High School American Government, part 2 Political Culture

Research Questions

Define the concept of political culture.

Political culture refers to :

Values and beliefs

Ideas about what is good

Ideas as to who should govern, for what ends and by what means

Outline the main principles of classic liberalism:

Natural law
Limited government
The social contract
Redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor
Individuals have free will

Differentiate among the various kinds of equality. (Hint: research what Alexis de Tocqueville said about America.)

The famous French observer of the early American scene, Alexis de Tocqueville, the thought that the distinguishing characteristics of American political values was the belief in

a mixed slave and free market economy

liberty

equality

the pursuit of individual happiness

a strong social welfare state

Characterize the trends affecting the current distribution of wealth and income and analyze the relationships among social mobility, inequality and class conflict.

1. The decline in the manufacturing sector
2. Demographic trends
3. Global competition
4. Failure of the social contract

Describe the current immigration trends and the ethnic composition of the United States.

1. A growing immigrant population that is heavily Hispanic and largely composed of legal immigrants

2. An Anglo white population that makes up a smaller and smaller proportion of the overall population

3. A conservative political backlash against immigrant populations in several states

4. An increase in the relative size of African American population compared to the Hispanic population

Assess the roles of religion and secularism in US politics.

1. Conservative Democrats
2. Conservative Republicans
3. Liberal Democrats
4. Liberal Republicans
5. Apolitical

Compare and contrast the main principles of conservatism and liberalism.

The belief that the government should not intervene in economic and social affairs.

Differentiate among various political ideologies that depart from conservatism and liberalism in the twentieth century.

Much of the history of the twentieth century was the struggle between democratic capitalism and totalitarian communism. Thus the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union symbolized by the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in 1989 as well as the world wide movement toward free markets and democracy at the end of the twentieth century has been labeled the end of history.