Keeping the Republic: Power and Citizenship in American Politics, 9th Edition PDF

Keeping the REPUBLIC the essentials 9th Edition Keeping the REPUBLIC Power and Citizenship in AMERICAN POLITICS, the Essentials 9th Edition Christine Barbour & Gerald C. Wright Indiana University FOR INFORMATION: CQ Press SAGE Publications, Inc. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 E-mail: [email protected] SAGE Publications Ltd. 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP United Kingdom SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd. B 1/I 1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area Mathura Road, New Delhi 110 044 India SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd 18 Cross Street #10-10/11/12 China Square Central Singapore 048423 Copyright © 2020 by Christine Barbour and Gerald C. Wright All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed in Canada ISBN 978-1-5443-2606-1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Executive Publisher: Monica Eckman Development Editors: Sarah Calabi, Anna Villarruel Editorial Assistant: Sam Rosenberg Production Editors: Kelly DeRosa, Tori Mirsadjadi Copy Editor: Amy Marks Typesetter: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd. Proofreader: Theresa Kay Indexer: Judy Hunt Cover Designer: Gail Buschman Marketing Manager: Erica DeLuca We dedicate this book with love to our parents, Patti Barbour and John Barbour and Doris and Gerry Wright, To our kids, Andrea and Monica, To our grandkids, Liam, Elena, Paloma, and Asher, And to each other. About the Authors CHRISTINE BARBOUR Christine Barbour teaches in the Political Science Department and the Hutton Honors College at Indiana University, where she has become increasingly interested in how teachers of large classes can maximize what their students learn. She is working with online course designers to create an online version of her Intro to American Politics class. At Indiana, Professor Barbour has been a Lilly Fellow, working on a project to increase student retention in large introductory courses, and a member of the Freshman Learning Project, a university-wide effort to improve the first- year undergraduate experience. She has served on the New York Times College Advisory Board, working with other educators to develop ways to integrate newspaper reading into the undergraduate curriculum. She has won several teaching honors, but the two awarded by her students mean the most to her: the Indiana University Student Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Faculty and the Indiana University Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists Brown Derby Award. When not teaching or writing textbooks, Professor Barbour enjoys playing with her dogs, traveling with her coauthor, and writing about food. She is the food editor for Bloom Magazine of Bloomington and is a coauthor of Indiana Cooks! (2005) and Home Grown Indiana (2008). She also makes jewelry from precious metals and rough gemstones. If she ever retires, she will open a jewelry shop in a renovated Airstream on the beach in Apalachicola, Florida, where she plans to write another cookbook and a book about the local politics, development, and fishing industry. GERALD C. WRIGHT Gerald C. Wright has taught political science at Indiana University since 1981, and he is currently the chair of the Political Science Department. An accomplished scholar of American politics, and the 2010 winner of the State Politics and Policy Association’s Career Achievement Award, his books include Statehouse Democracy: Public Opinion and Policy in the American States (1993), coauthored with Robert S. Erikson and John P. McIver. He has published more than fifty articles on elections, public opinion, and state politics. Professor Wright has long studied the relationship among citizens, their preferences, and public policy. He is currently conducting research funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation on the factors that influence the equality of policy representation in the states and in Congress. He is also writing a book about representation in U.S. legislatures. He has been a consultant for Project Vote Smart in the past several elections. Professor Wright is a member of Indiana University’s Freshman Learning Project, a university- wide effort to improve the first-year undergraduate experience by focusing on how today’s college students learn and how teachers can adapt their pedagogical methods to best teach them. In his nonworking hours, Professor Wright also likes to spend time with his dogs, travel, eat good food, fish, and play golf. Brief Contents 1. About the Authors 2. Preface 3. To the Student 4. CH 1 POLITICS: WHO GETS WHAT, AND HOW? 5. CH 2 AMERICAN CITIZENS AND POLITICAL CULTURE 6. CH 3 POLITICS OF THE AMERICAN FOUNDING 7. CH 4 FEDERALISM AND THE U.S. CONSTITUTION 8. CH 5 FUNDAMENTAL AMERICAN LIBERTIES 9. CH 6 THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUAL RIGHTS 10. CH 7 CONGRESS 11. CH 8 THE PRESIDENCY 12. CH 9 THE BUREAUCRACY 13. CH 10 THE AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEM AND THE COURTS 14. CH 11 PUBLIC OPINION 15. CH 12 POLITICAL PARTIES 16. CH 13 INTEREST GROUPS 17. CH 14 VOTING, CAMPAIGNS, AND ELECTIONS 18. CH 15 MEDIA, POWER, AND POLITICAL COMMUNICATION 19. Appendix Material 20. Notes 21. Glossary 22. Index Contents About the Authors Preface To the Student 1 POLITICS: WHO GETS WHAT, AND HOW? WHAT’S AT STAKE... IN “HASHTAG ACTIVISM”? What Is Politics? Politics and Government Rules and Institutions Power, Narratives, and Media Politics and Economics Political Systems and the Concept of Citizenship Authoritarian Systems Nonauthoritarian Systems The Role of the People Origins of Democracy in America European Sources of Democratic Thought and Practice The Social Contract PROFILE IN CITIZENSHIP: DAN SAVAGE As the Founders Saw It The Evolution of American Citizenship SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: HOW DO WE ENGAGE POLITICALLY ONLINE? Thinking Critically About American Politics DON’T BE FOOLED BY... YOUR OWN INFORMATION BUBBLE Analysis THE BIG PICTURE: HOW TO THINK CRITICALLY Evaluation LET’S REVISIT: WHAT’S AT STAKE... ? CLUES TO CRITICAL THINKING: EXCERPTS FROM PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S HOWARD UNIVERSITY COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS, MAY 7, 2016 REVIEW 2 AMERICAN CITIZENS AND POLITICAL CULTURE WHAT’S AT STAKE... IN OUR IMMIGRATION POLICY? Who Is an American? SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: WHO ARE WE AND WHO WILL WE BE BY 2050? DON’T BE FOOLED BY... BIG DATA THE BIG PICTURE: HOW IMMIGRATION HAS CHANGED THE FACE OF AMERICA American Citizenship Nonimmigrants U.S. Immigration Policy SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: WHAT DO OUR TWO LARGEST IMMIGRANT GROUPS LOOK LIKE? PROFILES IN CITIZENSHIP: JOSE ANTONIO VARGAS The Ideas That Unite Us Faith in Rules and Individuals Core American Values: Democracy, Freedom, and Equality SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: HOW MUCH DO WE PAY IN TAXES? The Ideas That Divide Us The Economic Dimension The Social Order Dimension The Relationship Between the Two Ideological Dimensions Who Fits Where? The Citizens and American Political Beliefs LET’S REVISIT: WHAT’S AT STAKE... ? CLUES TO CRITICAL THINKING: “THE NEW COLOSSUS,” BY EMMA LAZARUS REVIEW 3 POLITICS OF THE AMERICAN FOUNDING WHAT’S AT STAKE... IN CHALLENGING THE LEGITIMACY OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT? Politics in the English Colonies Reasons for Leaving England DON’T BE FOOLED BY... YOUR TEXTBOOK Political Participation in the Colonies The Split From England British Attempts to Gain Control of the Colonies Changing Ideas About Politics Revolution The Declaration of Independence “... That All Men Are Created Equal” The Articles of Confederation The Provisions of the Articles Some Winners, Some Losers The Constitutional Convention “An Assembly of Demigods” SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: WHO WERE THE FOUNDERS? Large States, Small States North and South Ratification Federalists Versus Anti-Federalists THE BIG PICTURE: HOW WE GOT TO THE CONSTITUTION FROM THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION The Federalist Papers The Final Vote PROFILES IN CITIZENSHIP: NEWT GINGRICH The Citizens and the Founding Competing Elites The Rise of the “Ordinary” Citizen LET’S REVISIT: WHAT’S AT STAKE... ? CLUES TO CRITICAL THINKING: THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, BY THOMAS JEFFERSON REVIEW 4 FEDERALISM AND THE U.S. CONSTITUTION WHAT’S AT STAKE... WHEN A STATE TAKES MARIJUANA LAWS INTO ITS OWN HANDS? The Three Branches of Government The Legislative Branch The Executive Branch The Judicial Branch Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances Republican Remedies THE BIG PICTURE: WHAT WAS ON MADISON’S MIND WHEN HE WROTE THE 51ST FEDERALIST PAPER What Does the Constitution Say? Possible Alternatives: Fusion of Powers? What the Constitution Doesn’t Say: Norms That Support Checks and Balances Federalism What Does the Constitution Say? Two Views of Federalism Possible Alternatives to Federalism What Difference Does Federalism Make? SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: HOW DO WE DIFFER FROM STATE TO STATE? The Changing Balance: American Federalism Over Time Federalism Today THE BIG PICTURE: HOW THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT INFLUENCES THE STATES DON’T BE FOOLED BY... POLITICAL RHETORIC Amending the Constitution What Does the Constitution Say? Possible Alternatives: Making the Constitution Easier or Harder to Amend The Citizens and the Constitution PROFILES IN CITIZENSHIP: SUSANA MARTINEZ LET’S REVISIT: WHAT’S AT STAKE... ? CLUES TO CRITICAL THINKING: FEDERALIST NO. 51, BY JAMES MADISON REVIEW 5 FUNDAMENTAL AMERICAN LIBERTIES WHAT’S AT STAKE... IN REGULATING THE INTERNET? Rights in a Democracy Rights and the Power of the People When Rights Conflict When Rights Conflict—The Case of National Security How Do We Resolve Conflicts About Rights? The Bill of Rights and Incorporation Why Is a Bill of Rights Valuable? Applying the Bill of Rights to the States Freedom of Religion Why Is Religious Freedom Valuable? SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: WHAT DO WE BELIEVE? The Establishment Clause: Separationists Versus Accommodationists The Free Exercise Clause: When Can States Regulate Religious Behavior? Freedom of Expression Why Is Freedom of Expression Valuable? Speech That Criticizes the Government Symbolic Speech Obscenity and Pornography Fighting Words and Offensive Speech PROFILES IN CITIZENSHIP: BILL MAHER Freedom of the Press Censorship on the Internet DON’T BE FOOLED BY... PARODY NEWS SITES The Right to Bear Arms SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: WHO OWNS THE GUNS? Why Is the Right to Bear Arms Valuable? Judicial Decisions The Rights of Criminal Defendants Why Are the Rights of Criminal Defendants Valuable? Protection Against Unreasonable Searches and Seizures Protection Against Self-Incrimination Right to Counsel Protection Against Cruel and Unusual Punishment SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: WHERE DO WE STAND ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT? The Right to Privacy Why Is the Right to Privacy Valuable? Reproductive Rights Gay Rights The Right to Die The Citizens and Civil Liberties LET’S REVISIT: WHAT’S AT STAKE... ? CLUES TO CRITICAL THINKING: FEDERALIST NO. 84, BY ALEXANDER HAMILTON REVIEW 6 THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUAL RIGHTS WHAT’S AT STAKE... WHEN A RACIAL MAJORITY BECOMES A MINORITY? The Meaning of Political Inequality When Can the Law Treat People Differently? Why Do We Deny Rights? Different Kinds of Equality Rights Denied