U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS, SPRING 2011

WELCOME TO U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS!!

First day notes, initial questions for Wednesday’s class

Monday, February 7

TODAY: Essential characteristics of U.S. politics

Politics is the study of WHO GETS WHAT, WHEN AND HOW

• we study the WHO – people, groups, institutions of government
• we study the WHAT – the “output” of government (policy), decisions to do/not to do certain things, who holds power & authority in specific institutions and situations
• we study the WHEN – need to know history and current events, changes over time
• we study the HOW – the processes by which decisions (policies) are made

Key characteristics of the U.S. political system:

• Federalism: power is divided and shared among federal, state, and local governments; boundaries between levels of government are not always clear

• Broad government involvement in American life: not typically true before the 1930s, and a significant political issue today as to how much government involvement is appropriate

• a 2-party system nearly all of the time: there are minor parties and some occasionally win (e.g. Jesse Ventura) but the Democrats and Republicans combine to control virtually all elected offices in the U.S.

• organized group activity at all levels of government: interest groups represent people and institutions that the parties cannot (2 parties can’t be all things to all people), groups are functioning at all levels of government to influence policy outcomes

• frequent use of the language of “rights”: many political issues are framed in terms of maintaining or extending rights; rights language comes naturally in part because Americans have such a broad set of rights under the Bill of Rights

• need for interpretation of the Constitution: the document is not self-explanatory, and disputes will always arise about a) what the authors of the Constitution had in mind, and b) how much the original intent should dictate today’s interpretations

• today (but not always historically): bitter partisan divisions: these current divisions began in the mid 1980s, intensified during Bill Clinton’s presidency in the 1990s, and have reached new levels of discord in post-9/11 America; in some periods of the nation’s history there have been complaints that the parties were not different enough, but today is not one of those periods

MORE ON BACK SIDE!

FOR WEDNESDAY, we will have more questions than what is described below, but here is some guidance as you do the reading:

- Woll selection 1 (John Locke); read this FIRST – our discussion of this reading on Wednesday centers on how the ideas of Locke are reflected in the Declaration of Independence

- Declaration of Independence (OSY pp. 436-7): read this next and draw connections to John Locke – how does Jefferson draw on Locke’s ideas in crafting the Declaration? Also, determine the Declaration’s major purposes and consider what obligations it suggests that citizens have. The second paragraph is particularly worth reading carefully!

- the course website URL is in your syllabus; go to the course website, click on Daily Schedule Page, then click on the link under February 9 for some additional important details about class on Wednesday!