Government's Role and American Values Dr. Jamie Monogan University of Georgia January 11, 2018

Objectives By the end of this meeting, participants should be able to: Explain the role of values and ideology in American democracy.

American Values Fairness based on contribution Freedom and individualism Support for the rule of law Religion These are four basic American values that have played a role in determining what the extent of government's involvement in people's lives and what government does. These values are not held equally by every American; sometimes these values conflict with each other.

Ideology A coherent, organized set of ideas founded on basic principles Conservative Liberal Ideological constraint Political ideologies range from anarchism to fascism Ideology (and partisanship) do divide people into different categories based on their overall perspectives on government and society. Conservative ideology is often based on the fundamental value of tradition. Liberal ideology is often based on the fundamental value of change and government involvement in the redistribution of resources. Converse introduced the concept of “ideological constraint,” which argues that one’s attitude/preference on one policy correlates with preferences on the other policy issue.

Assignments For Friday: Read Bullock & Gaddie, Ch. 3 Be prepared to talk about this reading in your discussion section. For Tuesday: Read Maltese, Pika & Shively, pp. 34-58. Chapter 2 critical thinking exercise due at 11:59pm on Jan. 18. Login to ELC to complete.