on the Basis of Race: African Americans THE BIG PICTURE: WHEN THE LAW CAN TREAT PEOPLE DIFFERENTLY Blacks in America Before the Civil War The Civil War and Its Aftermath: Winners and Losers The Long Battle to Overturn Plessy: The NAACP and Its Legal Strategy The Civil Rights Movement DON’T BE FOOLED BY... THE MOVIES Blacks in Contemporary American Politics SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: POVERTY, PROSPERITY, AND EDUCATION, BY RACE AND ETHNICITY PROFILES IN CITIZENSHIP: TAMMY DUCKWORTH Rights Denied on the Basis of Other Racial and Ethnic Identities Native Americans Hispanic Americans Asian Americans Rights Denied on the Basis of Gender Women’s Place in the Early Nineteenth Century The Birth of the Women’s Rights Movement The Struggle in the States Winners and Losers in the Suffrage Movement The Equal Rights Amendment Gender Discrimination Today SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: HOW EQUAL ARE WE, BY GENDER? Women in Contemporary Politics Rights Denied on Other Bases Sexual Orientation Age Disability Citizenship The Citizens and Civil Rights LET’S REVISIT: WHAT’S AT STAKE... ? CLUES TO CRITICAL THINKING: “AIN’T I A WOMAN?” BY SOJOURNER TRUTH REVIEW 7 CONGRESS WHAT’S AT STAKE... IN THE SENATE’S OBLIGATION TO GIVE ADVICE AND CONSENT TO THE PRESIDENT? Understanding Congress SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: HOW DO WE HATE CONGRESS? (LET US COUNT THE WAYS.) Representation DON’T BE FOOLED BY... YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS National Lawmaking Partisanship Congressional Powers and Responsibilities Differences Between the House and the Senate Congressional Checks and Balances Congressional Elections The Politics of Defining Congressional Districts Deciding to Run Being a Representative SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: WHO REPRESENTS US IN CONGRESS? Congressional Organization The Central Role of Party PROFILES IN CITIZENSHIP: JON TESTER The Leadership The Committee System Congressional Resources How Congress Works The Context of Congressional Policymaking How a Bill Becomes a Law—Some of the Time THE BIG PICTURE: HOW OUR LAWS ARE MADE The Citizens and Congress LET’S REVISIT: WHAT’S AT STAKE... ? CLUES TO CRITICAL THINKING: JOHN MCCAIN’S SPEECH TO THE SENATE ON REGULAR ORDER, JULY 25, 2017 REVIEW 8 THE PRESIDENCY WHAT’S AT STAKE... IN DONALD TRUMP’S PRESIDENCY? The Presidential Job Description Head of State Versus Head of Government Qualifications and Conditions of Office The Constitutional Power of the President THE BIG PICTURE: HOW PRESIDENTS TALK TO THE NATION The Evolution of the American Presidency The Traditional Presidency The Modern Presidency The Battle Over Executive Authority Today Presidential Politics The Expectations Gap and the Need for Persuasive Power Going Public Working With Congress Managing the Presidential Establishment The Cabinet Executive Office of the President White House Staff The Vice President PROFILES IN CITIZENSHIP: JOE BIDEN The First Spouse The Presidential Personality Classifying Presidential Character Presidential Style DON’T BE FOOLED BY... POLITICAL COMEDY The Citizens and the Presidency LET’S REVISIT: WHAT’S AT STAKE... ? CLUES TO CRITICAL THINKING: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, EXCERPT FROM SPEECH TO CONGRESS, SEPTEMBER 15, 1863 REVIEW 9 THE BUREAUCRACY WHAT’S AT STAKE... IN ROLLING BACK REGULATIONS? What Is Bureaucracy? Why Is Bureaucracy Necessary? Bureaucracy and Democracy Accountability and Rules Consequences of a Rule-Based System The American Federal Bureaucracy The Spoils System Evolution of the Federal Bureaucracy Organization of the Federal Bureaucracy THE BIG PICTURE: HOW THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY GREW SO MUCH Roles of the Federal Bureaucracy SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: WHO ARE OUR FEDERAL BUREAUCRATS? Who Are the Federal Bureaucrats? Politics Inside the Bureaucracy Bureaucratic Culture Presidential Appointees and the Career Civil Service PROFILES IN CITIZENSHIP: JAIME SCHMIDT External Bureaucratic Politics Interagency Politics The Bureaucracy and the President The Bureaucracy and Congress The Bureaucracy and the Courts DON’T BE FOOLED BY... POLITICAL CARTOONS The Citizens and the Bureaucracy LET’S REVISIT: WHAT’S AT STAKE... ? CLUES TO CRITICAL THINKING: “WHY CORPORATE AMERICA LOVES DONALD TRUMP,” BY THE ECONOMIST REVIEW 10 THE AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEM AND THE COURTS WHAT’S AT STAKE... WHEN THE SUPREME COURT GETS INVOLVED IN PARTISAN POLITICS? Law and the American Legal System The Role of Law in Democratic Societies The American Legal Tradition DON’T BE FOOLED BY... YOUR DAY IN COURT Kinds of Law Constitutional Provisions and the Development of Judicial Review The Least Dangerous Branch John Marshall and Judicial Review Federalism and the American Courts Understanding Jurisdiction State Courts Federal Courts SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: WHO HAS BEEN APPOINTED TO THE FEDERAL COURTS? The Supreme Court How Members of the Court Are Selected Choosing Which Cases to Hear THE BIG PICTURE: THE POLITICAL PATH TO THE SUPREME COURT PROFILES IN CITIZENSHIP: SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR Deciding Cases The Political Effects of Judicial Decisions The Citizens and the Courts Equal Treatment by the Criminal Justice System SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: HOW CONFIDENT ARE WE IN THE POLICE, BY RACE AND ETHNICITY? Equal Access to the Civil Justice System LET’S REVISIT: WHAT’S AT STAKE... ? CLUES TO CRITICAL THINKING: “WELCOME TO THE ROBERTS COURT: HOW THE CHIEF JUSTICE USED OBAMACARE TO REVEAL HIS TRUE IDENTITY,” BY JEFFREY ROSEN REVIEW 11 PUBLIC OPINION WHAT’S AT STAKE... WHEN WE MOVE TO MORE DIRECT DEMOCRACY? The Role of Public Opinion in a Democracy Why Public Opinion Should Matter Why Public Opinion Does Matter Citizen Values Political Knowledge and Interest Tolerance Participation What Influences Our Opinions About Politics? Mechanisms of Early Political Socialization: How We Learn the Shared Narratives About the Rules of the Game Differences in Public Opinion SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: WHAT DO WE THINK, BY RACE AND ETHNICITY? SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: WHAT DO WE THINK, BY GENDER (AND MARRIAGE)? SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: WHAT DO WE THINK, BY AGE? SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: WHAT DO WE THINK, BY EDUCATION AND INCOME? Measuring and Tracking Public Opinion Learning About Public Opinion Without Polls The Development of Modern Public Opinion Polls The Science of Opinion Polling Today THE BIG PICTURE: HOW WE KNOW WHAT THE PUBLIC REALLY THINKS New Technologies and Challenges in Polling Types of Polls PROFILES IN CITIZENSHIP: NATE SILVER How Accurate Are Polls? The Citizens and Public Opinion DON’T BE FOOLED BY... PUBLIC OPINION POLLS LET’S REVISIT: WHAT’S AT STAKE... ? CLUES TO CRITICAL THINKING: “DOES ‘TRIBALISM’ END IN A COMPROMISE OR A FIGHT?” BY LAILA LALAMI REVIEW 12 POLITICAL PARTIES WHAT’S AT STAKE... WHEN “OUTSIDERS” CHALLENGE ESTABLISHMENT PARTY CANDIDATES? Why Political Parties? The Role of Parties in a Democracy The Responsible Party Model Do American Parties Offer Voters a Choice? What Do the Parties Stand For? SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: WHO BELONGS TO WHAT PARTY? Forces Drawing the Parties Apart and Pushing Them Together DON’T BE FOOLED BY... POLITICAL PARTY PLATFORMS The History of Parties in America The Evolution of American Parties A Brief History of Party Eras The Parties Today What Do Parties Do? Electioneering THE BIG PICTURE: HOW THE AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES HAVE EVOLVED Governing PROFILES IN CITIZENSHIP: DAVID FRUM Characteristics of the American Party System Two Parties Increasing Ideological Polarization Decentralized Party Organizations Changes in Party Discipline Over Time The Citizens and Political Parties LET’S REVISIT: WHAT’S AT STAKE... ? CLUES TO CRITICAL THINKING: “THE TRUMP PRECEDENT: THE FUTURE OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN THREE MOVEMENTS,” BY BRUCE E. CAIN REVIEW 13 INTEREST GROUPS WHAT’S AT STAKE... WHEN BUSINESS GROUPS FACE OFF AGAINST PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS? The Formation and Role of Interest Groups SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: HOW MANY OF US BELONG, AND TO WHAT? Why Do People Join Groups? Roles of Interest Groups Types of Interest Groups Economic Interest Groups Equal Opportunity Interest Groups Public Interest Groups PROFILES IN CITIZENSHIP: WAYNE PACELLE Government Interest Groups Interest Group Politics Direct Lobbying: Congress THE BIG PICTURE: CAMPAIGN SPENDING BEFORE AND AFTER CITIZENS UNITED Direct Lobbying: The President Direct Lobbying: The Bureaucracy Direct Lobbying: The Courts Indirect Lobbying: The Public DON’T BE FOOLED BY... THE DONATE BUTTON “Astroturf” Political Campaigns: Democratic or Elite Driven? Interest Group Resources Money Leadership Membership: Size and Intensity Information and Communication The Citizens and Interest Groups LET’S REVISIT: WHAT’S AT STAKE... ? CLUES TO CRITICAL THINKING: FEDERALIST NO. 10, BY JAMES MADISON REVIEW 14 VOTING, CAMPAIGNS, AND ELECTIONS WHAT’S AT STAKE... IN THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE? Voting in a Democratic Society The Founders’ Intentions The Functions of Elections What If We Don’t Vote? Exercising the Right to Vote in America Regulating the Electorate Who Votes and Who Doesn’t? How America Decides Deciding Whether to Vote SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: HOW DID WE VOTE IN THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION? Deciding Whom to Vote For Presidential Campaigns Getting Nominated The Convention The General Election Campaign THE BIG PICTURE: HOW THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE WORKS, AND HOW IT MIGHT WORK PROFILES IN CITIZENSHIP: DAVID AXELROD DON’T BE FOOLED BY... VIRAL MEDIA Interpreting Elections The Citizens and Elections A Fourth Model? Do Elections Make a Difference? LET’S REVISIT: WHAT’S AT STAKE... ? CLUES TO CRITICAL THINKING: AL GORE’S CONCESSION SPEECH, DECEMBER 13, 2000 REVIEW 15 MEDIA, POWER, AND POLITICAL COMMUNICATION WHAT’S AT STAKE... IN LIVING IN AN INFORMATION BUBBLE? Where Do We Get Our Information? The Mass Media Today The Demise of the Print Media SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: WHERE DO WE GET OUR NEWS? Radio and Television The Internet SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: WHO PARTICIPATES IN SOCIAL MEDIA? PROFILES IN CITIZENSHIP: ANDREW SULLIVAN How Does Media Ownership Affect Control of the Narrative? Who Owns the Media? DON’T BE FOOLED BY... CLICKBAIT How Does Media Ownership Impact the News We Get? THE BIG PICTURE: WHO OWNS (AND CONTROLS) TODAY’S INFORMATION NETWORKS? Alternatives to the Corporate Media Regulation of the Media Spinning Political Narratives The Fact Gatherers SNAPSHOT OF AMERICA: WHO ARE THE JOURNALISTS? The Analysts The Creation of Political Narratives The Power of the Mainstream Media’s Narrative Politics as Public Relations News Management News Management Techniques News Management Since Nixon Reduction in Political Accountability The Citizens and the Media LET’S REVISIT: WHAT’S AT STAKE... ? CLUES TO CRITICAL THINKING: “THE STRANGE, SAD DEATH OF JOURNALISM,” BY MICHAEL GERSON REVIEW Appendix Material Notes Glossary Index Preface WHEN one of us was a freshman journalism major in college, more years ago now than she cares to remember, she took an introduction to American politics course—mostly because the other courses she wanted were already full. But the class was a revelation. The teacher was terrific, the textbook provocative, and the final paper assignment an eye opener. “As Benjamin Franklin was leaving Independence Hall,” the assignment read, “he was stopped by a woman who asked, ‘What have you created?’ Franklin replied, ‘A Republic, Madam, if you can keep it’.” Have we succeeded in keeping our republic? Had we been given a democracy in the first place? These questions sparked the imagination, the writing of an impassioned freshman essay about the limits and possibilities of American democracy, and a lifetime love affair with politics. If we have one goal in writing this textbook, it is to share the excitement of discovering humankind’s capacity to find innovative solutions to those problems that arise from our efforts to live together on a planet too small, with resources too scarce, and with saintliness in too short a supply. In this book we honor the human capacity to manage our collective lives with peace and even, at times, dignity. And, in particular, we celebrate the American political system and the founders’ extraordinary contribution to the possibilities of human governance. Where We Are Going Between the two of us, we have been teaching American politics for way more than half a century. We have used a lot of textbooks in that time. Some of them have been too difficult for introductory students (although we have enjoyed them as political scientists!), and others have tried excessively to accommodate the beginning student and have ended up being too light in their coverage of basic information. We wanted our students to have the best and most complete treatment of the American political system we could find, presented in a way that would catch their imagination, be easy to understand, and engage them in the system about which they were learning. This book is the result of that desire. It covers essential topics with clear explanations, but it is also a thematic book, intended to guide students through a wealth of material and to help them make sense of the content both academically and personally. To that end we develop two themes that run throughout every chapter: an analytic theme to assist students in organizing the details and connecting them to the larger ideas and concepts of American politics and an evaluative theme to help them find personal meaning in the American political system and develop standards for making judgments about how well the system works. Taken together, these themes provide students a framework on which to hang the myriad complexities of American politics. The analytic theme we chose is a classic in political science: politics is a struggle over limited power and resources, as gripping as a sporting event in its final minutes, but much more vital. The rules guiding that struggle influence who will win and who will lose, so that often the struggles with the most at stake are over the rule making itself. In short, and in the words of a famous political scientist, politics is about who gets what, and how they get it. To illustrate this theme, we begin and end every chapter with a feature called What’s at Stake... ? that poses a question about what people want from politics—what they are struggling to get and how the rules affect who gets it. At the end of every major chapter section, we Pause and Review to revisit Harold Laswell’s definition in context and ask Who, What, How. This periodic analytic summary helps solidify the conceptual work of the book and gives students a sturdy framework within which to organize the facts and other empirical information we want them to learn. For the evaluative theme, we focus on the “who” in the formulation of “who gets what, and how.” Who are the country’s citizens? What are the ways they engage in political life? To “keep” a republic, citizens must shoulder responsibilities as well as exercise their rights. We challenge students to view democratic participation among the diverse population as the price of maintaining liberty. Working in concert with the Who, What, How summary are the In Your Own Words goals that provide each chapter’s major points up front to help students organize the material they read. Who, What, How summaries provide the opportunity for students to pause and review these goals and gauge how well they’re understanding and retaining the information. Our citizenship theme has three dimensions. First, in our Profiles in Citizenship feature, present in every chapter, we introduce students to important figures in American politics and ask the subjects why they are involved in public service or some aspect of political life. Based on personal interviews with these people, the profiles model republic-keeping behavior for students, helping them to see what is expected of them as members of a democratic polity. We feel unabashedly that a primary goal of teaching introductory politics is not only to create good scholars but also to create good citizens. Second, at the end of nearly every chapter, the feature The Citizens and... provides a critical view of what citizens can or cannot do in American politics, evaluating how democratic various aspects of the American system actually are and what possibilities exist for change. Third, we premise this book on the belief that the skills that make good students and good academics are the same skills that make good citizens: the ability to think critically about and process new information and the ability to be actively engaged in one’s subject. Accordingly, in our CLUES to Critical Thinking feature, we help students understand what critical thinking looks like by modeling it for them, and guiding them through the necessary steps as they examine current and classic readings about American politics. Similarly, the Don’t Be Fooled by... feature assists students to critically examine the various kinds of political information they are bombarded with—from information in textbooks like this one, to information from social networks, to information from their congressional representative or political party. Thinking Outside the Box questions prompt students to take a step back and engage in some big-picture thinking about what they are learning. The book’s themes are further illustrated through two unique features that will enhance students’ visual literacy and critical thinking skills. Each chapter includes a rich, poster-worthy display called The Big Picture that focuses on a key element in the book, complementing the text with a rich visual that grabs students’ attention and engages them in understanding big processes like how cases get to the Supreme Court, big concepts such as when the law can treat people differently, and big data, including who has immigrated to the United States and how they have assimilated. In addition, an innovative feature called Snapshot of America, reimagined from the Who Are We feature of past editions, describes through graphs, charts, and maps just who we Americans are and where we come from, what we believe, how educated we are, and how much money we make. This recurring feature aims at exploding stereotypes, and Behind the Numbers questions lead students to think critically about the political consequences of America’s demographic profile. These visual features are the result of a partnership with award-winning designer, educator, and artist Mike Wirth, who has lent his expert hand in information design and data visualization to craft these unique, informative, and memorable graphics. Marginal definitions of the key terms as they occur and chapter summary material—vocabulary and summaries—help to support the book’s major themes and to reinforce the major concepts and details of American politics. How We Get There In many ways this book follows the path of most American politics texts: there are chapters on all the subjects that instructors scramble to cover in a short amount of time. But in keeping with our goal of making the enormous amount of material here more accessible to our students, we have made some changes to the typical format. After our introductory chapter, we have included a chapter not found in every book: “American Citizens and Political Culture.” Given our emphasis on citizens, this chapter is key. It covers the history and legal status of citizens and immigrants in America and the ideas and beliefs that unite us as Americans as well as the ideas that divide us politically. Another chapter that breaks with tradition is Chapter 4, “Federalism and the U.S. Constitution,” which provides an analytic and comparative study of the basic rules governing this country— highlighted up front because of our emphasis on the how of American politics. This chapter covers the essential elements of the Constitution: federalism, the three branches, separation of powers and checks and balances, and amendability. In each case we examine the rules the founders provided, look at the alternatives they might have chosen, and ask what difference the rules make to who wins and who loses in America. This chapter is explicitly comparative. For each rule change considered, we look at a country that does things differently. We drive home early the idea that understanding the rules is crucial to understanding how and to whose advantage the system works. Throughout the text we look carefully at alternatives to our system of government as manifested in other countries—and among the fifty states. Because of the prominence we give to rules—and to institutions— this book covers Congress, the presidency, the bureaucracy, and the courts before looking at public opinion, parties, interest groups, voting, and the media—the inputs or processes of politics that are shaped by those rules. While this approach may seem counterintuitive to instructors who have logged many miles teaching it the other way around, we have found that it is not counterintuitive to students, who have an easier time grasping the notion that the rules make a difference when they are presented with those rules in the first half of the course. We have, however, taken care to write the chapters so that they will fit into any organizational framework. We have long believed that teaching is a two-way street, and we welcome comments, criticisms, or just a pleasant chat about politics or pedagogy. You can email us directly at [email protected] and [email protected]. What’s New in the Ninth Edition These are strange days in American politics. We have tried to deal with that strangeness bluntly, objectively, and clearly. We are in a “moment.” Whether that moment becomes the “new normal” or remains a historical blip, we have no way of knowing. Writing about it in real time, we take it as it comes. We are political scientists, not magicians, and thus have a hard bias toward the scientific, the empirical, the observable. Distinguishing between truth and falsity is central to what we do. We can make projections and predictions but our crystal ball has been particularly hazy lately, and we make no pretense of knowing the future. The 2016 election only exacerbated divisions that have been building for decades, the product of economic displacement, demographic change and a widening gap between those with college educations and those without. Somedays it really does feel like there are two Americas, and the challenge of writing a textbook for both of them has been heavy at times. We have worked hard to explain the nature of our ideological divisions as objectively as possible, and I suspect we have ruffled a few feathers, including our own. That’s as it should be. No one likes to be described as a statistic or a faceless member of a demographic group or have opinions ascribed to them that they may not even knowingly hold, or may actively reject. It’s a good thing if this book inspires debate, disagreement, and discovery. Ideological polarization