Chapter 1: the Study of American Government

Chapter 1: The Study of American Government

CHAPTER 1

The Study of American Government

Objectives

The purpose of this chapter is to give the student a preview of the major questions to be asked throughout the textbook and to introduce key terms. After reading and reviewing the material in this chapter, the student should be able to do each of the following:

1. List the two basic questions to be asked about government in the United States (or in any other nation) and show that they are distinct questions.

2. Explain what is meant by power, and by political power in particular. Relate the latter to authority, legitimacy, and democracy.

3. Distinguish the two concepts of democracy mentioned in the chapter, explaining in which sense the textbook refers to the U.S. government as democratic.

4. Differentiate between majoritarian politics and elitist politics, explaining the four major theories of the latter.

5. Explain how political change tends to make political scientists cautious in stating how politics works or what values dominate it.

Overview

There are two major questions about government: Who governs? To what ends? This book will focus on the first question and will encourage students to develop their own answers to the second question.

Democratic theory recognizes that the answer to the question “Who governs?” is more complicated than “the people.” Participatory democracy has been a reality in only a limited number of cases. Representative democracy gives rise to an elite. Elite theorists have given at least four answers to the question of “who governs?”:

Marxist: / Those who own the means of production, controlling the economic system, will control the government.
Power Elitist: / A few top leaders, drawn from the major sectors of the United States polity, will make all important decisions.
Bureaucratic: / Appointed civil servants control the government, without consulting the public.
Pluralist: / Competition among affected interests shapes public policy decision making.

In order to choose among these theories or to devise new ones, one must examine the kinds of issues that do (and do not) get taken up by the political system and consider how they are resolved by the system. It is not enough merely to describe governmental institutions and processes.

Distinguishing different types of democracies is a very important part of this study. The Framers of the Constitution intended the United States to be a representative democracy in which the power to make decisions would be determined by a free and competitive struggle for the citizens’ votes.

Chapter Outline with Keyed-in Resources

I. Who governs? To what ends? (THEME A: THE NATURE OF POLITICAL POWER AND AUTHORITY)

A. Politics exists because people differ about two great questions.

B. Who governs: those who govern will affect us.

C. To what ends: tells how government affects Americans’ lives.

D. The text focuses on who governs and, in answering this question, looks at how the government makes decisions on a variety of issues.

II. What is political power?

A. Power: the ability of one person to cause another person to act in accordance with the first person’s intentions.

1. May be obvious: president sends soldiers into combat

2. May be subtle: president’s junior speechwriters take a new tone when writing about a controversial issue

B. Text’s concern: power as it is used to affect who will hold government office and how government will behave

C. Authority: the right to use power; not all who exercise political power have authority to do so

D. Legitimacy: what makes a law or constitution a source of right?

E. Struggles over what makes authority legitimate constitute much of U.S. history

F. Necessary for government to be in some sense “democratic” in the United States today in order to be perceived as legitimate

III. What is democracy? Describes at least two different political systems. (THEME B: THEORIES OF DEMOCRACY)

A. Direct or Participatory Democracy (Aristotelian “rule of the many”)

1. Fourth-century B.C.E. Greek city-state, practiced by free adult male property owners

2. New England town meeting

B. Representative Democracy, or Elitist Theory of Democracy

1. Defined by Schumpeter: acquisition of power by leaders via competitive elections

2. Justifications

a) Direct democracy is impractical for reasons of time, expertise, and so on.

b) The people make unwise decisions based on fleeting emotions.

IV. Is representative democracy best?

A. Text uses the term democracy to refer to representative democracy.

1. Constitution does not contain word democracy but “republican form of government” (meaning representative democracy).

2. Representative democracy requires leadership competition if system is to work—requires meaningful choice for voters, free communication, and so on.

B. Framers favored representative democracy

1. Government would mediate, nor mirror, popular views.

2. Framers viewed people as lacking knowledge and susceptible to manipulation.

3. Framers’ goal: to minimize the abuse of power by a tyrannical majority or by officeholders

C. Founders influenced by philosophers

1. Aristotle defined democracy as the rule by the many.
2. Democracy is subject to decay into oligarchy (rule by the rich) or tyranny (rule by a despot).
3. Prevention of these extreme outcomes is achieved by the creation of a fusion of elements from democracy and oligarchy.

D. John Locke, 17th-century English philosopher and writer, had a profound influence on the Framers

1. According to Locke, people exist in a state of nature where they focus on finding food and on self preservation.
2. People want government as a means of owning property (farms) which will lead to an increase in food supply.
3. Differs from Thomas Hobbes, a rival English philosopher, who favored an all powerful government.
4. According to Hobbes, people live in a state of “war against all.” Only a powerful government could prevent civil war.
5. Locke disagreed, believing that people can peacefully coexist if they own their own land (farms).
6. Locke argued that government should be based on the consent of the governed, managed through majority rule.
7. Additional protection would be based on separation of powers, with separate legislative and executive branches.

V. How is political power distributed?

A. Focus on actual distribution of power within American representative democracy

B. Majoritarian politics

1. Leaders constrained to follow wishes of the people very closely

2. Applies when issues are simple and clear

C. Elitism

1. Rule by identifiable group of persons who possess a disproportionate share of political power

2. Comes into play when circumstances do not permit majoritarian decision making

3. Descriptions of four political elites

a) Class view began with Marxism: founded by Karl Marx; argued that governments were dominated by business owners (the bourgeoisie) until replaced by revolution of workers (the proletariat). This view has been refined, with emphasis on the power of the rich and multinational corporations.

b) Power Elite theory: states that American democracy is dominated by a combination

of business leaders, top military officials, labor unit leaders, mass media executives,

and the heads of a few special interest groups.

c) Bureaucratic view: first set forth by Max Weber; argues that power is mainly in the

hands of appointed officials, who exercise power through their control of information,

and the details of legislation, and the implementation of policies

d) Pluralist view: has no single intellectual parent; argues that political resources are

broadly shared. No single elite has control of enough power to dominate the political

process.

