Keeping the Republic. Christine Barbour

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СКАЧАТЬ from totalitarian governments (14), where an authoritarian government (14) might make substantive decisions about how lives are to be lived and the social order arranged, to anarchy (15), where there is no control over those things at all. Short of anarchy is democracy (15), based on popular sovereignty (15), where individuals have considerable individual freedom and the social order provides fair processes rather than specified outcomes. Various economic-political systems include authoritarian capitalism (14) and advanced industrial democracy (16), as well as communist democracy (16), a theoretical possibility with no real-world examples.

      An authoritarian government might be a monarchy, a theocracy, a fascist government, or an oligarchy. People who live in such systems are subjects (16), unable to claim rights against the government. Theories of democracy—elite democracy (15), pluralist democracy (15), and participatory democracy (15)—vary in how much power they believe individuals do or should have, but all individuals who live under democratic systems are citizens (16) because they have fundamental rights that government must protect. The idea that government exists to protect the rights of citizens originated with the idea of a social contract (18) between rulers and ruled. The idea that people have individual rights over the power of the state is a hallmark of classical liberalism (18).

      Democracy in America

      The American government is a representative democracy called a republic (19). Two visions of citizenship exist in the United States: self-interested citizenship (20) holds that individual participation in government should be limited, and that “too much” democracy may be dangerous; public-interested citizenship (20) puts its faith in the citizen’s ability to act virtuously for the common good. Modern communication and hashtag activism (23) have enabled citizens, especially digital natives (20), to engage more efficiently with their government and each other, creating new venues for civic engagement and challenging traditional control of the political narrative. However, today’s mediated citizens (20) rely on self-tailored media streams that can back us into information bubbles (23).

      Who Is a Citizen and Who Is Not?

      Immigrants (25) are citizens or subjects of another country who come to the United States to live and work. Legal immigrants may be eligible to apply for citizenship through the process of naturalization (25). Some people arrive here as refugees (25) seeking asylum, or protection from persecution, subject to permission from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

      What Do American Citizens Believe?

      Americans share a political culture (27)—common values (27) and beliefs, or normative (28) ideas about how life should be lived, that draw them together. The U.S. political culture emphasizes procedural guarantees and individualism (28), the idea that individuals know what is best for themselves. The core values of American culture are democracy, freedom, and equality, all defined through a procedural, individualistic lens.

      Within the context of our shared political culture, Americans have divergent beliefs and opinions, called ideologies (30), about political and economic affairs. Generally these ideologies are referred to as conservative (31) and liberal (31), but we can be more specific. Depending on their views about the role of government in the economy and in establishing the social order, most Americans can be defined as one of the following: economic liberals (31); economic conservatives (32), including libertarians (32); social liberals (32), including communitarians (32); or social conservatives (32). Others may support authoritarian populism (35), a movement whose underlying values are not democratic. In a two-party political system like ours, it can be hard for either party to maintain the support of a majority when ideologies are so diverse.

      How to Use the Themes and Features in This Book

      The goal of this book is to teach critical thinking (37) about American politics using the tools of analysis (37) and evaluation (37). We will analyze how American politics works through the framework of our definition of politics—who gets power and resources, and how they get them. We will evaluate how well American politics works by focusing on the opportunities and challenges of citizenship.

      Descriptions of Images and Figures

      Back to Figure

      A visual depiction of various economic systems on a spectrum of complete government control to no government control. From left to right: Socialist countries, such as Cuba and North Korea, are represented on the far left with economies that are completely owned and controlled by the government. These countries offer substantive guarantees. Next are social democracies, such as Sweden and Norway, with privately owned businesses that are under extensive government control. These countries offer substantive and procedural guarantees. Next are countries with a form of regulated capitalism, like the United States and Great Britain, where there is only some government control over private businesses. These countries provide procedural guarantees. The far right represents the concept of laissez-faire capitalism, or no government control, of which there are no real-world examples. In general, the more socialist the country, the more substantive guarantees are in place.

      Back to Figure

      A visual depiction of various political systems on a spectrum of less government control to more government control. Moving from top to bottom:

      Anarchy: No government or manmade laws; individuals do as they please. There are no real-world examples.

      Nonauthoritarian system (such as democracy): Individuals (citizens) decide how to live their lives. Government role is limited to procedural guarantees of individual rights.

      Examples: United States, Sweden, Japan, South Korea, India

      Authoritarian system: Government decides how individuals (subjects) should live their lives and imposes a substantive vision. Examples: China North Korea, Cuba, Saudi Arabia

      In general, the more control the government has or the more substantive guarantees in place, the less individual power is left to the citizens.

      Back to Figure

      A visual representation of the different combinations of political and economic systems. Economic systems are displayed on a horizontal spectrum of more to less governmental control, and political systems are displayed on a similar vertical spectrum. The spectrums overlap in the center to make quadrants of different styles of government. The top left quadrant represents communist democracies, a system that embraces personal freedom and a collectively owned economy. There are no real-world examples of this system. The top right quadrant represents advanced industrial democracies, systems that support personal freedom within a moderately regulated free-market economy. Examples of this type of system include Great Britain, Japan, and the United States. The bottom right quadrant represents authoritarian capitalism, systems that allow for a market economy but highly regulate individual behavior. Examples of this type of system include Singapore and China. The bottom left quadrant represents totalitarian systems, in which the government controls all economic and individual behavior. Examples include the former Soviet Union and North Korea.

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