Sept 3 – 1st Day! Agenda: You will need: Welcome, Attendance and Intro Student Video: America For Dummies American Political Culture Political beliefs and behaviors You will need: Pen/Pencil Notebook/loose leaf paper Homework: Enroll in our class on www.turnitin.com Read page 190-200 (beginning of ch. 6) in textbook Begin Ch 6 Study Guide

Comparative Government Welcome to the year-long US Government and Comparative government course! 1st semester: US 2nd semester: Comp We will discuss the syllabus and the class expectation tomorrow – let’s jump right into it!

America for Dummies As you watch, write answers to the following questions: What do Americans value? Who are Americans? http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/watch/8/america_fo r_dummies

America for Dummies Who are the men shown in the video? What do Americans value? Who are Americans? How does the video portray Americans? Do you think this is accurate?

Political Culture Shared beliefs, norms, and values that define our approach to government

Characteristics Liberty Individualism Equality American Dream Individual has the right to act according to his/her own will Individualism As opposed to collectivism Equality Equality of opportunity rather than equality of result Political equality more than economic equality American Dream As if we can easily define that. . .

Characteristics, cont. Democracy Distrust of government Especially since Vietnam and Watergate Yet we expect government to solve our problems Political tolerance More in the abstract than in the concrete Pragmatism of or concerned with the affairs of a state or community Justice Belief in the rule of law

Connecting back… From the Video: What do Americans think about politics? How does that affect political participation?

Political Beliefs and Behaviors Culture affects belief and behavior Video: “students only do enough to get a good grade” I expect you to be ACTIVE, not passive I want you to want to be here because you’re interested in what’s going on in the world

Political Beliefs and Behaviors Our first unit is about Political Beliefs and Behaviors (Chapters 6, 7 and 10 of the textbook) Americans not only have opinions ABOUT politics, but they hold different views over what the government should be doing. That is how many Americans identify themselves in our political system (political ideology) We will study WHAT Americans believe about government, what has shaped that, and then how that impacts their participation in the system

Homework Tonight in your homework you will start by looking at what we know about ourselves as Americans and consider the difficulty of pinning down “What America Thinks.” Navigate to: http://tchrmurphy.wordpress.com/ Download/print the reading (Page 190-200) Begin your chapter 6 study guide Each study guide will be submitted to turnitin.com