is not the only characteristic of American politics that has been a challenge to deal with in this edition. We have a president who likes the limelight and, love him or hate him (it’s hard to be indifferent), he delights in shattering the norms that underlie the rules of American politics. Indeed, that is his appeal to many Americans who would like to see the system turned upside down. That means we have had to be more careful about focusing on those norms and explaining the roles they play in supporting the Constitution, so that we can fully understand the consequences as we decide whether they matter. Finally, as we say later in this book, if we have a bias, it is unquestionably toward diversity, toward the whole crazy salad of Americans. We can’t write effectively for our students unless they can see themselves mirrored in the pages. This book has to belong to them, and so we have deplored the movement to return to an America where women, people of color, immigrants, members of the LGBTQ community, and other minority groups are marginalized. In the last two years, some Americans have felt more free to voice disparaging or degrading remarks about members of all those groups. We reject that view. Writing the ninth edition also gave us an opportunity to revitalize the book’s theme to reflect the influences of modern technology on power and citizenship, in particular the ways that citizenship is mediated by third parties. To do that, we looked at the ways that controlling the political narrative has translated into political power and how that power has shifted with the advent of new and social media. This coverage is integrated throughout each chapter and is especially notable in The Citizens and... sections and the Don’t Be Fooled By... boxes’ focus on digital media. Reviews for this edition helped guide some key changes that we hope will make the text even more useful to you and your students. We have sought to streamline both the main narrative and its features to provide a more focused reading experience. Three new CLUES to Critical Thinking boxes teach students to think carefully about the news of the day, including the late John McCain’s speech on the attempted repeal of Obamacare and articles on Donald Trump’s relationship with corporate America and the rise of tribalism in America politics. One new Profiles in Citizenship interview appears in this edition— we had the opportunity to interview Senator Tammy Duckworth before the 2018 midterms. New What’s at Stake... ? vignettes examine such topics as the activism of the students of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, the rise of the alt right and the Make America Great Again movement, what happens when outsiders challenge party establishment, the consequences of overturning executive action on climate change, and the unusual presidency of Donald Trump. Digital Resources We know how important good resources can be in the teaching of American government. Our goal has been to create resources that not only support but also enhance the text’s themes and features. SAGE edge offers a robust online environment featuring an impressive array of tools and resources for review, study, and further exploration, keeping both instructors and students on the cutting edge of teaching and learning. SAGE edge content is open access and available on demand. Learning and teaching has never been easier! We gratefully acknowledge Graphic World and Alicia Fisher of California State University, Fullerton for developing the digital resources on this site. Sage Course Outcomes: Measure Results, Track Success The journey to retaining and applying course content differs for every student. To successfully navigate this journey, course goals should remain clear, consistent, and constructive. For instructors, the ability to track and measure individual progress is vital to ensuring student success. SAGE/CQ Press is invested in mapping measurable course outcomes to chapter-level learning objectives for all introductory textbook offerings through SAGE course outcomes. Each title is crafted with specific course outcomes in mind, vetted by leading advisors in the field, and adapted from renowned syllabi from across the country. Students Benefit A clear path for learners: Understanding the objectives for each chapter and how those objectives are tied to the goals of the course is essential for getting the grade students want. Meaningful context for skills: course outcomes emphasize the skills learned in the course and highlight how they can be applied in the real world after graduation. More targeted instruction: Students receive better, more targeted feedback when instructors can track and measure individual progress based on course-specific expectations. 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DESCRIBE the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life. ANALYZE the development and impact of important governmental policies. Instructor Resources SAGE Coursepacks and SAGE edge online resources are included FREE with this text. For a brief demo, contact your sales representative today. SAGE COURSEPACKS FOR INSTRUCTORS makes it easy to import our quality content into your school’s learning management system (LMS). Intuitive and simple to use, it allows you to Say NO to... required access codes learning a new system Say YES to... using only the content you want and need high-quality assessment and multimedia exercises For use in: Blackboard, Canvas, Brightspace by Desire2Learn (D2L), and Moodle Don’t use an LMS platform? No problem, you can still access many of the online resources for your text via SAGE edge. With SAGE coursepacks, you get: Quality textbook content delivered directly into your LMS; An intuitive, simple format that makes it easy to integrate the material into your course with minimal effort; Assessment tools that foster review, practice, and critical thinking, including: Diagnostic chapter pre tests and post tests that identify opportunities for improvement, track student progress, and ensure mastery of key learning objectives Test banks built on Bloom’s Taxonomy and SAGE Course Outcomes that provide a diverse range of test items with ExamView test generation Activity and quiz options that allow you to choose only the assignments and tests you want Instructions on how to use and integrate the comprehensive assessments and resources provided Assignable SAGE Premium video (available via the interactive eBook version, linked through SAGE Coursepacks) that is tied to learning objectives, created and curated exclusively for this text, featuring: Corresponding multimedia assessment options that automatically feed to your gradebook SAGE original Topics in American Government recap the fundamentals of American politics American Government News Clips bring current events into the book, connecting brief, 2- to 4-minute news clips with core chapter content Comprehensive, downloadable, easy-to-use Media Guide in the Coursepack for every video resource, listing the chapter to which the video content is tied, matching learning objective(s), a helpful description of the video content, and assessment questions. Assignable data exercises build students’ data literacy skills with interactive data visualization tools from SAGE Stats and U.S. Political Stats, offering a dynamic way to analyze real- world data and think critically of the narrative behind the numbers; Chapter-specific discussion questions help launch engaging classroom interaction while reinforcing important content; Exclusive, influential SAGE journal and reference content, built into course materials and assessment tools, that ties influential research and scholarship to chapter concepts; Editable, chapter-specific PowerPoint® slides offer flexibility when creating multimedia lectures so you don’t have to start from scratch; Integrated links to the interactive eBook make it easy for your students to maximize their study time with this “anywhere, anytime” mobile-friendly version of the text. It also offers access to more digital tools and resources, including SAGE Premium Video; All tables and figures from the textbook. Sage Edge for Students http://edge.sagepub.com/barbour9e SAGE edge for students enhances learning, it’s easy for students to use, and offers: An open-access site that makes it easy for students to maximize their study time, any-time, anywhere; eFlashcards that strengthen understanding of key terms and concepts; Practice quizzes that allow students to practice and assess how much they’ve learned and where they need to focus their attention; Video resources that bring concepts to life, are tied to learning objectives, and curated exclusively for this text; Exclusive access to influential SAGE journal and reference content, that ties important research and scholarship to chapter concepts to strengthen learning. Acknowledgments Africans say that it takes a village to raise a child—it is certainly true that it takes one to write a textbook! We could not have done it without a community of family, friends, colleagues, students, reviewers, and editors who supported us, nagged us, maddened us, and kept us on our toes. Not only is this a better book because of their help and support, but it would not have been a book at all without them. On the home front, we thank our families and our friends. We are forever grateful for the unconditional love and support, not to mention occasional intellectual revelation (Hobbes was wrong: it is not a dog-eat-dog world after all!), offered up gladly by Ollie, Gracie, Giuseppe, Bay Cat and Mags. (Though we lost Max, Clio, Daphne, Gina, Zoë, Ginger, Bandon, Maggie, and Spook along the way, they were among our earliest and strongest supporters and we miss them still.) Colleagues now or once in the Political Science Department at Indiana University have given us invaluable help on details beyond our ken: Yvette Alex Assensoh, Bill Bianco, Jack Bielasiak, Doris Burton, Ted Carmines, Dana Chabot, Mike Ensley, Chuck Epp, Judy Failer, Russ Hanson, Margie Hershey, Bobbi Herzberg, Virginia Hettinger, Fenton Martin, Burt Monroe, Rich Pacelle, Karen Rasler, Leroy Rieselbach, Jean Robinson, Steve Sanders, Pat Sellers, and the late Lin Ostrom and John Williams. IU colleagues from other schools and departments have been terrific: Trevor Brown, Dave Weaver, and Cleve Wilhoit from the Journalism School; Bill McGregor and Roger Parks from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs; John Patrick from the School of Education; and Julia Lamber and Pat Baude from the Law School have all helped out on substantive matters. Many IU folks have made an immeasurable contribution by raising to new levels our consciousness about teaching: Joan Middendorf and David Pace, as well as all the Freshman Learning Project people. James Russell and Bob Goelhert, and all the librarians in the Government Publications section of our library have done yeoman service for us. We are also grateful to colleagues from other institutions: Joe Aistrup, Shaun Bowler, Bob Brown, Tom Carsey, Kisuk Cho, E. J. Dionne, Todd Donovan, Diana Dwyre, Bob Erikson, David Hobbs, Kathleen Knight, David Lee, David McCuan, John McIver, Dick Merriman, Glenn Parker, Denise Scheberle, John Sislin, Dorald Stoltz, and Linda Streb. Rich Pacelle and Robert Sahr were particularly helpful. Special thanks to all our students—undergraduate and graduate, past and present—who inspired us to write this book in the first place. Many students helped us in more concrete ways, working tirelessly as research assistants. On previous editions these former students, now colleagues at other universities, helped enormously: Nate Birkhead, Tom Carsey, Jessica Gerrity, Dave Holian, Tracy Osborn, Brian Schaffner, and Mike Wagner. Jon Winburn, Laura Bucci, Trish