U.S. Political Culture,U.S. Political Institutions

Who is this?

Tyranny and Democracy were thought to be undesirable extremes

King George III

Colonial Life

• Under British control for 100+ years• Property, free religion & other rights•Had about 4 million non-natives•We were “born Lockean”

Truth

Government

Aristocracies

Religious Institutions

The People

Truth

Government

“We” The People

• “Success in life is pretty much determined by forces outside of your control.”

• 1-Completly Agree

• 2- Agree• 3- Disagree• 4- Completely Disagree

Rugged Individualism:“Success in life is pretty much determined by

forces outside of your control.” Pew Global Attitudes Survey, 44

nations, 2002.• Nigeria: 33% “completely agree”• Nigeria: 32% “mostly or completely

disagree.”• Nigeria: ratio is 32/33 or 0.96

Questions for relatives

• Did you originally plan on coming to the U.S.?• What made you come to the United States?• What is your idea of the American Dream?• Has your dream changed any since you were young/college graduate/h.s. graduate?• Have you achieved your American Dream?• What was it like when you first came to the United States and what types of things did you have

to do?• Has reaching for the American dream caused you an unnecessary pain or struggle?• What were your goals when you moved here?• Can I go to the bathroom?• What were some of the major conflicts in coming to the Untied States?• Where do babies come from?• Is there something specific about the area that you are currently living in? Why did you come to

it?• What would you consider your major achievements?• What things would you have done differently in reaching for the American dream?• Do you think video games ruins someone’s chances at the American dream?

“Success in life is pretty much determined by forces outside of your control.”

• South Africa• 24% disagree with the statement• The ratio is 24/38, or 0.63

So the general sense in South Africa is – failure is someone else’s fault.

“Success in life is pretty much determined by forces outside of your control.”

• India, 14% disagree, ratio 0.39• Japan, 52% disagree, ratio 3.47• Egypt, 42% disagree, ratio 2.00• Jordan, 39% disagree, ratio 2.60• Turkey, 17% disagree, ratio 0.37• Uzbekistan, 36% disagree, ratio

1.80• China, 25% disagree, ratio 1.74

“Success in life is pretty much determined by forces outside of your control.”

• Great Britain, 48% disagree, ratio 3.43• France, 44% disagree, ratio 2.32• Germany, 31% disagree, ratio 1.35• Poland, 29% disagree, ratio 1.45• Ukraine, 35% disagree, ratio 1.30• Russia, 36% disagree, ratio 2.25• United States, 65% disagree, ratio

7.22

What’s the proper role of the state?

• “It is the responsibility of the (state or government) to take care of very poor people who can’t take care of themselves.”

• % Completely Agree….• Turkey, 73%• Uzbekistan, 70%• India 74%

“It is the responsibility of the (state or government) to take care of very poor people

who can’t take care of themselves.”

• % completely agree• Great Britain, 59%• Germany, 45%• Poland, 59%• Ukraine, 57%• Russia, 70%• United States, 29%

It’s a Small Welfare State

After All

Low spending…

Low taxes…

American Political Culture

• Why didn’t people shoot George W. Bush?

• Why do we pay taxes?

• Why has Occupy Wall Street stopped?

• Why is education free?

• Why is college education expensive?

• Why does the midterm elections have so low turn-out?

The American Political Culture

Tenets of Classical Liberalism

• Individual have natural rights

• Individuals are equal under the law

• Government should be limited

• Government's #1 purpose is to serve individuals

Declaration of Independence

• All men are created equal

• Endowed with certain inalienable rights, life liberty pursuit of happiness

• Government derives “their just powers from the consent of the governed “

Do you believe in Liberty?

Liberty

• The belief that individuals should be free to act and think as they choose, provided they do not infringe unreasonably on the freedom and well being of others.

1. Government should reduce income inequality.

2. Government should provide all Americans with a guaranteed income.

3. The capital punishment is a required.

What would those making less than $12k think?What would those making more than $100k think?

Political Institutions (and businesses) are created to find these things out. They’re called Polling.

Equality

• Americans have a strong commitment to legal, social and political equality.

