US Politics Test 1

social capital

"the collective value of all 'social networks' [those whom people know] and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other" **Included in social capital are such things as networks of individuals, a sense that one is part of an entity larger than oneself, concern for the collective good and a willingness to help others, and the ability to trust others and to work with them to find solutions to problems.

Currently, about 40 percent of the members of Congress are millionaires; twelve members hold over half of the Congress's collective net worth.

13 As of 2009, approximately 38 percent of Congress sent their children to private schools. Overall, only 11 percent of the American population did so.14 Therefore, a Congress dominated by millionaires who send their children to private schools is more likely to believe that flat taxes are fair and that increased funding for public education is not a necessity. Their experience, however, does not reflect the experience of average Americans.

Civil rights legislation did not focus solely on the right to vote or to hold public office; it also integrated schools and public accommodations, prohibited discrimination in housing and employment, and increased access to higher education.

Activists for women's rights fought for, and won, greater reproductive freedom for women, better wages, and access to credit. Only a few decades ago, homosexuality was considered a mental disorder, and intercourse between consenting adults of the same sex was illegal in many states. Although legal discrimination against gays and lesbians still remains, consensual intercourse between homosexual adults is no longer illegal anywhere in the United States, and same-sex couples have the right to legally marry. **Activism can improve people's lives in less dramatic ways as well. Working to make cities clean up vacant lots, destroy or rehabilitate abandoned buildings, build more parks and playgrounds, pass ordinances requiring people to curb their dogs, and ban late-night noise greatly affects people's quality of life. The actions of individual Americans can make their own lives better and improve their neighbors' lives as well.

the government may attempt to resolve conflicting concerns within the nation as a whole through tradeoffs.

After repeated incidents of mass shootings at schools, theaters, churches, concerts, night clubs, and shopping malls, many are concerned with protecting themselves and their families from firearm violence. Some groups would like to ban the sale of automatic weapons completely. Some do not want to ban gun ownership; they merely want greater restrictions to be put in place on who can buy guns or how long people must wait between the time they enter the store to make a purchase and the time when they are actually given possession of the weapon. Others represent the interests of those who oppose any restrictions on the number or type of weapons Americans may own. So far, state governments have attempted to balance the interests of both groups by placing restrictions on such things as who can sell guns, where gun sales may take place, or requirements for background checks, but they have not attempted to ban gun sales altogether. For example, although federal law does not require private gun dealers (people who sell guns but do not derive most of their income from doing so) to conduct background checks before selling firearms to people at gun shows, some states have passed laws requiring this. **At the federal level, there has been widespread support in Congress to improve the background checking process. Indeed, despite objections from the National Rifle Association, the Fix-NICS Act passed the House and Senate and was signed into law by President Trump as part of an omnibus spending bill in March 2018.

The nation's laws are made primarily by well-educated white male professionals and businessmen.

All five of the most recent U.S. presidents attended Ivy League schools such as Harvard, Yale, or Columbia. Among members of the House of Representatives, 95 percent have a bachelor's degree, as do 100 percent of members of the Senate.9 Fewer than 40 percent of U.S. adults have even an associate's degree.10 The majority of the men and women in Congress also engaged in either state or local politics, were business people, or practiced law before being elected to Congress.11 Approximately 75 percent of both the Senate and the House of Representatives are male, and about 21 percent of members of Congress are people of color.

Non-excludable goods (common goods)

All people have access to these goods. No one may be excluded. Anyone may use the good or service, usually without charge

In 2014, in the case of McCullen v. Coakley, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law that created a buffer zone between protestors and clinic entrances.18 The federal government does not always side with those who oppose abortion, however. Several states have attempted to pass laws requiring women to notify their husbands, and often obtain their consent, before having an abortion.

All such laws have been found unconstitutional by the courts.

As pluralists argue, public policy is created as a result of competition among groups. In the end, the interests of both the elite and the people likely influence government action, and compromises will often attempt to please them both.

Although elitists and pluralists present political influence as a tug-of-war with people at opposite ends of a rope trying to gain control of government, in reality government action and public policy are influenced by an ongoing series of tradeoffs or compromises

Political scientist Robert Putnam has argued that civic engagement is declining; although many Americans may report belonging to groups, these groups are usually large, impersonal ones with thousands of members.

