The American System

1
The American System

• Two Big Questions
• Who Governs? (The text)
• To What ends? (Divorce Court example)
• Power means . . .
• Text who holds office, how theyll behave
• Authority the right to power
• Legitimacy what makes a law or constitution
  right
• Three Concepts of Democracy
• true interests served China, Cuba
• Rule of the many Direct (Athens, Colonial N.E.)
• Representative Democracy

2
Who governs? How?

• Marxist Owners of means of prdctn rule
• Elitist Few top leaders make all rules
• Bureaucratic Appointed civil servants rule
• Pluralist Competition among affected ints.
• Direct vs. Representative Democracy
• Cynical Politics as self-serving enterprise
• Often an incomplete analysis
• A Second Bill of Rights?
• Roosevelts New Deal and Johnsons Great
  Society

3
The Growth of Government

• First 150 years, government grew slowly
• Constraints on Fed. Govt have relaxed
• Public/Elite opinion demanded change
• Wide distribution of resources
• Large policy agenda
• Diffusion/Decentralization of power
• Multiplication of interest groups (what paper?)
• Management vs. ruling
• Depression/New Deal and 1960s/Great Society
• Current administration/party wants reversal

4
Enduring Questions

• Preoccupation with rights
• More red tape
• Elite opinion influences which rights
• Freedom versus equality?
• Advantages of freedom remote, costs obvious
• Advantages of equality are obvious, costs remote
• Debate Equality of opportunity vs. result
• Ideas influence policy