• Not equality of outcomes or economic equality

• Public Support for Affirmative Action

• Equality more of a “contested” concept

Why America hates Socialism

Values Shape Policy Outcomes

• Policies are suspect if they conflict with dominant political culture.– large government operation – remove control from the market – restrict the choices of individuals – Promote equality of outcomes

Universal health care; living wage policies;

The Articles of Confederation

Shared beliefs:

Government in thehands of people Strong legislature

Articles of Confederation:

State representation No executive Weak national gov

(1781-1787)

Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Tocqueville Vision

• Frontier and widespread property ownership

• Life characterized by simple social freedom

• Do not need strong state or class movement to create upward mobility

• New world creates faith in individualism

• Empathetic understanding and compromise is created by respect for small communities.

Traditional Explanations

Louis Hartz, The Liberal Consensus•no feudal aristocracy—no landed aristocracy to provide a conservative view•minimal taxes•few legal restraints•frontier provides opportunities—easy for ambitious individuals to succeed•nation of small independent farmers

“All men are created equal.”

“Multiple Traditions” Critique

• “Americans share a common culture, but one more complexly and multiply constituted than is usually acknowledged.”

“Multiple Traditions” Critique

Rogers Smith -->

•American political culture is the “complex patterns of apparently inconsistent combinations of traditions, accompanied by recurring conflicts.”

•Complex Mix of liberal and ascriptive forms of Americanism at the same time

Smith- Multiple Traditions (cont)

• "fail[s] to give due weight to inegalitarian ideologies and conditions that have shaped the participants and the substance of American politics just as deeply" as liberalism has 

• At the republic’s founding, the “comparative moral, material, and political egalitarianism that prevailed . . . among moderately propertied white men was surrounded by an array of other fixed, ascriptive systems of unequal status, all largely unchallenged by the American revolutionaries”

• for “at least two-thirds of American history, the majority of the domestic adult population was . . . ineligible for full American citizenship solely because of their race, original nationality, or gender”

• Reconstruction period- example of liberal and ascriptive traditions

Darwinism and Spencerism

• “Intellectual and political elites develop the most elaborate theories of racial and gender hierarchy in US history and embody them in staggering array of laws governing naturalization, immigration, deportation, voting rights, electoral institutions. ”

Intellectual Credibility – Racial Hierarchies

• “black, brown, and red races … (had) a peculiar mental temperament which has become hereditary. Leaving them constitutionally recreant to the cues of civilization ” 1895

Daniel Brinton, President, American Association for the Daniel Brinton, President, American Association for the Advancement of ScienceAdvancement of Science

CA Senator, John Miller

• “40 centuries of Chinese life had “ground into” the Chinese race characteristics that made them unbeatable competitors against the free white man. They were “automatic engines of flesh and blood” far below the Anglo-Saxon- such that immigration of Chinese laborers must be banned.”

Constitution

Constitutional Design

• Article I: Legislative

• Article II: Executive

• Article III: Judicial

• 6 other articles

• Only 8,000 words!

Checks & Balances(Separation of Powers)

Anyone care to guess how many people hold elected office in the United States?

· 1 Federal Government· 50 States & the District of Colombia· Puerto Rico & 4 Insular Areas· 561 Federally-Recognized Indian Tribes

· 3034 County Governments· 13,506 School Districts· 16,504 Townships and Towns· 19,429 Municipal Governments· 35,052 “Special Districts”

Federalism in the US

Ohio Congressional Districts

Why Two Parties?

U.S. Voter Turnout is Low

Minor Parties in U.S. History

Single Member DistrictsPlurality Rule

Grovner 27%Patterson 21%Aquino 18%Philips 14%Hartpense 11%Mackerson 9%

Grovner 27%

Patterson, Aquino, Mackerson48%

Philips 14%Hartpense 11%

Grovner, Philips, Hartpense(Party 1)

52%

Patterson, Aquino, Mackerson(Party 2)

48%

Two Brains

The Basics

• House– 435 Members

– 2 Year Terms

– Committee Dominant

– Majority Party Dominant

– 110th Congress

– Lots of Staff

• Senate– 100 Members

– 6 Year Terms

– Committees Important

– Majority Party Important

– 110th Congress

– Even More Staff

• Introduction & Referral• Committee Hearings• Committee Markups• Committee Reports• Schedule Floor Action (Rules, UCRs)• Floor Votes• Conference Committee• Conference Report & Floor Vote• Presidential Signature (or Veto)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El0

How a Bill Becomes a Law

Committees

• Chairs based on committee seniority.

