INTRODUCTION TO PART ONE: MAIN THEMES

American political life has always involved a struggle among individuals, groups, classes, and institutions over the meaning, extent, and practice of democracy. The goal of the authors of the textbook is to help students critically analyze and evaluate how American government and politics work together to enhance or limit democratic processes in the United States and other parts of the world. Part One of the text explains the overall plan of the book, describes the main themes of the book, and explains why it is important to understand the topics that are explored.

The authors introduce the major theme that ties the book together-the struggle for democracy. This suggests that despite the tremendous progress that has been made in areas ranging from voting rights to the creation of discriminatory public policies such as Jim Crow segregation, democracy is still incomplete in the United States; the continuing struggle for democracy is a major feature of American political history.

ROBERT MOSES AND THE STRUGGLE FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN VOTING RIGHTS

The right to vote in periodic elections is one of the essential features of democracy. Different citizens' groups such as propertyless men (during the Jacksonian Revolution), African American men (fifteenth Amendment in 1870), women (nineteenth Amendment in 1920), and young people 18 to 20 years old (twenty-fifth Amendment in 1971), secured the right to vote only after major social upheavals and political movements. The struggle of individuals such as Robert Moses (founder of the freedom schools) influenced the passage of fundamental civil rights legislation in the 1960s.

The fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution was intended to guarantee that African Americans living in the southern states be allowed to vote. This had little effect in rigidly segregated states, due largely to discriminatory voting registration rules (such as the "poll tax" and literacy tests), economic pressures, and physical intimidation and violence. The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) launched its Voter Education Project in 1961, with the goal of ending black political isolation and powerlessness in the Deep South states. Nevertheless, African American voting registration in Mississippi barely increased in the early 1960s. The Voter Education Project became one of the key building blocks of a powerful citizenship rights movement, but a significant increase in voter registration did not occur until after the enactment of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Still, even with its shortcomings, the gains that different citizens groups have secured in the United States have encouraged similar democratic efforts in other parts of the world such as South Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America.

DEMOCRACY

The advantage of using democracy as the main standard of evaluation in this text stems from the relevance of democracy for judging the adequacy of the political process and from its exalted position among the values held by most Americans. Most people in the modern world see government as necessary and inevitable. Democracy is increasingly regarded as the best form of government because a majority of the public has input in what is best for society. The legitimacy of the laws and governments in a democratic society rests on the belief that it best protects individual civil and human rights and provides an opportunity for economic growth and personal freedom.

THE DEMOCRATIC IDEA

The demos (or common people majority) was accustomed to being ruled by smaller groups of individuals who inherited their status as part of the aristocratic classes (the few) or by a king or monarchy (the one). As a form of rule, democracy was very unpopular during the eighteenth century because ordinary people were viewed negatively. Still, rule by an aristocracy or monarchy is contrary to democracy because these forms of government often lead to tyranny where leaders abuse their power. Thus, this chapter places the democratic ideal at the center of the American political system as an evaluative approach for understanding American politics.

DIRECT VERSUS REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY

The work of women and slaves in Athenian society made it possible for adult male citizens to engage directly in the decision-making process of the city. Thus, direct, participatory democracy requires that all citizens be able to participate directly in the political process. However, the large population size and the restraints of time make the Athenian idea of direct, participatory democracy incompatible with large societies such as the United States where elected representatives do the public business on behalf of the people in a representative (or indirect) democracy. Under this form of government, the people rule indirectly through elected representatives.

FUNDAMENTALS OF REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY

The text focuses on three fundamental attributes of democracy: popular sovereignty, which requires that the ultimate source of authority rests with the people and that government functions in the interest and deliberative will of a majority of citizens who are active and participate in the political process armed with accurate political information; political equality, which refers to decision-making where each person carries the same weight in voting and other political decision making; and political liberty, which refers to basic freedoms essential to the formation and expression of the popular will and its translation into policy. These essential liberties include the freedom of speech, conscience and religion, the press, and assembly and association, embodied in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

OBJECTIONS TO MAJORITARIAN REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY

There are also some possible objections to democracy, each of which is rejected by the authors of the textbook. Criticisms of democracy include the following: "Majority Tyranny" Threatens Liberty ( Many of the Founders of the American republic such as James Madison feared that majority rule would undermine freedom and threaten individual rights. Atheists and communists are two groups that have recently had their rights infringed upon by the majority in American society. However, the text notes that there is no evidence that the many consistently threaten liberty more than the few or the one. Violations of freedom seem as likely to come from powerful individuals and groups or from government officials as from the majority. Such was the case during the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s when anticommunist hysteria was whipped up by Senator Joseph McCarthy.

