1. Question of the Day
“The Constitution, like an old wine has rarely survived an ocean crossing.”
Alexis de Tocqueville 1835
Explain

2. Political Culture & Political Socialization
Chapter 4 & 5

3. Chapter 4 Objectives Topics
Define what scholars mean by political culture, and list some of the dominant elements of political culture in the United States.
List the contributions to United States political culture made by the Revolution, by the nation's religious heritages, and by the family. Explain the apparent absence of class consciousness in the U.S.
Identify The Cultural War that exist in America and understand the groups involved in it.
Define internal and external political efficacy, and explain how the level of each of these has varied over the past generations.
Political Culture vs Political Ideology
Characteristics of Political Culture
Sources of Political Cultrure
Cultural War
Mistrust
Efficacy
Tolerance

4. Political Culture
Define it

5. Political Culture
Widely shared beliefs, values and norms concerning people’s fundamental assumptions about how the Political Process should operate

6. Important Elements of P.C.
Liberty-
Equality –
Civic Duty –
Democracy -
Individual Responsibility –
What are the widely shared beliefs, values and norms people have about these concepts?
Should we add or subtract any?

7. Political Culture vs. Political Ideology
QofD 10/9/09:
What is the Difference b/t P.C. and P.I.
Why is it important to examine political culture as well as political institutions and laws to understand a political system?
Important because it determines whether and how certain political institutions and policies actually operate

8. Sources of P.C. Political history:
revolution, U.S. Constitution, evolution of parties;
established liberty as the foremost political value
the legitimate competition of governing and opposition parties
de Tocqueville; “…unique adversarial spirit quite foreign to political life of countries who did not go through libertarian revolution…”
and widespread but not universal electoral participation
Absence of established religion, but dominance of Protestant ethic:
obligation to work hard, save money, obey law, do good;
development of participatory habits in congregational churches
de Tocqueville; “religion and politics actually complement each other… religion here has a way of preventing tyranny.”

9. Sources Cont. Family: Class consciousness:
primary transmitter of political values
especially egalitarianism
de Tocqueville; “They [men] give no superiority even in opinion to one man above another, so that even though two individuals never meet in the same salons, if they meet on the public square, one looks at the other without pride, and in return is regarded without envy. At the bottom they feel themselves equal, and are.”
Class consciousness:
thinking of oneself as a worker whose interests are in opposition of those of management.
relatively weak and unformed, especially among masses
Everybody is “middle class”
Individual responsibility… Horatio Alger

10. Culture War Why rise in Cultural Conflict Affects people’s… Define
Issues
Differ from Political Issues b/c
Based on Question: “What kind of country do we want to live in.”
Two Groups
Why rise in Cultural Conflict
Moral Majority & Christian Coalition
Affects people’s…
Articles

11. Economist Article; Endless Culture War
USA Today What Roe Started
Why was this year supposed to be “different” with regard to the Culture War?
Why was this year no different than the past with regard to the Culture War?
Define “demonization”
What facts would you select to show that each side is guilty of “demonizing” the other side?
Do you agree that the culture war started with Roe?
What is the relationship b/t Roe and a current issue (Afghan war, health care, gay rights…)
Have there been any other S.C. cases that may have sparked a “culture war?”

12. 2. Political Efficacy Define Categorize Internal vs. External
Current Levels
Compare to Europe
Conclusion

13. QofD (oct. 15th)
The U.S. political culture emphasizes the importance of civic duty. This belief has no validity unless political efficacy exists in reality. Discuss the degree to which the American public possesses a sense of political efficacy. Is the cultural value of civic duty legitimately realized in the opinion of the public?
Civic duty is legitimate to the extent that citizens believe they can personally influence policy.