Gibson, Katelyn Stauffer, and Ben Toll have been super helpful in the creation of the electronic version of the book. We are also grateful to Hugh Aprile, Liz Bevers, Christopher McCollough, Rachel Shelton, Jim Trilling, and Kevin Willhite for their help with the earliest editions of the book. Thanks also to Mike Stull, for taking us seriously in the first place; and to Jean Woy, for the vision that helped shape the book. Ann West in particular was a friend, a support, and a fabulous editor. We will love her forever. Ann Kirby-Payne is another development editor who loved the book as her own and made it better over the course of multiple editions. We miss our Anns. We have also benefited tremendously from the help of the folks at Project Vote Smart and the many outstanding political scientists across the country who have provided critical reviews of the manuscript at every step of the way. We’d like to thank the following people who took time away from their own work to critique and make suggestions for the improvement of ours. They include all the reviewers—Sheldon Appleton, Paul Babbitt, Harry Bralley, Scott Brown, Peter Carlson, David Holian, Carol Humphrey, Glen Hunt, Marilyn Mote-Yale, and Craig Ortsey—and also: Yishaiya Abosch, California State University, Fresno Amy Acord, Wharton County Junior College Danny M. Adkison, Oklahoma State University Ellen Andersen, University of Vermont Alicia Andreatta, Cisco College Don Arnold, Laney College Kevin Bailey, former member, Texas House of Representatives, District 140 Bethany Blackstone, University of North Texas James Borders, United States Air Force Academy Jeffrey A. Bosworth, Mansfield University Ralph Edward Bradford, University of Central Florida James Bromeland, Winona State University Jenny Bryson Clark, South Texas College Scott E. Buchanan, The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina John F. Burke, Trinity University Charity Butcher, Kennesaw State University Anne Marie Cammisa, Georgetown University David Campbell, University of Notre Dame Francis Carleton, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Michael Ceriello, Clark College Betty Chan, Sierra College Jennifer B. Clark, South Texas Community College Diana Cohen, Central Connecticut State University Kimberly H. Conger, Iowa State University Albert Craig, Augusta State University Renee Cramer, Drake University Paul Davis, Truckee Meadows Community College Christine L. Day, University of New Orleans Mary C. Deason, University of Mississippi William Delehanty, Missouri Southern State University Lisa DeLorenzo, St. Louis Community College–Wildwood Robert E. DiClerico, West Virginia University Robert Dillard, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi Robert L. Dion, University of Evansville Price Dooley, University of Illinois Springfield Lois Duke-Whitaker, Georgia Southern University Johanna Dunaway, Texas A&M University Richard Ellis, Willamette University C. Lawrence Evans, William and Mary College Heather K. Evans, Sam Houston State University Victoria Farrar-Myers, Southern Methodist University Femi Ferreira, Hutchinson Community College Richard Flanagan, College of State Island Daniel Franklin, Georgia State University Savanna Garrity, Madisonville Community College Heidi Getchell-Bastien, Northern Essex Community College Patrick Gilbert, Lone Star College–Tomball Dana K. Glencross, Oklahoma City Community College Abe Goldberg, University of South Carolina Upstate Larry Gonzalez, Houston Community College-Southwest Eugene Goss, Long Beach City College Heidi Jo Green, Lone Star College–Cyfair Richard Haesly, California State University, Long Beach Bill Haltom, University of Puget Sound Victoria Hammond, Austin Community College–Northridge Patrick J. Haney, Miami University Sally Hansen, Daytona State College Charles A. Hantz, Danville Area Community College Virginia Haysley, Lone Star College–Tomball David M. Head, John Tyler Community College Paul Herrnson, University of Connecticut Erik Herzik, University of Nevada–Reno Ronald J. Hrebenar, University of Utah Tseggai Isaac, Missouri University of Science and Technology William G. Jacoby, Michigan State University W. Lee Johnston, University of North Carolina Wilmington Philip Edward Jones, University of Delaware Kalu N. Kalu, Auburn University Montgomery Kelechi A. Kalu, Ohio State University Joshua Kaplan, University of Notre Dame John D. Kay, Santa Barbara City College Ellen Key, Appalachian State University Richard J. Kiefer, Waubonsee College Kendra A. King Momon, Oglethorpe University Tyson King-Meadows, University of Maryland–Baltimore County Elizabeth Klages, Augsburg College Bernard D. Kolasa, University of Nebraska at Omaha John F. Kozlowicz, University of Wisconsin–Whitewater Geoffrey Kurtz, Borough of Manhattan Community College– CUNY Lisa Langenbach, Middle Tennessee State University Jeff Lee, Blinn College–Bryan Angela K. Lewis, University of Alabama at Birmingham Ted Lewis, Naval Postgraduate School Kara Lindaman, Winona State University Brad Lockerbie, East Carolina University Paul M. Lucko, Murray State University Jack Adam MacLennan, Park University Vincent N. Mancini, Delaware County Community College Jonathan Martin, Texas Tech University Tom McInnis, University of Central Arkansas Amy McKay, Georgia State University Tim McKeown, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Sam Wescoat McKinstry, East Tennessee State University Utz Lars McKnight, University of Alabama David McCuan, Sonoma State University Lauri McNown, University of Colorado at Boulder Bryan McQuide, Grand View University Eric Miller, Blinn College–Bryan Campus Lawrence Miller, Collin County Community College–Spring Creek Maureen F. Moakley, University of Rhode Island Sara Moats, Florida International University Theodore R. Mosch, University of Tennessee at Martin T. Sophia Mrouri, Lone Star College, CyFair Melinda A. Mueller, Eastern Illinois University Steven Neiheisel, University of Dayton Adam Newmark, Appalachian State University David Nice, Washington State University Zane R. Nobbs, Delta College James A. Norris, Texas A&M International University Susan Orr, College at Brockport, SUNY Tracy Osborn, University of Iowa William Parent, San Jacinto College Gerhard Peters, Citrus College Mike Pickering, University of New Orleans Paul Thomas Rabchenuk, Salem State University Darrial Reynolds, South Texas College David Robinson, University of Houston–Downtown Jason Robles, Colorado State University Dario Albert Rozas, Milwaukee Area Technical College Trevor Rubenzer, University of South Carolina, Upstate Raymond Sandoval, Richland College Thomas A. Schmeling, Rhode Island College Paul Scracic, Youngstown State University Todd Shaw, University of South Carolina Daniel M. Shea, Allegheny College Neil Snortland, University of Arkansas at Little Rock Michael W. Sonnleitner, Portland Community College–Sylvania Robert E. Sterken Jr., University of Texas at Tyler Atiya Kai Stokes-Brown, Bucknell University James W. Stoutenborough, Idaho State University Ruth Ann Strickland, Appalachian State University Tom Sweeney, North Central College Bill Turini, Reedley College Richard S. Unruh, Fresno Pacific University Anip Uppal, Alpena Community College Lynn Vacca, Lambuth University Jan P. Vermeer, Nebraska Wesleyan University Elizabeth A. Wabindato, Northern Arizona University Julian Westerhout, Illinois State University Matt Wetstein, San Joaquin Delta College Cheryl Wilf, Kutztown University Shawn Williams, Campbellsville University David C. Wilson, University of Delaware David E. Woodard, Concordia University–St. Paul Shoua Yang, St. Cloud State University Kimberly Zagorski, University of Wisconsin–Stout David J. Zimny, Los Medanos College We are also incredibly indebted to the busy public servants who made the Profiles in Citizenship possible. We are gratified and humbled that they believed in the project enough to give us their valuable time. Finally, it is our great privilege to acknowledge and thank all the people at CQ Press who believed in this book and made this edition possible. In this day and age of huge publishing conglomerates, it has been such a pleasure to work with a small, committed team dedicated to top-quality work. Brenda Carter, now at the American Psychological Association, more than anyone, saw the potential of this book and made it what it is today. Michele Sordi has been a great source of advice, inspiration, and good food. Charisse Kiino earned our instant gratitude for so thoroughly and immediately “getting” what this book is about. She has worked tirelessly with us and we have relied heavily on her good sense, her wisdom, her patience, and her friendship. We can’t do without her. Thanks to Linda Trygar and her team of field reps across the country who sometimes seem to know the book better than we do ourselves. We appreciate their enthusiasm and commitment. For putting this beautiful book together and drawing your attention to it, we thank the folks on the design, editorial, marketing, and production teams: Gail Buschman, Anna Villarruel, Sam Rosenberg, Sarah Christensen, Lauren Younker, Joseph McManus, Dom Shank, Erica DeLuca, Eric Garner, and especially Kelly DeRosa and Tori Mirsadjadi for their good production management, and to Amy Marks, for her always gentle and miraculous copyediting. Very special mention goes to two people on this edition. Monica Eckman walked into this project cold as a new editor, and we are still trying to figure out what hit us. She is a dynamo—smart as a whip and astute about publishing but constantly full of encouragement, chortling amusement, CAPITAL LETTERS, and good spirits. We loved her instantly and hope for a long and laugher-filled friendship. Lastly, Sarah Calabi. How she put up with us, twice now, I don’t know. She is everything we are not—focused, organized, and full of good Maine sense. She managed to help us juggle and finish two projects in the timespan available for just one and did all of this with the demands of two small daughters. Her dry humor and wickedly acerbic view of the world made working with her fun, even when it was tough. This book is way better than it should be, and that’s on her. Christine Barbour Gerald C. Wright In the electronic edition of the book you have purchased, there are several icons that reference links (videos, journal articles) to additional content. Though the electronic edition links are not live, all content referenced may be accessed at edge.sagepub.com/barbour9e. This URL is referenced at several points throughout your electronic edition. To The Student Suggestions on How to Read This Textbook 1. As they say in Chicago about voting, do it early and often. If you open the book for the first time the night before the exam, you will not learn much from it and it won’t help your grade. Start reading the chapters in conjunction with the lectures, and you’ll get so much more out of class. 2. Pay attention to the chapter headings and In Your Own Words goals. They tell you what we think is important, what our basic argument is, and how all the material fits together. Often, chapter subheadings list elements of an argument that may show up on a quiz. Be alert to these clues. 3. Read actively. Constantly ask yourself: Why is this important? How do these different facts fit together? What are the broad arguments here? How does this material relate to class lectures? How does it relate to the broad themes of the class? When you stop asking these questions, you are merely moving your eyes over the page, and that is a waste of time. 4. Highlight or take notes. Some people prefer highlighting because it’s quicker than taking notes, but others think that writing down the most important points helps in recalling them later. Whichever method you choose (and you can do both), be sure you’re doing it properly. Highlighting. An entirely highlighted page will not give you any clues about what is important. Read each paragraph and ask yourself: What is the basic idea of this paragraph? Highlight that. Avoid highlighting all the examples and illustrations. You should be able to recall them on your own when you see the main idea. Beware of highlighting too little. If whole pages go by with no marking, you are probably not highlighting enough. Outlining. Again, the key is to write down enough, but not too much. Go for key ideas, terms, and arguments. 