PO 111: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN POLITICS

1. PO 111: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN POLITICS Summer I (2014) Claire Leavitt Boston University

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS • The early United States: Limited state, strong civil society • Government in the early 19th century: Continuing debates over federalism • Expansions of public social benefits • Explanations: Why does America have a smaller welfare state than European democracies? • Cultural • Psychological • Political • What have we learned?

3. THE STATE • A political organization, composed of various institutions • Authority that citizens accept and consent to • Centralized authority • Must be the only entity that can legitimately enforce the law • Max Weber claimed America in its earliest years did not have a state • Not centralized • Not enough power to enforce the laws it made

4. AMERICAN POLITICAL LIFE: THEN AND NOW • Now: • Dominated by formal federal institutions (presidency, Congress, the Courts, administrative bureaucracy) • Then: • Dominated by the court system (esp. state and local courts) and political parties • Courts increased their power • Congress and the presidency more concerned with how to govern than with taking advantage of their powers

5. AMERICAN POLITICAL LIFE: THEN AND NOW • Limited federal state, limited acceptance of the role of executives and legislatures • Strong civil society • Associational life organized through non-governmental institutions like churches, community groups, fraternal societies, households • Civil society the backbone of early American political life

6. AMERICAN POLITICAL LIFE: THEN AND NOW • Tocqueville: Americans took freedoms for granted; liberty did not have to be “won” • No conservative tradition in America (European definition): • Fealty to the status quo and skepticism/fear of change • Belief in the burden of the aristocracy to provide for society • Change should be incremental and deliberate

7. AMERICAN POLITICAL LIFE: THEN AND NOW • Modern American conservatism is in fact dedicated toward protection of liberalism • Wary of social change; concerned with protection of individual liberties first and foremost • American liberalism centered around religion • Religion was embraced because it was separate from the state

8. AMERICAN POLITICAL LIFE: THEN AND NOW • Religion in Europe: • Reformation and Thirty Years’ War • Peace of Westphalia (1648) created nation-states based on ethnic and religious affiliation • States must be protected from religion • Religion in America: • Religious leaders vital to independence from Britain • Religion must be protected from the state

9. AMERICAN POLITICAL LIFE: THEN AND NOW • Dangers to American stability: • Tyranny of the state • Tyranny of individualism: • Materialism would lead to concentrations of wealth and belief in the moral superiority of the rich • Tocqueville believed a strong civil society would protect America from these threats

10. EXPANSIONS OF THE STATE • War of 1812; recognition of procedural and administrative gaps in US government • Patronage appointees increased party power • Judicial review increased courts’ power • Continued debates over the role of the central state: • Nullification Crisis • The Civil War

11. EXPANSIONS OF THE STATE • Civil War pensions: first major expansion of public social spending • War illuminated a shared crisis that the government should take steps to protect citizens from • Enrollment in Civil War pension program increased markedly; parties used program as a vote-getter • Pension program was far-reaching and covered a diverse socioeconomic population • Ended when war veterans died out

12. EXPANSIONS OF THE STATE • Expansion of social programs over the course of the twentieth century: • New Deal: Social Security and jobs programs • Great Society: Medicare and Medicaid • National crises changed the norm of government intervention in American life; weakened the capacities of civil society institutions

13. WHY DOES AMERICA HAVE A SMALL WELFARE STATE? • Cultural explanations (discussed): • Lack of social revolution; limited government; strong civil society; faith in the private sector • Higher rates of volunteer work and charitable giving in US than in Europe • Psychological explanations (racism): • Long history of assumptions of racial inferiority • Low levels of inter-group trust and high levels of diversity

14. WHY DOES AMERICA HAVE A SMALL WELFARE STATE? • Political explanations: • Fragmented state makes progress laborious • Due to the passion and power of interest groups, progress tends to be targeted to specific constituencies • Interest group pressure explains why some public benefit programs succeed and others do not (education versus health care)

15. WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED? • How do federal institutions push back against one another? • Will the Edward Snowden case change the norm of increased executive power? • How do the states push back against the federal government? • What do you think is the most powerful branch of government?