Identity

1
Identity

• Mr. Greens American Government

2
Politics and Government

• Definitions
• Politics
• Political Science
• Bootleggers and Baptists
• The Three Is
• Institutions
• Interests
• Rational Choice
• Marx/Radicals
• Identities
• Nation
• Ideology

3
Identity (the Baptists)
4
Identity
5
Social Identity

• Our Social Identity is a Function of Our culture
  -- the Values, Beliefs, Ideas, Orientations,
  Group Characteristics, and Underlying Assumptions
  Prevalent In a Group.
• There Are No Objective interests Outside Our
  Culture Because It Defines Our Interests

6
Culture

• Cultural Political Theory
• Culture, Not Interest, explains Social Behavior
  Because People Will Seek and Use Power to
  Enhance, Protect, and Advance Their Culture.
• Key Explanatory Variable of Political Culture
  Ideology

7
Ideology

• That Part of Ones culture (Values, Beliefs,
  Ideas, Orientations, Group Characteristics, and
  Underlying Assumptions) That Form Ones General
  Philosophy of Government
• Often Determines An Individuals Opinion or
  Reaction to a Novel or Fresh Issue or Event.
• Since It Is Based In identity, It Is Intensely
  Held, Long-lasting, And Difficult To Change.

8
Competing Values

• In America Ideology is Usually Determined by the
  Ranking One Gives in Three Values Continuums
• traditionalist Values vs. liberty Values
• freedom Values vs. equality Values
• nationalist Values vs. cosmopolitan Values

9
Traditionalist Values

• Values Based on Religious Traditions and Ethical
  Codes Which Are Enforced Though Restrictions on
  Personal Behavior Through Traditional Social and
  Legal Institutions
• These Values Are Held To Be Moral Absolutes That
  Constitute a Natural Law of Society
• Without the External Controls Based on these
  Values, Most People Would Disregard These Natural
  Laws Causing Society to Disintegrate into Anarchy

10
story
11
Traditionalist Values

• The Breakdown of Society
• Pervasive Violence (murder, robbery, assault,
  abortion)
• Sexual Deviance (homosexuality, polygamy,
  prostitution, pornography)
• Addictions (drugs, gambling)
• Moral Breakdown Effects Everyone in Society, Not
  Just Those Who Engage In Deviant Behavior.

12
Traditionalist Values

• Traditional Values
• Society Must Support and Protect Its Traditional,
  hierarchical Stabilizing Institutions
• Religion
• Family
• Schools
• Military
• Law and Order
• Gun Rights
• Death Penalty
• The American Nation

13
Liberty Values

• Trust In Individuals
• Government Must Not Be Allowed to Interference
  with Anyones Freedom in Order to Promote
  Someone Else Vision or Ideal
• Absent Force or Fraud, Each Individual Must Have
  Complete liberty to Engage in Any an Activity
  Suited to their Freely Chosen Lifes Goals . . .
• And, Individuals Must Take Full responsibility
  for Any Consequences, Beneficial or Harmful, That
  Result From Their Actions.

14
Traditional Ideological Continuum
15
Liberty Values

• Suspicion of All Government Action
• Some Persons or Groups Believe They Are the
  enlightened They Claim Their Values and Goals
  are Morally Superior to Those of the Rest of
  Society
• Left to Themselves, the Rest of Society the
  unenlightened Masses Usually Ignore and Reject
  These Claims.
• Frustrated, the enlightened then Seek to
  Capture Governments Power of Coercion So As to
  Legislate Conformity to Their Vision on the
  Everyone.

16
Liberty Values

• Reason For Most Government Action
• To Creating Conformity To One Person or Groups
  Abstract Ideal or the Moral Society, or the
  Just Society, or other Utopian Notion
• Ideas that have no basis is real experience or
  practice
• To Force this Ideal on the Rest of Society
  Without Their Consent.

17
Traditional Ideological Continuum
18
Freedom Values

• Freedom View of Merit
• Those Who Innovate and Create Goods and Services
  By Through Their Time, Effort and Resources Are
  Entitled to All the Benefits That Result of That
  Expenditure.
• Property in What One Creates With Ones Labor or
  Mind is a Natural Right and the Key to
  Prosperity.

