Lecture 2:

Dye, Ch 2 (pp24-42)

Political Culture: Ideas in

Conflict

-According to Dye (p 25), political culture

“refers to widely shared ideas about who

should govern, for what ends, and by what

means”

-Obviously there isn’t always agreement on

those ideas and many of these values (ie shared

ideas about what is good and valuable) and

actual conditions don’t always match up

According to Dye (p 26), “no political value has been

more widely held in the US than individual liberty”…

In large part, our early history was shaped by the ideas

of Classical liberalism, which asserts the worth and

dignity of the individual.

There are two main components to Classical Liberalism:

a. Political liberty

-founders mostly adopted the language of Locke (ie on natural rights &

social contracts)

b. Economic freedom

-Characterized by capitalism (Dye, p 26) and the right to own property

In the early 1800s, a visiting French historian, Alexis de

Tocqueville, identified equality as a central American value that

distinguished the new nation from European countries.

American views of certain types of equality

Political Equality (legal v. political equality)

Equality of Opportunity (elimination of artificial barriers)

Equality of Results (= sharing of wealth)

Fairness (valued but no shared agreement)

According to Dye (p30), conflict in society

is generated more often by inequalities

among people than by hardship or

deprivation.

Question: how fair or equitably is wealth

distributed within the US capitalistic

economic system?

Here are a few ways of measuring wealth…Where

would you prefer to live based on these statistics?

As a poor person? As a wealthy person?

The essence of the American dream: that the opportunity

exists for every individual to move up the class ranks.

Question: how mobile really IS America? What does

Herrnstein & Murray’s “Bell Curve” show?

Bell Curve: Herrnstein & Murray argue that general intelligence

largely determines success in life, esp. in an “information society”;

also argue 60% of intellect is inherited and that programs to assist

the “underprivileged” are useless/counterproductive…what does this

have to do with social mobility and the possibility to rise?

“E Pluribus Unum” (from many, one)

Question: How are we one and how

are we as yet still many disparate

groups? Does EPU still mean

anything in 2010?

-In what ways is the population of the

United States changing?

-Implications of these trends on politics?

1. The House of Representatives has how

many voting members?

2. What is the supreme law of the land?

3. How many U.S. Senators are there?

4. How many justices are on the Supreme Court?

5. How many amendments does the Constitution have?

6. If both the President and the Vice President can no longer

serve, who becomes President?

7. Who is in charge of the executive branch?

8. What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?

9. We elect a U.S. Senator for how many years?

10. We elect a U.S. Representative for how many years?

The United States is one of the most religious

societies in the world. Over 90 % of Americans

report in polls that they believe in God. Over 80%

say that prayer is part of their daily lives, and 60%

say that they attend church at least once a month.

Over 80% claim some religious affiliation.

Evangelical Protestants are the largest single group

and the fastest-growing. The following pie chart

gives a visual representation of this.