5. Note all key terms, and be sure you understand the definition and significance. 6. Do not skip tables and figures. These things are there for a purpose, because they convey crucial information or illustrate a point in the text. After you read a chart or graph or Big Picture infographic, make a note in the margin about what it means. 7. Do not skip the boxes. They are not filler! The Don’t Be Fooled by... boxes provide advice on becoming a critical consumer of the many varieties of political information that come your way. Each Profile in Citizenship box highlights the achievements of a political actor pertinent to that chapter’s focus. They model citizen participation and can serve as a beacon for your own political power long after you’ve completed your American government course. And the Snapshot of America boxes help you understand who Americans are and how they line up on all sorts of dimensions. 8. Make use of the book’s web site at http://edge.sagepub.com/barbour9e. There you will find chapter summaries, flashcards, and practice quizzes that will help you prepare for exams. 1 Politics: Who Gets What, and How? Spencer Platt/Getty Images In Your Own Words After you’ve read this chapter, you will be able to 1.1 Describe the role that politics plays in determining how power and resources, including control of information, are distributed in a society. 1.2 Compare how power is distributed between citizens and government in different economic and political systems. 1.3 Explain the historical origins of American democracy and the ways that the available media controlled the political narrative. 1.4 Describe the enduring tension in the United States between self- interested human nature and public-spirited government and the way that has been shaped in a mediated world. 1.5 Apply the five steps of critical thinking to this book’s themes of power and citizenship in American politics. What’s at Stake... in “Hashtag Activism”? THE LAST THING THEY WANTED to do was become famous. Not this way, not now. But when seventeen of their classmates and teachers were murdered on February 14, 2018, by a disturbed former student, the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, decided to make some noise. They had seen this movie before. There had been mass shootings. Ever since they were little they had practiced what to do if someone showed up with a gun in their classrooms. There was even an armed guard on their campus. And still, it happened again. So they knew the ritual that would follow. Every time this nation experiences a mass shooting, a grimly familiar routine follows. First there is unrelenting press coverage—of the dead, of the bereaved, of the shooter. Then those who lost loved ones make impassioned calls for more gun control and those who oppose gun control make equally impassioned declarations that we should not politicize tragedy, that it is too soon to talk about it. There are funerals. The president (usually) makes a speech. Then the press moves on to the next big news and only the grieving are left to testify before Congress, create foundations in the names of their loved ones, and implore people not to forget. Lather, rinse, repeat. But the MSD students knew the drill and were media savvy enough to figure out how to hack it. They were ready. Some, in the drama club, comfortable on stage; some, school journalists, eloquent and at ease with words; others, bright, articulate, privileged to attend a school with an embarrassment of extracurricular activities that had prepared them for their futures. Smart enough to know that their moment in the spotlight would be brief, they were determined to make it count. The shooting was on a Wednesday. Cameron Kasky was so angry he took to Facebook, first to announce that he and his brother were safe and then to vent. “I just want people to understand what happened and understand that doing nothing will lead to nothing. Why is that so hard to grasp?” His social media posts caught the eye of CNN, which asked him to write an op-ed piece on Thursday, which led to television appearances. It became apparent to Kasky that his words were helping to shape the story of what had happened and what it meant. “People are listening and people care,” Kasky wrote. “They’re reporting the right things.”1 To capitalize on that fickle national attention before it turned away, Kasky and several of his friends met that night to plan a social media campaign. By midnight they had a hashtag, #NeverAgain, social media accounts, and a message for politicians: legislate better background checks on gun buyers, or we will vote you out. Meanwhile, MSD student Jaclyn Corin took to her own social media accounts to express her grief and anger at the loss of her friends. She, a girl who had never been political, also began to strategize. With the help of Florida Democratic congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, she planned a bus trip for one hundred students to Tallahassee to lobby state lawmakers. By Friday, Corin and Kasky had joined forces, and on Saturday they added David Hogg, a student journalist who had conducted interviews while they were under fire, Sarah Chadwick, already famous for her angry, grief-filled tweets, and Emma González, whose speech at a local rally went viral. On Sunday they hit the morning talk shows to proclaim that the Never Again movement was planning the first March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C., on March 24. Two weeks later (forever in the typical media cycle), the kids were still making news. Boycotts were organized to put pressure on companies doing business with the National Rifle Association (NRA), which blocked background checks. A National School Walkout was planned for the one-month anniversary of the shooting. Thousands of students across the nation participated. Famous people donated large sums to help fund the March 24 March for Our Lives. As Dahlia Lithwick wrote in Slate, “These teens have—by most objective measures—used social media to change the conversation around guns and gun control in America.”2 The March for Our Lives, when it happened, defied expectations. Huge crowds assembled not just in Washington but in eight hundred places around the world. The only adults who appeared on the D.C. stage were entertainers. The Parkland kids, knowing they had created a unique platform, had invited other kids whose lives had been touched by gun violence. Yolanda King, the nine- year-old granddaughter of Martin Luther King, confidently stood before tens of thousands to lead the crowd in a call and response: Spread the word. Have you heard? All across the nation. We Are going to be A great generation. The event highlight was not words, eloquent as many of them were, but silence —four minutes and twenty-six seconds of uneasy, suspenseful silence as Emma González stood like a sculpture, tears tracking down her face, so that the crowd would experience the duration of the shooting that ended seventeen of her friends’ and teachers’ lives. Just like the 2017 and 2018 Women’s Marches, which brought out millions of pink-hatted women marching for human rights around the world; like Black Lives Matter, founded in 2013 to protest the unwarranted deaths of black men at the hands of police; like Occupy Wall Street, a 2011 movement to protest the unequal distribution of wealth in the United States; and like the It Gets Better Project, which works to convince LGBTQ youths that life does get better after the high school years, #NeverAgain was fueled and spread by social media. Of course some older people know their way around the Internet, but #NeverAgain was the first mass movement planned and executed by digital natives, people who have never not known the world of digital media, for whom navigating digital terrain is second nature. It’s not clear what the generation— what Yolanda King called “a great generation”—will be called by history. Gen Z, maybe? iGen? Generational divides are blurry, and few social scientists agree where the dividing lines fall. But the post-millennial generation—those born since the mid-1990s or thereabouts—has an amazing political skill set to use if, like the Parkland students, they choose to do so. They have the ability, as Lithwick said, to “change the conversation,” or create a powerful political narrative that they can disseminate and that helps level the playing field with powerful opponents like the NRA. Marching for Their Lives At the March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C., student Emma González riveted the nation with her powerful speech. After her two-minute-long introductory remarks, she stood silent, with tears rolling down her face, for four and a half minutes, to mark the roughly six minutes and twenty seconds it took for the gunman to do so much damage. Despite the churn of the news cycle, she and her classmates held the nation’s attention for weeks, working to change the narrative on gun control. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images No movement can create change or defeat an opponent if it is only hashtag activism. Eventually, you have to put your vote where your # is. What is especially remarkable about the Never Again movement is that it emphasizes not just marching but voting. March for Our Life rallies throughout the summer gave them the chance to hone the narrative, register people to vote, and activate other students. Youth participation in the 2018 midterms soared.3 Some writers are calling for the vote to be extended to those who are sixteen years old. Political scientist Jonathan Bernstein says that is a good idea because voting is “the training wheels of political participation.”4 By the time they are eighteen, kids are distracted by the drama of their lives and they tend not to want to be bothered. In fact, since the military draft ended in 1973, young people have been notoriously uninvolved in politics, often seeing it as irrelevant to their lives and the things they really care about. Knowing that they pay little attention and tend not to vote in large numbers, politicians feel free to ignore their concerns, reinforcing their cynicism and apathy. Young people have turned out in larger numbers since the 2008 election of Barack Obama, however, and the Never Again movement promises to energize even more. The American founders weren’t crazy about the idea of mass movements, political demonstrations, or even political parties, but they did value political engagement and they knew that democracies needed care and attention in order to survive. In 1787, when Benjamin Franklin was asked by a woman what he and other founders of the Constitution had created, he replied, “A republic, madam, if you can keep it.” Today, many commentators worry that we are not “keeping the republic” and that, as new generations who find politics a turn-off become disaffected adults, the system will start to unravel. As one writer says, “a nation that hates politics will not long thrive as a democracy.”5 Yet protesters like Cameron Kasky, Emma González, David Hogg, and Yolanda King sound as committed to democracy as Benjamin Franklin could have wished, even though their efforts are not focused solely on voting or traditional methods of