CHAPTER 1 AP Government Introduction

Two Main Questions in Politics  Who should govern?  Towards what ends should they work?

What is Political Power?  Power-ability to get others to follow your will -can be obvious or subtle  Authority- right to use power  Legitimacy- political authority conferred by law or national or state constitution -broadly accepted (if not = trouble)

Democracy  Two types:  Direct or Participatory- ancient Greece  Representative  Founders argued representative best for America. Why? Is it best?

Founding Fathers  Govt should mediate not mirror popular views  Elected officials should represent not register majority sentiments  Most citizens didn’t have time/expertise etc  Even highly educated can be manipulated by leaders  A govt working quickly can quickly do harm  Protection of civil rights and liberties shouldn’t be left to popular vote  Less chance of abuse of power, tyranny, self-serving leaders

Representative Democracy  Need free speech so candidates can communicate and voters believe a choice exists Could America change to Direct Democracy? -Community control -Citizen participation

How is political power distributed?  Majoritarian politics: elected officials are the delegates of the people and act as they would -can’t always happen; often, elite have the power *Elite= identifiable group of people who possess a disproportionate share of some resource (power, $) -make an effort to actively participate in policy making

Four Theories on Political Elites and Distribution of Power (Theories answer the question “Who governs?”)  Marxist view  Power elite view  Bureaucratic view  Pluralist view

Marxist View  Govt dominated by capitalists -govt is a machine to give legality to class interests  Two economic classes vie for power (capitalists and workers)  Whichever controls the economy controls the govt.

Power Elite View  Govt dominated by a few top leaders, most of whom are outside the govt.  Coalition of three groups control politics and government -Corporate Leaders -Top Military Officials -Elected Officials *Today we could add Media to the list

Bureaucratic View  Govt dominated by appointed officials  Govt and non-govt institutions dominated by bureaucrats who operate govt on a daily basis  Career govt workers exercise power by deciding how laws translate into action

Pluralist View  Competition among all affected interests shapes public policy -political resources and access to media is so scattered/unequal, no elite can have monopoly -different interests struggle to gain benefits for their members  Problems…

The Nature of Politics  Must understand preferences in order to understand power  Need to know who wields power but hard to discover  Can’t infer distribution of power based on what laws exist  Should only make judgments on institutions and interests after discovering how they behave in a variety of issues

Is democracy driven by self-interest? What explains political change?