Stare deeply into my eyes.

You will become a patriotic

American.

Public Policy Paper

• selecting a research question,• finding sources and building a

bibliography,• conducting research to answer your policy

question,• formulating a policy recommendation

based on your research, and • crafting a lucid argument in support of

your recommendation.

Culture Defined

• “The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.

• “These patterns, traits, and products considered as the expression of a particular period, class, community, or population: Edwardian culture; Japanese culture; the culture of poverty.

• “These patterns, traits, and products considered with respect to a particular category, such as a field, subject, or mode of expression: religious culture in the Middle Ages; musical culture; oral culture, [political culture].” – American Heritage Dictionary

Political Culture:

What do Americans believe in?

Freedom/Liberty

Equality

Democracy/Self-government

Political Culture:

What do Americans believe in?

•Freedom/Liberty

• freedom to act

• personal autonomy

•Equality

• fair treatment

• and equal opportunity

•Democracy/Self-government

• popular sovereignty

• government of, by, for people

Political Culture:

What do Americans believe in?

•Freedom/Liberty

• freedom to act

• personal autonomy

•Equality

• fair treatment

• and equal opportunity

•Democracy/Self-government

• popular sovereignty

• government of, by, for people

Political Culture:

What do Americans believe in?

Individualism

Crazy for Freedom?

•Freedom/Liberty

• freedom to act

• personal autonomy

•Equality

• fair treatment

• and equal opportunity

•Democracy/Self-government

• popular sovereignty

• government of, by, for people

Political Culture:

What do Americans believe in?

• democratic

• constitutional

• free market

Characteristics of America’s Governing System

ala Patterson

Characteristics of each?

Loci of power?

• democracy (people govern either directly or through representatives) responds to numbers--majoritarian

• constitutionalism is a set of rules that restricts the lawful use of power (limits on the power of governments over citizens) responds to rights--minoritarian

• capitalism (free enterprise and self-reliance) responds to wealth–plutocratic

America’s Governing System ala Patterson

• democracy (people govern either directly or through representatives) responds to numbers--majoritarian

• constitutionalism is a set of rules that restricts the lawful use of power (limits on the power of governments over citizens) responds to rights--minoritarian

• capitalism (free enterprise and self-reliance) responds to wealth–plutocratic

Rules of American Politics ala Patterson

All three rules of the game are based on the free choice of free individuals & thus

consistent with our core belief in individualism.