Although people are still interested in volunteering and working for the public good, they are more interested in either working individually or joining large organizations where they have little opportunity to interact with others. **Putnam considers a number of explanations for this decline in small group membership, including increased participation by women in the workforce, a decrease in the number of marriages and an increase in divorces, and the effect of technological developments, such as the internet, that separate people by allowing them to feel connected to others without having to spend time in their presence.

City council members, mayors, state legislators, governors, and members of Congress are all chosen by popular vote.

Although the president of the United States is not chosen directly by popular vote but by a group called the Electoral College, the votes of individuals in their home states determine how the Electoral College ultimately votes.

Many Americans engage in political activity on a regular basis. A survey conducted in 2018 revealed that almost 70 percent of American adults had participated in some type of political action in the past five years. These activities included largely non-personal activities that did not require a great deal of interaction with others, such as signing petitions, expressing opinions on social media, contacting elected representatives, or contributing money to campaigns. During the same period, approximately 30 percent of people attended a local government meeting or a political rally or event, while 16 percent worked or volunteered for a campaign.29

Americans aged 18-29 were less likely to become involved in traditional forms of political activity than older Americans. A 2018 poll of more than two thousand young adults by Harvard University's Institute of Politics revealed that only 24 percent claimed to be politically engaged, and fewer than 35 percent said that they had voted in a primary. Only 9 percent said that they had gone to a political demonstration, rally, or march.30 However, in the 2018 midterm elections, an estimated 31 percent of Americans under thirty turned out to vote, the highest level of young adult engagement in decades.31

One of the simplest ways is to stay informed about debates and events in the community, in the state, and in the nation. Awareness is the first step toward engagement. News is available from a variety of reputable sources, such as newspapers like the New York Times; national news shows, including those offered by the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio; and reputable internet sites.

Another form of individual engagement is to write or email political representatives. Filing a complaint with the city council is another avenue of engagement. City officials cannot fix problems if they do not know anything is wrong to begin with. Responding to public opinion polls, actively contributing to a political blog, or starting a new blog are all examples of different ways to be involved.

others. Thousands of interest groups exist in the United States.

Approximately 70-90 percent of Americans report belonging to at least one group.

According to pluralist theory, people with shared interests will form groups in order to make their desires known to politicians. These groups include such entities as environmental advocates, unions, and organizations that represent the interests of various businesses.

Because most people lack the inclination, time, or expertise necessary to decide political issues, these groups will speak for them.

Many of the tradeoffs made by government are about freedom of speech. The First Amendment of the Constitution gives Americans the right to express their opinions on matters of concern to them; the federal government cannot interfere with this right.

Because of the Fourteenth Amendment, state governments must protect this right also. At the same time, neither the federal government nor state governments can allow someone's right to free expression to interfere with someone else's ability to exercise his or her own rights.

Basis for industrial capitalism (Adam Smith)

Competition would ensure that prices remained low and faulty goods disappeared from the market -- In this way, businesses would reap profits, consumers would have their needs satisfied, and society as a whole would prosper

Currently, fishing limits are set by a combination of scientists, politicians, local resource managers, and groups representing the interests of fishers.

Environmentalists want to set strict fishing limits on a variety of species. Commercial fishers resist these limits, claiming they are unnecessary and, if enforced, would drive them out of business

At times, House members and senators in Congress may ignore the voters in their home states and the groups that represent them in order to follow the dictates of the leaders of the political party to which they belong.

For example, a member of Congress from a state with a large elderly population may be inclined to vote in favor of legislation to increase benefits for retired people; however, his or her political party leaders, who disapprove of government spending on social programs, may ask for a vote against it. The opposite can occur as well, especially in the case of a legislator soon facing re-election. With two-year terms of office, we are more likely to see House members buck their party in favor of their constituents.

The makeup of Congress is important because race, sex, profession, education, and socioeconomic class have an important effect on people's political interests.