political engagement. Is a nation of these young activists a nation in trouble, or can movements begun via technology Franklin could not have imagined help to keep the republic? What, exactly, is at stake in hashtag activism—what one writer called a “netroots outcry” to follow an online call to political action? We return to this question after we learn more about the meaning of politics and the difference it makes in our lives. HAVE you got grand ambitions for your life? Do you want to found an Internet start-up and sell it for millions, be the investment banker that funds the project, achieve a powerful position in business, gain influence in high places, and spend money to make things happen? Perhaps you would like to make a difference in the world, heal the sick, fight for peace, feed the poor. Maybe you want to travel the world, learning languages and immersing yourself in new cultures and working abroad. Or maybe what you want from life is a good education; a well-paying job; a healthy family; a comfortable home; and a safe, prosperous, contented existence. Think politics has nothing to do with any of those things? Think again. All the things that make those goals attainable—a strong national defense, good relations with other countries, student loans, economic prosperity, favorable mortgage rates, secure streets and neighborhoods, cheap and efficient public transportation, affordable health care and family leave protections—are influenced by or are the products of politics. Yet, if you pay attention to the news, politics may seem like one long and crazy reality show: eternal bickering and finger-pointing by public servants who seem more interested in gaining power over their ideological opponents than actually solving our collective problems. Increasingly, it appears that political actors with the big bucks have more influence over the process than those of us with normal bank accounts. Public service, which we would like to think of as a noble activity, can take on all the worst characteristics of the business world, where we expect people to be greedy and self-interested. Can this America really be the heritage of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln? Can this be the “world’s greatest democracy” at work? In this chapter, we get to the heart of what politics is, how it relates to other concepts such as power, government, rules, norms, economics, and citizenship, and how all of these things are mediated by the ever-present channels of information that define the way we live in the digital age. We propose that politics can best be understood as the struggle over who gets power and resources in society, and that a major resource is control of the narrative, or story, that defines each contestant. There is not enough of all that power and influence to go around, so inevitably politics produces winners and losers. Much of the reason it can look so ugly is that people fight desperately to be the former and to create and perpetuate narratives that celebrate their wins and put the best face possible on their losses. It can get pretty confusing for the average observer. As we will see, it is the beauty of a democracy that all the people, including everyday people like us, get to fight for what they want. Not everyone can win, of course, and many never come close. There is no denying that some people bring resources to the process that give them an edge, and that the rules give advantages to some groups of people over others. But as the What’s at Stake... ? shows, what makes living today so different from previous eras is that we all have some access to the multiple channels of information through which battles over political narratives take place. The people who pay attention, who learn the rules and how to use those communication channels effectively, can increase their chances of getting what they want, whether it is restrictions on ownership of assault weapons, a lower personal tax bill, greater pollution controls, a more aggressive foreign policy, safer streets, a better-educated population, or more public parks. If they become very skilled citizens, they can even begin to change the rules so that people like them have more control of the rules and narratives and a greater chance to end up winners in the high- stakes game we call politics. The government our founders created for us gives us a remarkable playing field on which to engage in that game. Like any other politicians, the designers of the American system were caught up in the struggle to create a narrative that justified their claim to power and resources, and in the desire to write laws that would maximize the chances that they, and people like them, would be winners in the new system. Nonetheless, they crafted a government impressive for its ability to generate compromise and stability, and also for its potential to realize freedom and prosperity for its citizens. What Is Politics?: A peaceful means of determining who gets power and influence in society Over two thousand years ago, the Greek philosopher Aristotle said that we are political animals, and political animals we seem destined to remain. The truth is that politics is a fundamental and complex human activity. In some ways it is our capacity to be political—to cooperate, bargain, and compromise—that helps distinguish us from all the other animals out there. Politics may have its baser moments, but it also allows us to reach more exalted heights than we could ever achieve alone, from dedicating a new public library or building a national highway system, to curing deadly diseases or exploring the stars. Since this book is about politics, in all its glory as well as its disgrace, we need to begin with a clear understanding of the word. One of the most famous definitions, put forth by the well-known late political scientist Harold Lasswell, is still one of the best, and we use it to frame our discussion throughout this book. Lasswell defined politics as “who gets what when and how.”6 Politics is a way of determining, without recourse to violence, who gets power and resources in society, and how they get them. Power is the ability to get other people to do what you want them to do. The resources in question here might be government jobs, tax revenues, laws that help you get your way, or public policies that work to your advantage. A major political resource that helps people to gain and maintain power is the ability to control the media, not just the press and television but also the multiple channels created by companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple through which people get information about politics and that may actually affect the information we get. These days we live in a world of so many complex information networks that sorting out and keeping track of what is happening around us is a task in itself. Anyone who can influence the stories that are told has a big advantage. politics who gets what, when, and how; a process of determining how power and resources are distributed in a society without recourse to violence power the ability to get other people to do what you want media the channels—including television, radio, newspapers, and the Internet —through which information is sent and received Politics provides a process through which we can try to arrange our collective lives in some kind of social order so that we can live without crashing into each other at every turn, and to provide ourselves with goods and services we could not obtain alone. But politics is also about getting our own way. The way we choose may be a noble goal for society or pure self-interest, but the struggle we engage in is a political struggle. Because politics is about power and other scarce resources, there will always be winners and losers in politics. If we could always get our own way, politics would disappear. It is because we cannot always get what we want that politics exists. social order the way we organize and live our collective lives Our capacity to be political gives us tools with which to settle disputes about the social order and to allocate scarce resources. The tools of politics are compromise and cooperation; discussion and debate; deal making, bargaining, storytelling; even, sometimes, bribery and deceit. We use those tools to agree on the principles that should guide our handling of power and other scarce resources and to live our collective lives according to those principles. Because there are many competing narratives about how to manage power—who should have it, how it should be used, how it should be transferred—agreement on those principles can break down. The tools of politics do not include violence. When people drop bombs, blow themselves up, or fly airplanes into buildings, they have tried to impose their ideas about the social order through nonpolitical means. That may be because the channels of politics have failed, because they cannot agree on basic principles, because they don’t share a common understanding of what counts as negotiation and so cannot craft compromises, because they are unwilling to compromise, or because they don’t really care about deal making at all—they just want to impose their will or make a point. The threat of violence may be a political tool used as leverage to get a deal, but when violence is employed, politics has broken down. Indeed, the human history of warfare attests to the fragility of political life. It is easy to imagine what a world without politics would be like. There would be no resolution or compromise between conflicting interests, because those are political activities. There would be no agreements struck, bargains made, or alliances formed. Unless there were enough of every valued resource to go around, or unless the world were big enough that we could live our lives without coming into contact with other human beings, life would be constant conflict—what the philosopher Thomas Hobbes called in the seventeenth century a “war of all against all.” Individuals, unable to cooperate with one another (because cooperation is essentially political), would have no option but to resort to brute force to settle disputes and allocate resources. Politics is essential to our living a civilized life. Water Under the Bridge Political parties and their leaders frequently clash on issues and ideology—but when politics is out of the picture, the nature of the game can change. President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner lampooned their retirement from public life in a viral video for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2016. White House Politics and Government Although the words politics and government are sometimes used interchangeably, they refer to different things. Politics, we know, is a process or an activity through which power and resources are gained and lost. Government, by contrast, is a system or organization for exercising authority over a body of people. government a system or organization for exercising authority over a body of people American politics is what happens in the halls of Congress, on the campaign trail, at Washington cocktail parties, and in neighborhood association meetings. It is the making of promises, deals, and laws. American government is the Constitution and the institutions set up by the Constitution for the exercise of authority by the American people, over the American people. Authority is power that citizens view as legitimate, or “right”—power to which we have given our implicit consent. Think of it this way: as children, we probably did as our parents told us, or submitted to their punishment if we didn’t, because we recognized their authority over us. As we became adults, we started to claim that our parents had less authority over us, that we could do what we wanted. We no