19
Lincoln
20
Freedom Values

• Prosperity
• Results from Protecting Merit
• Capitalism
• The production of wealth is maximized in
  Societies where
• individuals own the goods and serves they create
  and
• where they can profit from those goods and
  services
• The production of wealth is maximized in
  Societies
• That encourage specialization and free trade
• ration goods only by price,
• keep tax rates efficient and low
• permit only minimal economic regulation

21
Freedom Values

• Economic Freedom
• Pursuit of Profit Combined With Competition
• Is Responsive to Consumer Preferences
• Lead To the Efficient Allocation of Resources and
  Labor
• Creates a the Most Prosperous Societies
• Therefore, Absent Force or Fraud, Each Individual
  Must Have Complete freedom to Engage in Economic
  Activity and Take Full responsibility for Any
  Consequences That Result
• Each Gets All Benefits of His/Her Actions
• Each Pays All Costs of His/Her Actions

22
Equality Values

• The egalitarian View of Merit
• Individual status and wealth should be based ones
  personal contribution
• Therefore, society should strive to eliminate
  differences in status between individuals that
  are not based on merit.
• Fairness demands the elimination of all
  unreasonable (unmerited) distinctions between
  individuals.
• distinctions based on hereditary are unreasonable
• distinctions based on race are unreasonable
• distinctions based on gender are unreasonable

• distinctions based on wealth are unreasonable

23
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, p. 103-104
24
Equality Values

• The egalitarian View of Merit
• distinctions based on hereditary are unreasonable
• distinctions based on race are unreasonable
• distinctions based on gender are unreasonable
• distinctions based on wealth are unreasonable
• distinctions based on sexual preference are
  unreasonable
• distinctions based on nature are unreasonable

25
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, p. 103-104
26
Equality Values

• Capitalism Creates Unmerited Status
• It exploits labor, distributes incomes unequally,
  causes pollution, accelerates resources use, and
  enhances greed and materialism.
• Social Justice
• redistribution society must equalize incomes.
• sustainability society must protect the earth
  even if it must sacrifice tradeoff is economic
  growth
• discrimination society must protect historically
  marginalized groups race, gender, ethnicity,
  sexual preference

27
Equality Values

• Reform Program
• Create a Sustainable, Socially Just, Egalitarian
  Society
• Work to Modify the hierarchical Institutions that
  Stand in the Way of This Ideal.
• Family
• Military and Police
• Religion
• Schools

28
Traditional Ideological Continuum
29
Nationalist Values

• Emphasizes the Cultural Factors That Divide a
  nation From Another
• Greeks and Barbarians
• Hebrews and Gentiles
• Nation
• A Group of People Sharing a Common Identity
  Based on Shared Characteristics such as Common
  Language, a Shared History, a Territorial Base, a
  Religion, and an Ethnicity.

30
Nationalist Values

• Nationalism
• The Feelings Of Pride and/or Resentment Shared
  Widely in nation Regarding Its Common Interests
  and Values and Its Separateness From Other Nations

31
Nationalist Values

• Chinese Nation
• Language Mandarin (Cantonese, etc.)
• Ethnicity East Asian
• Religion Confucian Philosophy
• Territory Chinese State
• Shared History and Traditions
• Middle Kingdom
• Centralized Government
• Bureaucratic Rule

32
Nationalist Values

• Iraqi Nation
• Language Arabic and Kurdish
• Ethnicity Arab and Kurd
• Religion Sunni and Shiiah
• Territory Arbitrary Creation in 1919
• Shared History and Traditions None

33
Nationalist Values

• American Nationalism
• Language English
• Ethnicity Northern European Caucasian
• Religion Calvinist Based Protestantism
• Ideology Classical Liberalism

• John F Kennedy, Inaugural Address, 1961

34
Cosmopolitan Values

• Emphasizes the Cultural Factors That Unite Rather
  Than Divide People
• Trade and Commercial Interdependence
• Wealth Is in Everyones Interest
• Requires Cooperation By People With Different
  Languages, Races, Ethnicities, Religions
  nations
• Need for International Standards and Rules Plus
  Arbitrators For Those Standards and Rules
• Need for International Organizations and Courts
• Need for International Political Institutions
• The Problem of War

35
Kant
36
Trade off
37
The End