For example, changes in the way taxes are levied and spent do not affect all citizens equally. A flat tax, which generally requires that everyone pay the same percentage rate, hurts the poor more than it does the rich. If the income tax rate was flat at 10 percent, all Americans would have to pay 10 percent of their income to the federal government. Someone who made $40,000 a year would have to pay $4,000 and be left with only $36,000 to live on. Someone who made $1,000,000 would have to pay $100,000, a greater sum, but he or she would still be left with $900,000. People who were not wealthy would probably pay more than they could comfortably afford, while the wealthy, who could afford to pay more and still live well, would not see a real impact on their daily lives. Similarly, the allocation of revenue affects the rich and the poor differently. Giving more money to public education does not benefit the wealthy as much as it does the poor, because the wealthy are more likely than the poor to send their children to private schools or to at least have the option of doing so. However, better funded public schools have the potential to greatly improve the upward mobility of members of other socioeconomic classes who have no other option than to send their children to public schools.

Civic engagement can increase the power of ordinary people to influence government actions. Even those without money or connections to important people can influence the policies that affect their lives and change the direction taken by government. U.S. history is filled with examples of people actively challenging the power of elites, gaining rights for themselves, and protecting their interests.

For example, slavery was once legal in the United States and large sectors of the U.S. economy were dependent on this forced labor. Slavery was outlawed and blacks were granted citizenship because of the actions of abolitionists. Although some abolitionists were wealthy white men, most were ordinary people, including men and women of both races. White women and blacks were able to actively assist in the campaign to end slavery despite the fact that, with few exceptions, they were unable to vote. Similarly, the right to vote once belonged solely to white men until the Fifteenth Amendment gave the vote to African American men. The Nineteenth Amendment extended the vote to include women, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 made exercising the right to vote a reality for African American men and women in the South. None of this would have happened, however, without the efforts of people who marched in protest, participated in boycotts, delivered speeches, wrote letters to politicians, and sometimes risked arrest in order to be heard (Figure 1.9). The tactics used to influence the government and effect change by abolitionists and members of the women's rights and African American civil rights movements are still used by many activists today.

Although Smith theorized that capitalism would lead to prosperity for all, this has not necessarily been the case..

Great gaps in wealth between the owners of major businesses, industries, and financial institutions and those who work for others in exchange for wages exist in many capitalist nations.

In the United States Congress passes laws regulating banking, and government agencies regulate such things as the amount of toxic gases that can be emitted by factories, the purity of food offered for sale, and the safety of toys and automobiles.

In this way, government checks the actions of business, something that it would not do if capitalism in the United States functioned strictly in the manner that Adam Smith believed it should...almost entirely unregulated.

Fish are one of the many common goods in which the government currently regulates access. IDEA OF SUSTAINABILITY:

It does so to ensure that certain species are not fished into extinction, thus depriving future generations of an important food source and a means to make a living.

The likelihood that people will become active in politics also depends not only on age but on such factors as wealth and education.

Latent preferences: are not deeply held and do not remain the same over time. They may not even represent a person's true feelings, since they may be formed on the spot when someone is asked a question about which he or she has no real opinion. intense preferences: are based on strong feelings regarding an issue that someone adheres to over time. People with intense preferences tend to become more engaged in politics; they are more likely to donate time and money to campaigns or to attend political rallies. The more money that one has and the more highly educated one is, the more likely that he or she will form intense preferences and take political action.

U.S. foreign policy outputs vary considerably. At one end of the continuum are sharply focused outputs such as the presidential use of military force via a specific drone strike on an enemy target, or the forging of a presidential summit with another country's president or head of state. At the other end of the spectrum are broadly focused outputs that typically bring more involvement from the Congress and other world leaders, such as the process to formalize a multilateral treaty on the global environment or the process to finalize the U.S. diplomatic budget each fiscal year. Broadly focused outputs typically take more time to decide, involve more nation-states, are more expensive, and are quite difficult to reverse once in place. Sharply focused outputs are faster, tend to be led by the president, and are easier for future policymakers to undo.

Many aspects of foreign policymaking rely on the powers shared between Congress and the president, including foreign policy appointments and the foreign affairs budget. Within the executive branch, an array of foreign policy leaders report directly to the president. Foreign policy can at times seem fragmented and diffuse because of the complexity of actors and topics. However, the president is clearly the leader, having both formal authority and the ability to delegate to Congress, as explained in the two presidencies thesis. With this leadership, presidents at times can make foreign policymaking quick and decisive, especially when it calls for executive agreements and the military use of force.