longer saw their power as wholly legitimate or appropriate. Governments exercise authority because people recognize them as legitimate even if they often do not like doing what they are told (paying taxes, for instance). When governments cease to be regarded as legitimate, the result may be revolution or civil war, unless the state is powerful enough to suppress all opposition. authority power that is recognized as legitimate, or right legitimate accepted as “right” or proper Rules and Institutions Government is shaped by the process of politics, but it in turn provides the rules and institutions that shape the way politics continues to operate. The rules and institutions of government have a profound effect on how power is distributed and who wins and who loses in the political arena. Life is different for people in other countries not only because they speak different languages and eat different foods but also because their governments establish rules that cause life to be lived in different ways. Rules can be thought of as the how in the definition “who gets what... and how.” They are directives that determine how resources are allocated and how collective action takes place—that is, they determine how we try to get the things we want. The point of the rules is to provide some framework for us to solve without violence the problems that our collective lives generate. rules directives that specify how resources will be distributed or what procedures govern collective activity Because the rules we choose can influence which people will get what they want most often, understanding the rules is crucial to understanding politics. Consider for a moment the impact a change of rules would have on the outcome of the sport of basketball, for instance. What if the average height of the players could be no more than 5’10”? What if the baskets were lowered? What if foul shots counted for two points rather than one? Basketball would be a very different game, and the teams recruited would look quite unlike the teams for which we now cheer. So it is with governments and politics: change the people who are allowed to vote or the length of time a person can serve in office, and the political process and the potential winners and losers change drastically. Rules can be official—laws that are passed, signed, and entered into the books; amendments that are ratified; decisions made by bureaucrats; or judgments handed down by the courts. Less visible but no less important are norms, the tacitly understood rules about acceptable political behavior, ways of doing things, boundaries between the branches, and traditional practices that grease the wheels of politics and keep them running smoothly. Because norms are understood but not explicitly written down, we often don’t even recognize them until they are broken. norms informal, unwritten expectations that guide behavior and support formal rule systems; often most noticeable when broken Let’s take an example close to home. Say it’s Thanksgiving dinner time and your brother decides he wants the mashed potatoes on the other side of the table. Instead of asking to have them passed, imagine that he climbs up on the table and walks across the top of it with his big, dirty feet, retrieves the potatoes, clomps back across the table, jumps down, takes his seat, and serves himself some potatoes. Everyone is aghast, right? What he has just done just isn’t done. But when you challenge him, he says, “What, there’s a rule against doing that? I got what I wanted, didn’t I?” and you have to admit there isn’t and he did. But the reason there is no broken rule is because nobody ever thought one would be necessary. You never imagined that someone would walk across the table because everyone knows there is a norm against doing that, and until your brother broke that norm, no one ever bothered to articulate it. And getting what you want is not generally an acceptable justification for bad behavior. Just because norms are not written down doesn’t mean they are not essential for the survival of a government or the process of politics. In some cases they are far more essential than written laws. A family of people who routinely stomp across the table to get the food they want would not long want to share meals; eating alone would be far more comfortable. We can think of institutions as the where of the political struggle, though Lasswell didn’t include a “where” in his definition. They are the organizations where government power is exercised. In the United States, our rules provide for the institutions of a representative democracy—that is, rule by the elected representatives of the people, and for a federal political system. Our Constitution lays the foundation for the institutions of Congress, the presidency, the courts, and the bureaucracy as a stage on which the drama of politics plays itself out. Other systems might call for different institutions— perhaps an all-powerful parliament, or a monarch, or even a committee of rulers. institutions organizations in which government power is exercised These complicated systems of rules and institutions do not appear out of thin air. They are carefully designed by the founders of different systems to create the kinds of society they think will be stable and prosperous, but also where people like themselves are likely to be winners. Remember that not only the rules but also the institutions we choose influence who most easily and most often get their own way. Power, Narratives, and Media From the start of human existence, an essential function of communication has been recording events, giving meaning to them and creating a story, or narrative, about how they fit into the past and stretch into the future. It is human nature to tell stories, to capture our experiential knowledge and beliefs and weave them together in ways that give larger meaning to our lives. Native peoples of many lands do it with their legends; the Greeks and Romans did it with their myths; the Jews, Christians, Muslims, and other major religious groups do it with their holy texts; and the Grimms did it with their fairy tales. Human beings tell stories. It’s what we do, and it gives us our history and a way of passing that history down to new generations. A major part of politics is about competing to have your narrative accepted as the authoritative account. Control of political information has always been a crucial resource when it comes to making and upholding a claim that one should be able to tell other people how to live their lives, but it used to be a power reserved for a few. Creation and dissemination of political narratives —the stories that people believe about who has power, who wants power, who deserves power, and what someone has done to get and maintain power— were the prerogative of authoritative sources like priests, kings, and their agents. political narrative a persuasive story about the nature of power, who should have it, and how it should be used Through much of our common history, the storytellers of those narratives were given special status. They were wise men or women, shamans, prophets, oracles, priests, and rabbis. And they were frequently in the service of chiefs, kings, emperors, and other people of enormous power. It’s no accident that the storytellers frequently told narratives that bolstered the status quo and kept the power structure in place. The storytellers and the power holders had a monopoly on control for so much of human history because books were in scarce supply and few people could read in any case or had the leisure to amass facts to challenge the prevailing narratives. The gatekeepers of information—those who determined what news got reported and how—were very few. gatekeepers journalists and the media elite who determine which news stories are covered and which are not Before the seventeenth-century era known as the Enlightenment, there may have been competing narratives about who had claims to power, but they were not that hard to figure out. People’s allegiance to power was based on tribal loyalties, religious faith, or conquest. Governments were legitimate through the authority of God or the sword, and that was that. Because most people then were illiterate, that narrative was mediated, that is, passed to people through channels that could shape and influence it. Information flowed mostly through medieval clergy and monarchs, the very people who had a vested interest in getting people to believe it. Marty Bucella via Cartoonstock.com Even when those theories of legitimacy changed, information was still easily controlled because literacy rates were low and horses and wind determined the speed of communication until the advent of steam engines and radios. Early newspapers were read aloud, shared, and reshared, and a good deal of the news of the day was delivered from the pulpit. As we will see when we discuss the American founding, there were lively debates about whether independence was a good idea and what kind of political system should replace the colonial power structure, but by the time information reached citizens, it had been largely processed and filtered by those higher up the power ladder. Even the American rebels were elite and powerful men who could control their own narratives. Remember the importance of this when we read the story behind the Declaration of Independence in Chapter 3. These days, we take for granted the ease with which we can communicate ideas to others all over the globe. Just a hundred years ago, radio was state of the art and television had yet to be invented. Today many of us carry access to a world of information and instant communication in our pockets. When we talk about the channels through which information flows, and the ways that the channel itself might alter or control the narrative, we are referring to media. Just like a medium is a person through whom some people try to communicate with those who have died, media (the plural of medium) are channels of communication, as mentioned earlier. The integrity of the medium is critical. A scam artist might make money off the desire of grieving people to contact a lost loved one by making up the information she passes on. The monarch and clergy who channeled the narrative of the Holy Roman Empire were motivated by their wish to hold on to power. Think about water running through a pipe. Maybe the pipe is made of lead, or is rusty, or has leaks. Depending on the integrity of the pipe, the water we get will be toxic or colored or limited. In the same way, the narratives and information we get can be altered by the way they are mediated, by the channels, or the media, through which we receive them. Description FIGURE 1.1 A Comparison of Economic Systems As we will see, in today’s digital world, there are so many channels of information that it is all the more important that people check the integrity of the media they use in order to understand the narratives those media may be pushing. Politics and Economics Whereas politics is concerned with the distribution of power and resources and the control of information in society, economics is concerned specifically with the production and distribution of society’s wealth—material goods such as bread, toothpaste, and housing, and services such as medical care, education, and entertainment. Because both politics and economics focus on the distribution of society’s resources, political and economic questions often get confused in contemporary life. Questions about how to pay for government, about government’s role in the economy, and about whether government or the private sector should provide certain services have political and economic dimensions. Because there are no clear-cut distinctions here, i

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