the conservative movement. Still, Trump’s followers were clearly conservative in a broad sense. Liberalism The term liberalism stems from the word liberty and originally meant “free from prejudice in favor of traditional opinions and established institutions.” Liberals have always been skeptical of the influence of religion in politics, but in the nineteenth century they were skeptical of government as well. From the time of Democratic presidents Woodrow Wilson (1913–21) and Franklin D. Roosevelt, however, American liberals increasingly sought to use the power of government for nontraditional ends. Their goals included support for organized labor and for the poor. New programs instituted by the Roosevelt administration included Social Security and unemployment insurance. Modern Liberalism. American liberalism took its modern form in the 1960s. Liberals rallied to the civil rights movement, which sought to obtain equal rights for African Americans. As the feminist movement grew in importance, liberals supported it as well. Liberals won new federal health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, and the promotion of such programs became a key component of liberal politics. Finally, liberals reacted more negatively to U.S. participation in the Vietnam War (1965–75) than did other Americans, and for years thereafter liberalism was associated with skepticism about the use of U.S. military forces abroad. Liberal Values. Those who favor liberalism place a high value on social and economic equality. As we have seen, liberals champion the rights of minority group members and favor substantial antipoverty spending. In contrast to conservatives, liberals often support government intervention in the economy. They believe that capitalism works best when the government curbs capitalism’s excesses through regulation. Like conservatives, liberals place a high value on liberty, but they tend to view it as the freedom to live one’s life according to one’s own values. Liberals, therefore, usually support LGBTQ. rights, including the right to same-sex marriage. Liberals are an influential force within the Democratic Party. The Traditional Political Spectrum A traditional method of comparing political ideologies is to arrange them on a continuum from left to right, based primarily on how much power the government should exercise to promote economic equality. Table 1.1 shows how ideologies can be arrayed on a traditional political spectrum. In addition to liberalism and conservatism, this example includes the ideologies of socialism and libertarianism. Socialism falls on the left side of the spectrum.13 Socialist parties and movements have been important in other countries around the world, but socialists have usually played a minor role in the American political arena. An obvious exception has been senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (D-VT), a self-proclaimed “democratic socialist.” Following the 2018 mid-term elections, Sanders was no longer alone—socialists had estab lished a tiny but vocal presence on the left wing of the Democratic Party. In the past, socialists typically advocated replacing investor ownership of major busi nesses with either government ownership or ownership by employee cooperatives. Socialists believed that such steps would break the power of the very rich and lead to an egalitarian society. In more recent times, socialists in western countries have advocated more limited programs that redistribute income and power. On the right side of the spectrum is libertarianism, a philosophy of skepticism toward most government activities. Libertarians strongly support property rights and typically oppose regulation of the economy and redistribution of income. Libertarians support laissez-faire capitalism. (Laissez faire is French for “let it be.”)14 Libertarians also tend to oppose govern ment attempts to regulate personal behavior and promote moral values. We might expect, therefore, that a consistent libertarian would support same-sex marriage. Many libertarians are also skeptical about U.S. military interventions abroad. In recent years, libertarian ideas have greatly influenced the Republican Party. President Trump’s “who benefits” approach largely rejected the libertarian vision, however Problems With the Traditional Political Spectrum Many political scientists believe that the traditional left-to-right spectrum is not sufficient. Take the example of libertarians. In Table 1.1, libertarians are placed to the right of conser vatives. If the only question is how much power the government should have over the econ omy, this is where they belong. Libertarians, however, strongly advocate freedom in social matters. They oppose government action to promote traditional moral values, although such action is often favored by other groups on the political right. Their strong support for cultural freedoms seems to align them more closely with modern liberals than with conservatives. Liberalism is often described as an ideology that supports “big government.” If the objec tive is to promote equality, the description has some validity. In the moral sphere, however, conservatives tend to support more government regulation of social values and moral deci sions than do liberals. Thus, conservatives tend to oppose gay rights legislation and propose stronger curbs on pornography. Liberals usually show greater tolerance for a wide variety of life choices and oppose government attempts to regulate personal behavior and morals. A Four-Cornered Ideological Grid For a more sophisticated breakdown of recent American popular ideologies, many scholars use a four-cornered grid, as shown in Figure 1.3. The grid includes four possible ideologies. Each quadrant contains a substantial portion of the American electorate. Individual voters may fall anywhere on the grid, depending on the strength of their beliefs about economic and cultural issues. Economic Liberals, Cultural Conservatives. Note that there is no generally accepted term for persons in the lower-left position, which we have labeled “economic liberals, cultural conservatives.” Some scholars have used terms such as populist to describe this point of view, but these terms can be misleading. Populism more accurately refers to a hostility toward political, economic, or cultural elites, and it can be combined with a variety of political positions, both left and right. Individuals who are economic liberals and cultural conservatives tend to support government action both to promote the values of economic equality and fairness and to defend traditional values, such as the family and marriage. These individuals may describe themselves as conservative or moderate. They may vote for a Republi can candidate based on their conservative values. More often, they may be Democrats due to their support for economic liberalism. Many of these Democrats are Afri can Americans or members of other minority groups. Libertarians. The libertarian position on the four cornered grid does not refer to the small Libertarian Party, which has only a minor role in the American political arena. Rather, libertarians typically support the Republican Party. Economically successful individuals are more likely than members of other groups to hold libertarian opinions. Liberal Versus Progressive. Even though all four ideologies are popular, the various labels we have used in the four-cornered grid are not equally favored. Voters are much more likely to describe themselves as conservative than as liberal. In the political battles of the last several decades, the conservative movement has consistently made liberal a term of derision, and they have succeeded in devaluing the term among much of the public. Indeed, few politicians today willingly describe themselves as liberal, and many liberals prefer to describe themselves as progressive instead. This term dates back to the years before World War I (1914–18), when it referred to advocates of reform in both of the major political parties. Public opinion polls suggest that progressive is a relatively popular label. Progressive - A popular alternative to the term liberal.