Although the power of some monarchs is limited by law, and such kings and queens often rule along with an elected legislature that makes laws for the country, this is not always the case.

Many southwest Asian kingdoms, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, have absolute monarchs whose power is unrestricted.

Tradeoffs are especially common in the United States Congress.

Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives usually vote according to the concerns of people who live in their districts. Not only does this often pit the interests of people in different parts of the country against one another, but it also frequently favors the interests of certain groups of people over the interests of others within the same state. **For example, allowing oil companies to drill off the state's coast may please those who need the jobs that will be created, but it will anger those who wish to preserve coastal lands as a refuge for wildlife and, in the event of an accident, may harm the interests of people who depend on fishing and tourism for their living.

Excludable goods (private goods)

Not everyone has access to these goods. Some will be excluded from having them, often because only those who pay for the goods or service may use it

While some Americans disapprove of partisanship in general, others are put off by the ideology—established beliefs and ideals that help shape political policy—of one of the major parties. This is especially true among the young. As some members of the Republican Party have become more ideologically conservative (e.g., opposing same-sex marriage, legalization of certain drugs, immigration reform, gun control, separation of church and state, and access to abortion), those young people who do identify with one of the major parties have in recent years tended to favor the Democratic Party.35 Of the Americans under age thirty who were surveyed by Harvard in 2015, more tended to hold a favorable opinion of Democrats in Congress than of Republicans, and 56 percent reported that they wanted the Democrats to win the presidency in 2016 (Figure 1.14). Even those young Americans who identify themselves as Republicans are more liberal on certain issues, such as being supportive of same-sex marriage and immigration reform, than are older Republicans. The young Republicans also may be more willing to see similarities between themselves and Democrats.36 Once again, support for the views of a particular party does not necessarily mean that someone will vote for members of that party.

Other factors may keep even those college students who do wish to vote away from the polls. Because many young Americans attend colleges and universities outside of their home states, they may find it difficult to register to vote. In places where a state-issued ID is required, students may not have one or may be denied one if they cannot prove that they paid in-state tuition rates.

People evaluate public policies based on their outcomes, that is, who benefits and who loses. Even the best-intended policies can have unintended consequences and may even ultimately harm someone, if only those who must pay for the policy through higher taxes.

Public policy is the broad strategy government uses to do its job, the relatively stable set of purposive governmental behaviors that address matters of concern to some part of society. Most policy outcomes are the result of considerable debate, compromise, and refinement that happen over years and are finalized only after input from multiple institutions within government. Health care reform, for instance, was developed after years of analysis, reflection on existing policy, and even trial implementation at the state level.

Pluralist theory rejects this approach, arguing that although there are elite members of society they do not control government. Instead, pluralists argue, political power is distributed throughout society.

Rather than resting in the hands of individuals, a variety of organized groups hold power, with some groups having more influence on certain issues than others

them. As groups compete with one another and find themselves in conflict regarding important issues, government policy begins to take shape. In this way, government policy is shaped from the bottom up and not from the top down, as we see in elitist theory.

Robert Dahl, author of Who Governs?, was one of the first to advance the pluralist theory, and argued that politicians seeking an "electoral payoff" are attentive to the concerns of politically active citizens and, through them, become acquainted with the needs of ordinary people. They will attempt to give people what they want in exchange for their votes.

The three major domestic policy areas are social welfare; science, technology, and education; and business stimulus and regulation.

Social welfare programs like Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare form a safety net for vulnerable populations. Science, technology, and education policies have the goal of securing the United States' competitive advantages. Business stimulus and regulation policies have to balance business' needs for an economic edge with consumers' need for protection from unfair or unsafe practices. The United States spends billions of dollars on these programs.

Other tactics, such as boycotting businesses of whose policies the activists disapproved, are also still common. Along with boycotts, there are now "buycotts," in which consumers purchase goods and services from companies that give extensively to charity, help the communities in which they are located, or take steps to protect the environment.

Some people prefer even more active and direct forms of engagement such as protest marches and demonstrations, including civil disobedience. Such tactics were used successfully in the African American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and remain effective today. Likewise, the sit-ins (and sleep-ins and pray-ins) staged by African American civil rights activists, which they employed successfully to desegregate lunch counters, motels, and churches, have been adopted today by movements such as Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street

The four main objectives of U.S. foreign policy are the protection of the United States and its citizens and allies, the assurance of continuing access to international resources and markets, the preservation of a balance of power in the world, and the protection of human rights and democracy.

