pol 101-07 week 1

Two Dilemmas of Government:

1. The Original Dilemma: Freedom Versus Order As stated by Janda, et al., "The conflict between freedom and order originates in the very meaning of government as the legitimate use of force to control human behavior. How much freedom must citizens surrender to government?" "And in a democracy, policy choices hinge on how much citizens value freedom and how much they value order." (pages 16-17) i.e. some people want more freedom, other want more order, etc. 2. The Modern Dilemma: Freedom Versus Equality As stated by Janda, et al., "popular opinion has it that freedom and equality go hand in hand. In reality, the two values usually clash when governments enact policies to promote social equality. Because social equality is a relatively recent government objective, deciding between policies that promote equality at the expense of freedom, and vice versa, is the modern dilemma of politics." (page 17) Be sure to see the examples provided by Janda , et al., on pages 17-18, regarding the dilemma of freedom versus equality. Key observations by Janda, et al., regarding the Dilemmas of Government: "Both order and equality are important social values, but government cannot pursue either without sacrificing a third important value: individual freedom." (page 16) "The conflicts among freedom, order, and equality explain a great deal of the political conflict in the United States. These conflicts also underlie the ideologies that people use to structure their understanding of politics." (page 18)

American Political ideologies and the Purpose of Government

According to Janda, et al., "As shown in Figure 1.1, practical politics in the United States ranges over only the central portion of the continuum. The extreme positions - totalitarianism and anarchism - are rarely argued in public debates." (page 21) The political debate n the United States, as stated by Janda, et al., "...is limited to a narrow range of political thought. On the one side are people commonly called liberals, on the other are conservatives. In popular usage, liberals favor more government, conservatives less. This distinction is clear when the issue is government spending on public goods." "But on other topics, liberals and conservatives reverse their positions." (page 21) However, as explained by Janda, et al., "To classify liberal and conservative ideologies more accurately, we have to incorporate the values of freedom, order, and equality into the classification." (page 23) As explained by Janda, et al, in this classification, "The four ideological types are defined by the values they favor in resolving the two major dilemmas of government: How much freedom should be sacrificed in pursuit of order and equality, respectively?" (page 23) See Figure 1.2 Ideologies: A Two-Dimensional Framework (Janda, et al., page 23) Liberals: "Those who are willing to use government to promote equality but not order." (page 23) Conservatives: "Those who are willing to use government to promote order but not equality." (page 22) Communitarians: "Those who are willing to use government to promote both order and equality." (page 24) Libertarians: "Those who are opposed to using government to promote either order or equality." (page 20) Further Observations: As explained by Janda, et al., "According to our typology, only libertarians and communitarians are consistent in their attitude toward the scope of government activity, whatever its purpose. Libertarians value freedom so highly that they oppose most government efforts to enforce either order or equality. Communitarians (in our usage) are inclined to trade freedom for both order and equality. Liberals and conservatives, on the other hand, favor or oppose government activity depending on its purpose." (page 24)

Political Ideologies

Janda, et al., defines political ideology as, "A consistent set of values and beliefs about the proper purpose and scope of government." (page 18) As explained by Janda, et al., "How far should government go to maintain order, provide public goods, and promote equality? In the United States (as in every other nation), citizens, scholars, and politicians have different answers." "Imagine a continuum. At one end is the belief that government should do everything; at the other is the belief that government should not exist." (page 18) "These extreme ideologies,, from the most government to the least government, and those that fall in between are shown in Figure 1.1." (page 18)

Purposes of Government

Maintaining order Order: "Established ways of social behavior. Maintaining order is the oldest purpose of government." (page 8) As explained by Janda, et al., "Maintaining order is the oldest objective of government. Order in this context is rich with meaning. Lets' start with "law and order." Maintaining order in this sense means establishing the rule of law to preserve life and protect property." (page 8) For example, as stated by Janda, "To the seventeenth-century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes(1588-1679), preserving life was the most important function of government." (page 8) As explained by Janda, et. al., "In Hobbes's classic phrase, life in the state of nature would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." (page 8) As explained by Janda, et al., "Hobbes's conception of life in the cruel state of nature led him to view government primarily as a means of guaranteeing people's survival. Other theorists, taking survival for granted, believed that government protects order by preserving private property (goods and land owned by individuals). Foremost among them was the English philosopher, John Locke (1632-1704)." (page 9) Be sure to see Janda, et al., pages 8-9, regarding the views of theorist, such as Hobbes, Locke, etc., regarding maintaining order and the purposes of government. Providing public goods Public goods: "benefits and services, such as parks and sanitation, that benefit all citizens but are not likely to be produced voluntarily by individuals." (page 9) As explained by Janda, et al., "After governments have established basic order, they can pursue other ends. Using their coercive powers, governments can tax citizens to raise money to spend on public goods" (page 9) As explained by Janda , et al., "Government action to provide public goods can be controversial." "People disagree about how far the government ought to go in using its power to tax to provide public goods and services and how much of that realm should be handled by private business for profit." (page 9)Promoting equality As explained by Janda et al., "The promotion of equality has not always been a major objective of government. It gained prominence only in the twentieth century in the aftermath of industrialization and urbanization." (page10) One key issue is the government's role in redistributing income, i.e., taking from the wealthy to give to the poor. However, as explained by Janda, et al., "That function is not without controversy. Especially since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the government's role in redistributing income to promote economic equality has been a major source of policy debate. in the United States" (page 10) But pursuing these objectives leads to dilemmas involving the concepts of: 1. Freedom Freedom can be used in two major senses: Freedom of: "An absence of constraints on behavior, as in freedom of speech or freedom of religion." (page 14) Freedom from: "Immunity, as in freedom from want." (page 14) 2. Order As stated by Janda, et al., "Social order refers to established patterns of authority in society and traditional modes of behavior." (page 14) In the narrow sense, order refers to the protection of life and protecting property rights. In the broad sense, order means preserving the social order. 3. Equality As stated by Janda, et al., "As with freedom and order, equality is used in different senses to support different causes." (page 15) i.e. political equality, social equality, equality of opportunity, equality of outcome, etc. For example, Political Equality is defined as "Equality in political decision making: one vote per person, with all votes counted equally." (page 15) However, as explained by Janda, et al., "Political equality in elections is easy to define: each citizen has one vote and only one vote." "But when some people advocate political equality, they mean more than one person, one vote." (page 15)

Government defined

What is Government? Government is defined as "The legitimate use of force to control human behavior; also, the organization or agency authorized to exercise that force" (page 5) As explained by Janda, et al., "government is the legitimate and exclusive use of force - including firearms, imprisonment, and execution - within specified geographical boundaries to control human behavior." (Page 5)

Politics Defined

What is Politics? As stated by Janda, et al., politics has been defined "as the authoritative allocation of values for a society." (page 4) Furthermore, as stated by Janda, et al., "Every government policy reflects a choice between conflicting values. All government policies reinforce certain values (norms) at the expense of others." (page 4)