This document discusses several key concepts in American government and politics, including: 1) It defines government as the institutions and processes through which public policies are made for society. It also examines how the US government is structured and how citizens shape policy through institutions like political parties, elections, and interest groups. 2) It outlines traditional democratic theory and discusses how democracy is meant to represent public preferences through principles like effective participation, equality in voting, and citizen control of the agenda. 3) It analyzes major theories of US democracy, including pluralism, elitism, and hyperpluralism, and how groups and classes influence policymaking. 4) It provides examples of the scope and size of government

1. Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman

2. Introduction
Voting
Getting a job;
minimum wage
The Drinking Age
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3. Government
• Definition: Government is the
institutions and processes
through which public policies
are made for society
• This definition leads to two
basic questions:
– How should we govern?
– What should government do?
• Typical functions: Maintain a national defense,
provide public services, socialize the young,
collect taxes, and preserve order
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4. Government
• US: Congress, president, courts, federal administrative
agencies (“the bureaucracy”) along with thousands of
state and local governments – 500,000 elected officials
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5. People shape policy
• Definition: Linkage institutions are the political
channels through which people’s concerns become
political issues on the policy agenda
– Political Parties
– Elections policy agenda – the
– News & Entertainment Media issues that attract the
serious attention of
– Interest Groups
public officials and other
• Institutions help shape the agenda people actually involved
• Policy agenda responds more to in politics at any given
societal failures than successes: point in time
“How can we as a people do better?”
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6. Traditional
Democratic Theory
• Democracy is a system where policy represents and
responds to the public’s preferences
• Components of Traditional Democratic Theory:
– Effective participation (adequate and equal opportunity
to express preferences)
– Equality in voting (one person, one vote)
– Enlightened understanding (marketplace of ideas – free
press/speech)
– Citizen control of the agenda (majority concerns vs
special interests)
– Inclusion (government must include/extend rights to all
subject to its laws, i.e. citizenship)
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7. Theories of
U.S. Democracy
• Pluralism
– A theory of government and policies emphasizing that
politics is mainly a competition among groups, each one
pressing for its own preferred policies
 NRA, UAW, NOW, etc; organized groups compete with one
another for control over policy, and yet no one group or set of
groups dominates
– Groups use all branches of government to meet needs
– Public interest prevails through bargaining and compromise
– Rather than “majority rule” we should speak of groups of
minorities working together
“Who really governs our nation?”
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8. Theories of
U.S. Democracy
• Elitism
– Societies are divided along class lines
and that an upper-class elite will rule,
regardless of the formal niceties of
governmental organization
 Wealth – holding assets such as property,
stocks, and bonds is the basis of power
 Over 1/3 of the nation’s wealth is currently
held by 1% of the population – this class
controls most policy because they can
afford to finance election campaigns and
control key institutions such as large
corporations
“Robber Barons”
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9. Theories of
U.S. Democracy
• Hyperpluralism
– Groups are so strong that
government is weakened –
an extreme, exaggerated, or
perverted form of pluralism
– Many groups are so strong,
the government is unable to
act because of division
– Difficulty in coordinating policy implementation
– Confusing and contradictory policies result from
politicians trying to placate every group
– The public interest is rarely translated into public policy
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10. How Active is
American Government?
• National, State and local government spend about 29
percent of our Gross Domestic Product
• The National government… The total value
…spends about $3.8 trillion annually
of all goods and
…employs over 2.8 million people
services produced
…owns one-third of the land
annually by the
…occupies 2.6 billion square feet of
office space United States
…owns and operates 400,000
nonmilitary vehicles
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11. Show me the money!
2010 U.S. Budget
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/budget-2010/
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12. Summary
http://www.foundshit.com/tag/people/
 Young people are
apathetic about
government and politics,
even though they affect
everyone
 Democratic government, which is how the United
States is governed, consists of those institutions that
make policy for the benefit of the people
 What government should do to benefit the people is a
topic central to questions of American government
How Should We Govern? What Should Government Do?
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