The challenges of the massive and complex enterprise of U.S. foreign policy are many. First, there exists no true world-level authority dictating how the nations of the world should relate to one another. A second challenge is the widely differing views among countries about the role of government in people's lives. A third is other countries' varying ideas about the appropriate form of government. A fourth challenge is that many new foreign policy issues transcend borders. Finally, the varying conditions of the countries in the world affect what is possible in foreign policy and diplomatic relations.

Until the Great Depression of the 1930s, the U.S. government took a laissez-faire or hands-off approach to economic policy, assuming that if left to itself, the economy would go through cycles of boom and bust, but would remain healthy overall. Keynesian economic policies, with their emphasis on government spending to increase consumer consumption, helped raise the country out of the Depression.

The goal of federal fiscal policy is to have a balanced budget, in which expenditures and revenues match up. More frequently, the budget has a deficit, a gap between expenditures and revenues. It is very difficult to reduce the budget, which consists of mandatory and discretionary spending, but no one really wants to raise revenue by raising taxes. One way monetary policies can change the economy is through the level of interest rates. The Federal Reserve Board sets these rates and thus guiding monetary policy in the United States.

Socialism cont.

The government accumulates wealth and then redistributes it to citizens, primarily in the form of social programs that provide such things as free or inexpensive health care, education, and childcare. In socialist countries, the government also usually owns and controls utilities such as electricity, transportation systems like airlines and railroads, and telecommunications systems.

Young Americans are particularly likely to be put off by partisan politics. More Americans under the age of thirty now identify themselves as Independents instead of Democrats or Republicans (Figure 1.14). Instead of identifying with a particular political party, young Americans are increasingly concerned about specific issues, such as same-sex marriage.33 People whose votes are determined based on single issues are unlikely to vote according to party affiliation.

The other factor involved in low youth voter turnout in the past was that younger Americans did not feel that candidates generally tackle issues relevant to their lives. When younger voters cannot relate to the issues put forth in a campaign, such as entitlements for seniors, they lose interest. This dynamic changed somewhat in 2016 as Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders made college costs an issue, even promising free college tuition for undergraduates at public institutions. Senator Sanders enjoyed intense support on college campuses across the United States. After his nomination campaign failed, this young voter enthusiasm faded. Despite the fact that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton eventually took up the free tuition issue, young people did not flock to her as well as they had to Sanders. In the general election, won by Republican nominee Donald Trump, turnout was down and Clinton received a smaller proportion of the youth vote than President Obama had in 2012.34

The two groups most engaged in making policy are policy advocates and policy analysts. Policy advocates are people who feel strongly enough about something to work toward changing public policy to fix it. Policy analysts, on the other hand, aim for impartiality. Their role is to assess potential policies and predict their outcomes. Although they are in theory unbiased, their findings often reflect specific political leanings.

The public policy process has four major phases: identifying the problem, setting the agenda, implementing the policy, and evaluating the results. The process is a cycle, because the evaluation stage should feed back into the earlier stages, informing future decisions about the policy.

fishing regulations

Unlike public goods, which all people may use without charge, common goods are in limited supply. Public lands and wildlife, however, are not goods the government can simply multiply if supply falls due to demand. Indeed, if some people take too freely from the supply of common goods, there will not be enough left for others to use

Goods are the commodities, services, and systems that satisfy people's wants or needs. Private goods can be owned by a particular person or group, and are excluded from use by others, typically by means of a price. Free-market economists believe that the government has no role in regulating the exchange of private goods because the market will regulate itself. Public goods, on the other hand, are goods like air, water, wildlife, and forests that no one owns, so no one has responsibility for them. Most people agree the government has some role to play in regulating public goods.

We categorize policy based upon the degree to which costs and benefits are concentrated on the few or diffused across the many. Distributive policy collects from the many and benefits the few, whereas regulatory policy focuses costs on one group while benefitting larger society. Redistributive policy shares the wealth and income of some groups with others.

Besides providing goods to citizens and maintaining public safety, most governments also provide a means for citizens to participate in government and to make their opinions known to those in power.

