Unit 1.3: Why Call It American?

1. Unit 1.3: Why Call It American? Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. -H.L. Mencken

2. Political Culture: What We All Share • How do whole societies decide… • What their important values are? • How to construct and relate to power structures? • Which social institutions are important and which aren’t? • This is Political Culture • What do you share with your classmates? Friends? Family? • What do you share with people you disagree with about all kinds of policies and leaders? A general set of values or ideals that a society can be said to share about the goals of policy and the methods of politics.

3. Verba and Almond wanted to show that the US “worked” because it had elements of all three types of political culture. General Theory of Political Culture • Sidney Almond, Gabriel Verba • Italian political scientists, 1950s • Wrote The Civic Culture • Parochial Culture • Subject Culture • Participant Culture • Civic Culture • Samuel P. Huntington • American political scientist, 1990s • Wrote The Clash of Civilizations • ‘Western’ Culture/Civilization • Sinic Culture/Civilization • Hindu Culture/Civilization • Orthodox Culture/Civilization • Latin American Culture/Civilization Huntington believed that political culture is very hard to change over time, and mirrors traditional divides of ‘civilizations.’ Different cultures are mutually incompatible, leading to a violent battle for supremacy.

4. The idea that America political systems, ideas, and practices are remarkably different than the rest of the world. Usually also assumes we are exemplary or a ‘good example,’ Is OurPolitical Culture Special? • Is there such a thing as American Exceptionalism? • Historical Exceptionalism • Ideological Exceptionalism • Population Exceptionalism • Alexis de Toqueville, • ‘Democracy in America’ • Seymour Martin Lipset, • ‘The Double-Edge Sword of Exceptionalism’ • Charles Beard, • ‘An Economic Interpretation’ • Peter Baldwin, • ‘Narcissism of Minor Differences’ Because we had no nobility, no feudal phase, etc, American history took a different, better route than older societies. A combination of Puritanism, Enlightenment ideas, and capitalist economics made America’s ideology uniquely a positive influence. Because the US is a nation of successive waves of immigrants, we have a special kind of social and cultural harmony.

5. Americans tend to agree that policies should rarely impinge on basic liberties, but we disagree about when to make exceptions – 2005 Bush Wiretapping Scandal What Makes For American Political Culture? Americans tend to agree that people from all social classes and races should have a ‘floor’ of opportunity and social respect – 2002 No Child Left Behind • Basic beliefs in the goals of policy: • Rights-Centric • Egalitarian society • Balance Freedom, Order, Equality • Basic beliefs about the forms of government, social institutions, and politics: • Formal equality • Anti-statism • Populism • Process supremacy • Individualism Americans tend to agree that laws, civic institutions should treat people according to the same rules – 1964 Civil Rights Act Americans tend to agree that social institutions and private commerce should fill roles in society before the state – 2010 Obamacare Protests Americans tend to agree that the greater part of the population needs to have special political voice and power, and political styles should reflect their interests – 2011 Occupy Protests

6. Is American Politics Fracturing? Political polarization deals with elected representatives and policymaking, not with tensions and disagreements in the broader social culture. • Political Polarization • The radicalization of opposition • Unity of groups – political and popular • Refusal to find political compromise • 2010-11 ‘Budget Battle’ • Political Polarization: A Good Thing? • Offers voters clear choices and alternatives, not muddy consensus, • Mirrors when voters feel strongly about an idea or issue. • Political Polarization: A Bad Thing? • With no unified government, leads to policy gridlock – EPA Nominees 2011 • Damages civil discourse and interaction. • System needs a “loyal opposition.”

7. Is Our Political Culture Really Two? The culture war thesis and style usually revolves around extremely divisive lifestyle, social morality, religious, or ethnic questions. • ‘Culture War’ Thesis • ‘Other Side’ are not mere political opponents to be wrangled with. • ‘Others’ are fundamentally immoral and destructive. • Their policies are in contrast to basic tenets of political culture. • They misinterpret exceptionalism and meaning of America. • Is There A Culture War? • Pat Buchanan -- Culture Warrior Speech, 1992 • Morris P. Fiorina – Myth of the Culture Wars, 2004 Historically-minded political scientists remind us that we haven’t had the kind of horribly divisive violence and social-political division of the 1960s, well...since the 1960s!

9. Photo Credits Background edited from: http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/issues/archives/articles/0708-features-america/ Slides: http://cache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/44_01_21/4406_17680851.jpg http://gawker.com/assets/resources/2008/05/klan.jpeg