Freedom, Order, or Equality? Chapter 1 Freedom, Order, or Equality?

The Purpose of This Text To explain the workings of government To enable students to evaluate policy decisions and relationships Politics at home and abroad Individual freedoms vs. personal security Individual freedom vs. social equality

The Globalization of American Government Concept of government has evolved Initially territorial in nature Idea of national sovereignty Is U.S. sovereignty threatened by globalization? International law via treaties 1982 Law of the Sea Treaty

The Globalization of Nations Citizens and nations differ in degree of globalization KOF study places U.S. at 27 of 181 Study available at http://globalization.kof.ethz.ch/ Student self-test at http://IDEAlog.org The U.S. closely tied to both friends and former enemies in worldwide economic, social, and political network

The Purposes of Government Citizens must surrender some freedoms to be provided services by a government Governmental control vs. personal freedoms Most willing to give up some freedoms for governmental benefits

The Purposes of Government To maintain order Hobbes – focused on peoples’ safety Locke – wanted life, liberty, and property Marx – believed the public should not own land or own businesses key to production of goods To provide public goods Usually for things not likely to be provided by individuals Controversial as to what goods or services appropriate And, more recently in the U.S., to promote equality Some, but not all not all policies promoting equality redistribute income

A Conceptual Framework for Analyzing Government Most governmental decisions based on a tradeoff in values What values a government decides to pursue grouped in three categories: Order Freedom Equality

A Conceptual Framework for Analyzing Government Two categories for models of democratic government: Majoritarian democracy Pluralist democracy

The Concept of Freedom Two basic types of freedom: Freedom of, or freedom to do things without constraints Freedom from oppression or exploitation These concepts also described as liberty and equality

Four Freedoms

The Concept of Order Can be viewed narrowly as preservation of life and protection of property or broadly as preserving social order Social order generally held to be the traditional or accepted way of doing things Protections via police powers Balance between protections and civil liberties sometimes difficult to achieve

Compared with what?

The Concept of Equality Basic definition of political equality is one person, one vote Some expand definition to include social equality, or equality in wealth, education, and status Equality of opportunity vs. equality of outcome

Equality in the Military

Two Dilemmas of Government Order and equality valuable, but require limitations in individual freedoms Original dilemma was freedom vs. order; has evolved to encompass more issues Personal safety, whether from attack or diseases like AIDS Other issues such as capital punishment and access to controversial videos on YouTube

Two Dilemmas of Government Modern dilemma is freedom vs. equality Values clash when government makes policies to enforce equality Equal pay for women and men School busing Discrimination based on many things, including DNA

Ideology and the Scope of Government Opinions about the merits of various public policies differ greatly Some persons have values and beliefs that produce contradictory opinions Other persons have a consistent political ideology Different political ideologies form a continuum

Ideology and the Scope of Government

Different Ideologies Totalitarianism Socialism Capitalism Democratic socialism Capitalism Libertarianism Anarchism

Liberals and Conservatives: The Narrow Middle Practical politics in the U.S. ranges over the center of the ideological continuum The extremes of political thought rarely argued in public debates Most Americans either liberals or conservatives Differences center on role of government

Liberals Versus Conservatives: The New Differences Historical differences were government’s role in delivering public goods Today, differences focus on the purpose of government Conservatives support maintenance of social order Liberals want government to promote equality

A Two-Dimensional Classification of Ideologies Accurate classifications require looking at values of freedom, order, and equality Libertarians value freedom more than order or equality Liberals value freedom more than order, but not more than equality Conservatives value freedom more than equality, but are willing to restrict it to preserve social order Communitarians favor programs that support both order and equality

Ideologies: A Two-Dimensional Framework