Western democracies like the United States, Britain, France, and others protect citizens' freedom of speech and the press. These nations, and others in the world, also allow citizens to vote.

great wealth may give a very small minority great influence over the government—

a greater influence than that held by the majority of the population

democracy

a political system in which people govern themselves

elite theory

a set of elite citizens is really in charge of government in the United States and that others have no influence

According to John Locke, an English political philosopher of the seventeenth century...

all people have natural rights to life, liberty, and property. From this came the idea that people should be free to consent to being governed.

State governments

allocate money for state colleges and universities, maintenance of state roads and bridges, and wildlife management, among other priorities.

those who live in poverty cannot always afford to buy

ample food and clothing to meet their needs, or the food and clothing that they can afford to buy in abundance is of inferior quality **also difficult to find adequate housing; housing in the most desirable neighborhoods—those that have low crime rates and good schools—is often too expensive for poor or working-class (and sometimes middle-class) people to buy or rent

Socialism

an alternative economic system -- the means of generating wealth, such as factories, large farms, and banks, are owned by the government and not by private individuals.

toll goods

are available to many people, and many people can make use of them, but only if they can pay the price **occupy a middle ground between public and private goods

Adam Smith

believed that all people should be free to acquire property in any way that they wished. Instead of being controlled by government, business, and industry, Smith argued, people should be allowed to operate as they wish and keep the proceeds of their work

toll goods examples

cable tv, private school education, turnpikes

private goods examples

cell phones, automobiles, homes

Sometimes governmental systems are confused with economic systems because..

certain types of political thought or governmental organization are closely related to or develop with certain types of economic systems

The provision of PUBLIC goods and services is funded by

citizens paying into the general tax base

In the United States, people elect representatives to

city councils, state legislatures, and Congress **These bodies make laws to govern their respective jurisdictions. They also pass measures to raise money, through the imposition of taxes on such things as income, property, and sales. Local, state, and national governments also draft budgets to determine how the revenue taken in will be spent for services.

government

describes the means by which a society organizes itself and allocates authority in order to accomplish collective goals and provide benefits that the society as a whole needs

The interconnectedness of the U.S. democratic and capitalistic economic systems affects the way in which goods and services are ...

distributed. **The market provides many goods and services needed by Americans. For example, food, clothing, and housing are provided in ample supply by private businesses that earn a profit in return. These goods and services are known as PRIVATE GOODS.

governments provide benefits for their citizens such as

education, health care, and an infrastructure for transportation

the ideology

established beliefs and ideals that help shape political policy

common goods examples

fish in the ocean, fresh water

private goods

food, clothing, and housing are provided in ample supply by private businesses that earn a profit in return (US)

On the local level

funds are allotted for education, police and fire departments, and maintenance of public parks.

public goods

goods or services that are available to all without charge

common goods:

goods that all people may use free of charge but that are of limited supply, such as fish in the sea or clean drinking water **Because everyone can use these goods, they must be protected so a few people do not take everything that is available and leave others with nothing

Once money has been allocated

government agencies at each level then receive funds for the purposes mentioned above and use them to provide services to the public

Example of oligarchy

in China, the government is run by members of the Chinese Communist Party.

a democratic government promotes

individualism and the freedom to act as one chooses instead of being controlled, for good or bad, by government.

political power

influence over institutions, leaders, and policies

politics ..

is the process by which choices are made regarding how resources will be allocated and which economic and social policies government will pursue. Politics involves choosing which values government will support and which it will not. If government chooses to support an ideal such as individualism, it may choose to loosen regulations on business and industry or to cut taxes so that people have more money to invest in business. If it chooses to support an ideal such as egalitarianism, which calls for equal treatment for all and the destruction of socioeconomic inequalities, it may raise taxes in order to be able to spend more on public education, public transportation, housing for the poor, and care for the elderly. If, for example, the government is more concerned with national security than with individual liberty, it may authorize the tapping of people's phones and restrict what newspapers may publish. If liberty is more important, then government will place greater restrictions on the extent that law enforcement agencies can intrude upon citizens' private communications. The political process and the input of citizens help determine the answer.

