Study sheet: American Government and Democracy

📋 Course Outline

1. Government Functions and Collective Goods
2. Politics and Political Participation
3. The Policymaking System
4. Democratic Principles
5. Representation and Majority Rule
6. Theories of American Democracy
7. Challenges to Democracy
8. American Political Culture
9. Scope of American Government

📖 1. Government Functions and Collective Goods

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Government : consists of the institutions that make public policy decisions for a society
• Collective goods : Collective goods are benefits that government provides for society rather than for only one individual.
• Gross domestic product : the sum total of the value of all goods and services produced in a year in a nation

📝 Essential Points

• The functions performed by all governments include:
  • maintaining national defense
  • providing public services
  • preserving order
  • socializing the young
  • collecting taxes

📖 2. Politics and Political Participation

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Politics : determines which leaders are selected and which policies they pursue
• Political participation : Political participation consists of the ways in which people take part in politics.

📝 Essential Points

• The who of politics consists of voters, candidates, parties, and groups; the what consists of the benefits and burdens of government; and the how consists of the various ways people participate in politics.

💡 Memory Hook

Who participates, what government distributes, and how citizens participate

📖 3. The Policymaking System

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Policymaking system : The policymaking system is a cycle in which citizens' interests shape government decisions and policies then influence people's lives.
• Policy impacts : Policy impacts are the effects that public policies have on people's lives.

📝 Essential Points

• 🔄 The policymaking cycle proceeds through these stages: citizens' interests and concerns move through parties and elections, interest groups, and the media, the concerns shape the policy agenda, Congress, the presidency, and the courts choose issues to address, laws, executive orders, regulations, and court judgments influence people's lives

💡 Memory Hook

Interests → linkage institutions → policy agenda → policymaking institutions → policy impacts

📖 4. Democratic Principles

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Democracy : is a system of selecting policymakers and organizing government so that policy reflects citizens' preferences

★ Must-know

• According to Robert Dahl, an ideal democratic process requires:
  • equality in voting
  • effective participation
  • enlightened understanding
  • citizen control of the agenda
  • inclusion

Further detail

📌 Equality in voting requires that each person's vote count no more than anyone else's.

📌 Enlightened understanding requires a free marketplace of ideas in which free speech and a free press help citizens understand political issues.

💡 Memory Hook

E-E-E-C-I: Equality, Effective participation, Enlightened understanding, Citizen agenda control, Inclusion

📖 5. Representation and Majority Rule

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Majority rule : requires policies to reflect the will of more than half the voters
• Minority rights : Minority rights are protections that prevent the majority from infringing on the freedoms of people who do not belong to the majority.
• Representation : Representation is the relationship in which a few elected leaders replicate the desires of many citizens in government.

💡 Memory Hook

Majority rule decides, whereas minority rights restrain the majority

📖 6. Theories of American Democracy

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Pluralism : holds that organized groups with shared interests compete through open access to government, so no single group usually dominates and the public interest generally prevails
• Elitism : Elitism holds that a wealthy upper-class elite controls most policy decisions because it can finance campaigns and control key institutions.
• Hyperpluralism : Hyperpluralism holds that so many competing groups influence government that government becomes weakened and produces confused policy or inaction.

📝 Essential Points

• Robert Putnam argues that declining participation in civic associations makes pluralism less descriptive of American politics, illustrated by more people bowling while fewer belong to bowling leagues.

💡 Memory Hook

Pluralism disperses power, elitism concentrates it, and hyperpluralism fragments it

📖 7. Challenges to Democracy

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Policy gridlock : occurs when conflicting interests block one another so that no coalition can form a majority and establish policy

★ Must-know

• The four continuing challenges to democracy are:
  • the increasing complexity of issues
  • limited citizen participation
  • escalating campaign costs
  • diverse political interests that can produce policy gridlock

Further detail

• Escalating campaign costs make congressional candidates increasingly dependent on political action committees that often represent specific economic interests.

💡 Memory Hook

Complexity, limited participation, money, and conflicting interests → weaker democratic responsiveness

📖 8. American Political Culture

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Political culture : Political culture is the overall set of values widely shared within a society that helps hold its democracy together.
• Liberty : Thomas Jefferson — Liberty is the American political value of freedom, including freedom of speech and religion, described in the Declaration of Independence as an unalienable right.
• Egalitarianism : Alexis de Tocqueville — Egalitarianism in the United States emphasizes equality of opportunity, equal respect, and equal voting rights rather than equality of condition.
• Individualism : Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America — Individualism is the belief that people can and should get ahead on their own, with limited interference from government.
• Laissez-faire : Laissez-faire is a preference for free markets and limited government intervention in economic life.
• Populism : Populism is a political philosophy supporting average citizens in their struggle against privileged elites.

💡 Memory Hook

L-E-I-L-P: Liberty, Egalitarianism, Individualism, Laissez-faire, Populism

📖 9. Scope of American Government

★ Must-know

📌 The debate over the scope of government asks whether important social goals are best achieved through government action or through means other than government.

📌 When tax revenues do not grow as fast as government spending, a budget deficit results.

Further detail

• All levels of government in the United States spend about one-third of gross domestic product.

• The national government spends about $3.7 trillion annually, employs about 2.8 million civilians and 1.4 million military personnel, owns about one-third of the nation's land, and occupies over 3.2 billion square feet of office space.

• National defense receives about one-sixth of the federal budget, Social Security more than one-fifth, and Medicare a little over one-tenth.

💡 Memory Hook

Supporters seek government action, whereas opponents prioritize individual choice and limited government

📊 Synthesis Tables

Theories of American Democracy

Theory	Who has influence	Main outcome
Pluralism	Competing organized groups	Public interest generally prevails
Elitism	A wealthy upper-class elite	Powerful few dominate policy
Hyperpluralism	Many competing groups	Government is weakened or unable to act