Three levels of political culture

Three levels of political culture*

System Pride in a nation

National identity

Legitimacy of government

Process Principles of government

Role of citizens

People’s basic political beliefs

Policy Role of government

Government policy priorities

18.Communism Alternative to liberal democracy: origins in the 19th-c. writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Liberal democracy seen to serve capitalism and the bourgeoisie, not workers

Based on historical materialism, i.e. the idea that material factors drive history, economics determines politics

Alleges that a social revolution to overthrow capitalism is inevitable, leading to dictatorship of the proletariat and then communism

19.Confederation. Two Options:

A. A voluntary or weak association of independent states that agrees to follow a powerful central government.

B. Nations can choose to follow or not follow the lead of the weak central government.

Examples: Confederate States of America

(1861-1865), European Union, Switzerland

sits at the other extreme in terms of centralization. A confederacy is a loose relationship among a number of smaller political units.

The vast majority of political power rests with the local governments; the central federal government has very little power.

Local governments have a great deal of freedom to act as they wish, but this freedom often leads to conflicts between states and the federal government.

In some cases, a confederacy is little more than an alliance between independent states.

Federation. Power is shared by a powerful central government.

States or provinces are given considerable self rule, usually through their own legislatures.

Examples: United States of America, Federal Republic of Germany

Federalism = US = a way of organizing a nation so that two or more levels of government have formal authority over the same land and people.

It is a system of shared power between different units of government.

For example, Illinois has formal authority over its inhabitants, but the national government can also pass laws that affect Illinoisans.

has a mix of national and state or local governments.

The federal government usually trumps local governments in matters of defense and foreign policy, but local governments have a great deal of say over most other policy areas. Sometimes local governments administer national policies, which means that, in practice, the “national” policy varies a great deal from place to place.

Often, the boundary between national and local power is blurred. Federal systems have the opposite strengths and weaknesses of unitary systems: They excel at factoring in local circumstances but often fail to have a coherent national policy.

The federal system is important because it decentralizes politics.

20.Liberalism Classical liberalism: precursor of modern liberal democracy

Based on social contract theory (John Locke, 1632-1704): government should preserve the liberties of free men.

Advocated representative government: citizens would choose leaders, but note that political rights were limited to male property owners. Modern liberal democracy: originated in the 19th c.

Equality not just legal, but also social

Voting rights gradually expand to all adult citizens

Citizens use freedoms to create civil society

Key members of government selected via elections.