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The American System

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Text: who holds office, how they'll behave. Authority: the right to power ... Marxist: Owners of means of prdctn rule. Elitist: Few top leaders make all rules ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: The American System


1
The American System
  • Two Big Questions
  • Who Governs? (The text)
  • To What ends? (Divorce Court example)
  • Power means . . .
  • Text who holds office, how theyll behave
  • Authority the right to power
  • Legitimacy what makes a law or constitution
    right
  • Three Concepts of Democracy
  • true interests served China, Cuba
  • Rule of the many Direct (Athens, Colonial N.E.)
  • Representative Democracy

2
Who governs? How?
  • Marxist Owners of means of prdctn rule
  • Elitist Few top leaders make all rules
  • Bureaucratic Appointed civil servants rule
  • Pluralist Competition among affected ints.
  • Direct vs. Representative Democracy
  • Cynical Politics as self-serving enterprise
  • Often an incomplete analysis
  • A Second Bill of Rights?
  • Roosevelts New Deal and Johnsons Great
    Society

3
The Growth of Government
  • First 150 years, government grew slowly
  • Constraints on Fed. Govt have relaxed
  • Public/Elite opinion demanded change
  • Wide distribution of resources
  • Large policy agenda
  • Diffusion/Decentralization of power
  • Multiplication of interest groups (what paper?)
  • Management vs. ruling
  • Depression/New Deal and 1960s/Great Society
  • Current administration/party wants reversal

4
Enduring Questions
  • Preoccupation with rights
  • More red tape
  • Elite opinion influences which rights
  • Freedom versus equality?
  • Advantages of freedom remote, costs obvious
  • Advantages of equality are obvious, costs remote
  • Debate Equality of opportunity vs. result
  • Ideas influence policy
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