VI. Is democracy driven by self-interest?

A. All elite theories of politics may lead to the cynical view that politics is simply a self-seeking enterprise in which everyone is out for political gain.

B. Policy outcomes do not necessarily reflect their authors’ motives.

C. Self-interest is an incomplete guide to decision making. (Tocqueville’s argument: Americans are more interested in justifying theory of self-interest than in honoring their own disinterested actions.)

1. Peoples’ actions on 9/11 clearly demonstrated this

2. Many of the most important events in U.S. history (including the Revolutionary War and the civil rights battles of the 1950s and 1960s) were led by people who risked much against long odds.

VII. What explains political change?

A. Historical perspective makes it difficult to accept any simple explanations of political change.

B. Changes in elite and mass beliefs about what government is supposed to do have resulted in changes in the character of government.

1. The growth of federal power in 1932 and the effort to cut it back beginning in 1981 have no simple explanation.

2. Foreign policy has swung between isolationism and strong internationalism.

C. Politics is about defining the public interest, not just “Who gets what?”

VIII. The Nature of Politics

A. Often we have only partial or contingent answers.

B. Must understand how preferences are formed: preferences and shared understandings are the underlying basis of most power

C. Political power cannot be equated with laws on the books.

D. Sweeping claims should be avoided; judgments about institutions and interests can only be made after observing a wide range of behaviors.

Important Terms

authority / The right to use power.
bureaucratic view / View that the government is dominated by appointed officials.
democracy / Rule by the many.
direct (participatory) democracy / A government in which all or most citizens participate directly.
elite / Persons who possess a disproportionate share of some valued resource, like money or power.
legitimacy / Political authority conferred by law or by a state or national constitution.
class view / View that the government is dominated by capitalists.
pluralist view / The belief that competition among all affected interests shapes public policy.
power / The ability of one person to get another person to act in accordance with the first person’s intentions.
power elite view / View that the government is dominated by a few top leaders, most of whom are outside government.
representative democracy / A government in which leaders make decisions by winning a competitive struggle for the popular vote.

Theme A: THE NATURE OF Political Power and Authority

Instructor Resources

Robert A. Dahl. Who Governs. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.

G. William Domhoff. Who Rules America. Power and Politics, and Social Change. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006.

Michel Foucault. Discipline and Punish. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

Cindy R. Jebb, P. H. Liotta, Thomas Sherlock, and Ruth Margolies Beitler. The Fight for Legitimacy: Democracy vs. Terrorism. Westport, CT: Praeger Security International, 2006.

George Lakoff. Whose Freedom? The Battle over America’s Most Important Idea. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.

Steven Lukes. Power: A Radical View. 2nd edition. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Nikos Kazantzakis. Friedrich Nietzsche on the Philosophy of Right and the State. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006.

John Rawls. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2005.

Richard L. Zweigenhoft and G. William Domhoff. Diversity in the Power Elite: How It Happened, Why It Matters. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006.

Summary

The two great questions about politics are, “Who governs?” and “To what ends?” The question of who governs is the question of who has power, which is defined as the ability of one person to cause another person to act in accordance with the first person’s intentions. Power is found in all human relationships; however, this text is primarily concerned with its exercise in the U.S. federal government. People who exercise power may also have authority—which this text understands as the right to use power. Some authority is formal authority—the right to use power vested in a governmental office. Power and authority must be based on legitimacy—what makes a law or constitution a source of right. Power, authority, and legitimacy can become divorced from each other, resulting in a government that rules by force or brutality.

Discussion Questions

1. Power can be exercised in many ways. The most visible exercise of power occurs when one person makes another act in accordance with the first person’s specified wishes. But power is also exercised when a person takes no action (nondecision) and when options are not presented. Provide an example of each of these uses of power, both in your own life and in government.

2. Distinguishing power and authority is, fundamentally, reflective of one’s political beliefs. In what kinds of institutions do you have confidence? Why do you trust them? In contrast, what kinds of institutions raise your suspicions? Why?

3. Discuss ways in which governmental power affects your personal life. Should there be a limit on how much control the government exercises over your day-to-day activities? If so, give an example of an area or activity that should be off limits to those in political power.

4. In some countries, governments are extremely powerful and exercise almost total control over their subjects. Yet in other nations, governments are nearly powerless over the businesses, religious organizations, and/or crime syndicates that operate within their borders. If these two extremes represent opposite sides of the power spectrum, on which side would the United States most closely align? Why?

Theme B: THEORIES OF Democracy

Instructor Resources

John M. Allswang. The Initiative and Referendum in California, 1898–1998. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2000.

David S. Broder. Democracy Derailed: Initiative Campaigns and the Power of Money. New York: Harcourt, 2000.

Kenneth M. Dolbeare and Michael S. Cummings. American Political Thought. 5th ed. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2004.

Morton J. Frisch and Richard J. Stevens, eds. American Political Thought: The Philosophic Dimension of American Statesmanship. 2nd ed. Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock Publishers, 1983.

Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson. Why Deliberative Democracy? Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004.

David Held, Models of Democracy. 3rd ed. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006.

Peter B. Levy, ed. 100 Key Documents in American Democracy. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999.

John G. Matsusaka. For the Many or the Few? The Initiative, Public Policy, and American Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.

Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey, eds. History of Political Philosophy. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.