• Membership is party proportional.

• Staff dominated by majority party

• Committee Hierarchy– Exclusive– Non-Exclusive

• Appropriations vs. Authorizing

The 2.6 Trillion Dollar Budget

The Basics

• Presidents elected to 4 year terms.

• May serve no more than 2 terms. (22nd Amendment)

• Must be a U.S. born citizen, at least 35 years old, who has lived in the U.S. for a minimum of 14 years.

Formal Presidential Powers

• Administrative head of government

• Commander-in-Chief of military

• Veto (or sign) legislation

• Nominate judges, cabinet secretaries

• Treaties, pardons, convene Congress

Formal Presidential Powers

• May not introduce legislation (cf. prime minister)• May not declare war• Legislative oversight• Judicial review• Impeachment possible• Must use “bully pulpit” and persuasion• “Go public”

Limits on Presidential Power

1. Chief of State (ceremonial)2. Chief Legislator (State of the Union)3. Chief Executive4. Opinion Leader (set national priorities)5. Chief Diplomat6. Commander in Chief7. Party Leader

Presidential Roles

• Congress (Article 1, Section 8, “elastic clause.”

• States (10th Amendment -- reserves powers to the states)

• President (Inherent Powers -- largely through Congressional delegation of powers.)

Review of Various Powers

Presidency isMany People

EOP: OMB, NSC, CEA, “czars,” VP,and WHO

WHO: close advisors,no Senate approval

Civilian Employees in Cabinet Departments• Agriculture 99,045• Commerce 40,166• Defense 666,923• Education 4,343• Energy 14,850• Health and Human Services 63,627• Homeland Security 165,435• Housing and Urban Development 9,606• Interior 69,383• Justice 104,958• Labor 15,275• State 9,847• Transportation 53,420• Treasury 119,474• Veterans Affairs 235,735

The Basics

• Article 3 creates the Supreme Court, but specifics of design were left to Congress

• 9 Justices on the Supreme Court, and they may serve for life

• State & Federal Courts are Separate

• Civil and Criminal treated differently– 300,000 federal cases filed annually, 80% are

civil.

Current Justices

Sotomayor, Bryer, Alito, Kagan

Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy , Ginsberg http://www.supremecourt.gov/about/members.aspx

Qualifications

• Federal judges serve for life (“good behavior”)

• Chosen by president with “advice and consent”of the Senate

• No age limits or other requirements

• Size of Court? age? citizenship? education?

Powers

• Original jurisdiction: ambassadors, U.S. is a party, where states are the parties

• Appellate jurisdiction: all other cases (99%)(court of last resort, final interpreter)

• Judicial review?

• Lower courts to be created by Congress

Greatest Supreme Court power not in Constitution!

Established by Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Judicial Review has come to encompass:

– Power to declare national, state and local Laws invalid if they violate the Constitution

– Supremacy of federal laws or treaties

– Role of Supreme Court as final authority on the meaning of the Constitution

Judicial Review

Structure of Federal JudiciarySupreme Court

9 JusticesMostly appellate

Hears about 100out of 5,500 requests

U.S. Courts of Appeals13 districts with 170 judges

3-judge panels hear appeals33,000 cases per year

U.S. District Courts94 district courts with 650 judges

Trial courts with original jurisdiction225, 000 cases per year

Statecourts

State Courts

• Each state has its own court system

• States handle 100 million cases per year

• 98% of criminal cases handled by states

Types of Cases Criminal = charged by gov for breaking law Civil = dispute between parties

How the “Constitution” Changes

• Amendments (27 of them)– Amendment is proposed by a vote of at least

2/3rds of both houses of Congress– Amendment is ratified by the legislatures of at

least 3/4ths of the states (process for 26 of 27 amendments)

• Judicial reinterpretations– Stare Decisis

Judge-Made Law

• We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is, and the judiciary is the safeguard of our liberty and our property under the Constitution.– Chief Justice Hughes, 1907