In the United States, the democratic government works closely together with

its capitalist economic system

Local, state, and national governments also make laws to

maintain order and to ensure the efficient functioning of society, including the fair operation of the business marketplace

Non-rivalrous

many people can use the same good or service at the same time

National level

money goes to such things as defense, Social Security, pensions for veterans, maintenance of federal courts and prisons, and management of national parks

examples of public goods

national security and education

In many socialist countries the government is an

oligarchy

monarchy

one ruler, usually a hereditary ruler, holds political power

oligarchy

only members of a certain political party or ruling elite can participate in government

rivalrous

only one person can use the good or service at any given time

minority rights

people cannot be deprived of certain rights even if an overwhelming number of people think that they should be

direct democracy

people participate directly in making government decisions

pluralist theory of government

political power rests with competing interest groups who share influence in government. **Pluralist theorists assume that citizens who want to get involved in the system do so because of the great number of access points to government.

example of toll goods

private schooling

public goods examples

public education, mail service, national security

politics

refers to the process of gaining and exercising control within a government for the purpose of setting and achieving particular goals, especially those related to the division of resources within a nation

Capitalism

relies on individualism -- At the same time, successful capitalists prefer political systems over which they can exert at least some influence in order to maintain their liberty

The government of the United States can best be described as a

republic, or representative democracy

A democracy is a government in which political power

rests in the hands of the people.

goal of governments around the world

seek to accomplish are economic prosperity for the nation, secure national borders, and the safety and well-being of citizens

At the federal, state, and local level, government provides

stability and security, not only in the form of a military but also in the form of police and fire departments. ] **Government provides other valuable goods and services such as public education, public transportation, mail service, and food, housing, and health care for the poor

only government is capable of protecting the nation due to its ability to ....

tax, draw upon the resources of an entire nation, and compel citizen compliance

representative democracy

the citizens do not govern directly. **Instead, they elect representatives to make decisions and pass laws on behalf of all the people. U.S. citizens vote for members of Congress, the president and vice president, members of state legislatures, governors, mayors, and members of town councils and school boards to act on their behalf.

totalitarianism

the government is more important than the citizens, and it controls all aspects of citizens' lives. **Citizens' rights are limited, and the government does not allow political criticism or opposition. These forms of government are fairly rare. North Korea is an example of a totalitarian government.

In the eighteenth century, in Great Britain's North American colonies, and later in France, JOHN LOCKE'S IDEA FORMWS INTO ...

the idea that people should govern themselves through elected representatives and not a king; only those representatives chosen by the people had the right to make laws to govern them

majority rule

the opinions of the majority of the people have more influence with government than those of the minority **If the number of elected representatives who favor a proposed law is greater than those who oppose it, the law will be enacted

Tradeoffs also occur as a result of conflict between groups representing the competing interests of citizens. Many Americans believe that the U.S. must become less dependent on foreign sources of energy. Many also would like people to have access to inexpensive sources of energy. Such people are likely to support fracking:

the process of hydraulic fracturing that gives drilling companies access to natural gas trapped between layers of shale underground. **Fracking produces abundant, inexpensive natural gas, a great benefit to people who live in parts of the country where it is expensive to heat homes during the winter. Fracking also creates jobs. ***many scholars argue that fracking can result in the contamination of drinking water, air pollution, and increased risk of earthquakes. One study has even linked fracking to cancer. Thus, those who want to provide jobs and inexpensive natural gas are in conflict with those who wish to protect the natural environment and human health. Both sides are well intentioned, but they disagree over what is best for people.

According to elite theory,

the wealthy use their power to control the nation's economy in such a way that those below them cannot advance economically. Their wealth allows the elite to secure for themselves important positions in politics. They then use this power to make decisions and allocate resources in ways that benefit them. Politicians do the bidding of the wealthy instead of attending to the needs of ordinary people, and order is maintained by force. Indeed, those who favor government by the elite believe the elite are better fit to govern and that average citizens are content to allow them to do so.

Committed partisanship

which is the tendency to identify with and to support (often blindly) a particular political party, alienates some Americans who feel that elected representatives should vote in support of the nation's best interests instead of voting in the way their party wishes them to **When elected officials ignore all factors other than their party's position on a particular issue, some voters become disheartened while others may become polarized. However, a recent study reveals that it is a distrust of the opposing party and not an ideological commitment to their own party that is at the heart of most partisanship among voters.

1776

year that the Declaration of Independence was written.