The People Are Irrational and Incompetent ( Scholars have argued that most Americans are politically apathetic, poorly informed, and unstable in their political views. The authors, however, argue that the American public is more politically rational and articulate than these scholars hold.

Majoritarian Democracy Threatens Minorities ( Because the individuals who make up the losing minority on one issue, such as welfare reform, can potentially be part of the majority in other issues, the authors reject the idea that majoritarian democracy necessarily threatens minority rights. Different groups such as Native Americans; African Americans; Irish, Eastern European, Asian, and Latin American immigrants; Jews; and gays and lesbians certainly have been subjected to majority intolerance and violence. Nevertheless, the authors hold that there is no evidence to support the belief that the rights of minorities are better protected under other forms of government, whether rule by the few or by the one. Equal citizenship rights (such as the right to vote and to be protected from violence) coupled with a full range of civil liberties (such as freedom of speech and so forth) best preserve minority rights.

DEMOCRACY AS AN EVALUATIVE STANDARD: HOW DEMOCRATIC ARE WE?

A number of questions related to popular sovereignty, political equality, and political liberty emerge from the foregoing discussion concerning just how democratic America society and government are. Even though these ideals are probably unattainable in perfect form, they represent important standards and ideals against which we can understand American society and government.

A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING HOW AMERICAN POLITICS WORKS

The authors propose a simple way to organize information and to think about how the American political system works; the authors set out the basic guidelines that enable us to understand government and politics in the United States. Passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act is used to illustrate how the main factors of political life are interconnected. To understand why things happen in government and politics, we begin with the actors and institutions most immediately involved in an event or decision, but a full explanation of why events such as the 1965 Voting Rights Act happened requires that we move beyond a narrow focus on government officials and daily political affairs.

Organizing the Main Factors of Political Life ( The authors use a simple organizing framework or taxonomy to help students comprehend the complexities of politics. The framework visualizes the world of American politics as a set of interrelated actors and influences (institutions, groups, and individuals) that operate in four interconnected categories: structure, political linkage, government, and government action.

The Structure category includes more fundamental and enduring factors (such as the U.S. economy, American society, the constitutional rules, the political culture, and the international system) that influence government and politics. Structural factors, to a large extent, determine what issues become a part of the political agenda, how political power is distributed among the population, what rules structure how government works, and what values Americans bring to their political deliberation.

The Political Linkage category includes all of the political actors, institutions, and processes that transmit the wants and demands of people and groups in our society to government officials and that together help shape what government officials do and what policies they adopt. These include public opinion, political parties, interest groups, the mass media, and elections.

The Governmental category includes all public officials and institutions (such as Congress, the president, the executive branch, and the Supreme Court) that have formal, legal responsibilities for making public policy.

The Government Action category looks at government action such as passing laws, issuing rules and regulations that govern society, waging war and providing national defense, settling civil disputes, providing order, and so forth.

The struggle for democracy has played an important role in American history and remains an important theme in our country today. Democracy holds a special place in Americans' values; it is particularly relevant to judging political processes and is a standard used throughout this text to evaluate the quality of our politics and government. The materials about politics and government are organized in this text in a way that will allow us to understand the confusing details of everyday events and see why things happen the way they do. Thus, the chapters in Part Two of the text focus on the structure category. The chapters in Part Three focus on the political linkage processes and institutions. Part Four focuses on governmental institutions and leaders, while Part Five examines what government does, or governmental actions.

The authors utilize the main analytical categories of this text to analyze the passage of the historic 1965 Voting Rights Act. This way, it becomes clearer how structural, governmental, and political linkage factors interact to bring about government action.

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