Question

Identify and discuss the basic ideals and principles of American democracy and how they are applied in our republican form of government.

Identify the most important Supreme Court cases and executive actions and their impact on law and on our society.

450 words minimum.

Answer 1

American political culture contains a number of core ideals and values. Vast majority of Americans believe in these general ideals, including liberty, equality, democracy, individualism, unity, and diversity. Most Americans believe that democracy is the best form of government and therefore tend to support policies that protect and expand democracy. The importance placed on democracy in American political culture usually appears in domestic politics, but sometimes a desire to spread democracy to other countries drives American foreign policy.

Liberty

Americans tend to define Liberty as the freedom for people to do what they want. We tend to believe liberty is essential to personal fulfillment and happiness. Nevertheless, liberty must be restrained on some level in order to create a stable society. A widely accepted principle of freedom is that we are free to do whatever we want as long as we do not interfere in other people’s freedom.

Economic Liberty

For many Americans, liberty includes economic liberty. Throughout most of the nineteenth century, the American economy was based on Laissez-Faire Capitalism, an economic system in which the government plays almost no role in producing, distributing, or regulating the production and distribution of goods. Today, people want some governmental intervention in the economy, but most Americans want this intervention to be limited in scope.

Equality

Although no two people are equal, they are considered equal under the law. Some Americans may be poorer, have different preferences, livelihoods than others, and some may have cultural backgrounds different from the majority, but all Americans have the same fundamental rights. The term Equality refers to a number of ways people are treated the same. Political Equality means that everyone is treated in the same way in the political sphere. This means, among other things, that everyone has the same status under the law (everyone is entitled to legal representation, for example, and every citizen gets one vote) and that everyone gets equal treatment under the law. Everybody must obey the laws, regardless of race, creed, religion, gender, or sexual orientation, and in return, everyone enjoys the same rights. All people get the same opportunities to compete and achieve in the world.

Popular Sovereignty,

When the people rule, is an important principle of democracy. Democracy is government by the people, so political leaders in a democratic society are supposed to listen to and heed public opinion. Democracies hold elections to allow the people to exercise their power over government.

Majority Rule,

The belief that the power to make decisions about government should reflect the will of most of the people. In fact, American political culture relies on majority rule: The candidate who wins a majority of votes, for example, wins the election. Likewise, a bill that wins the support of a majority of members of Congress passes. Without majority rule, a democracy could not function.

Minority Rights

The flipside of majority rule is that the majority does not have unlimited power. In a democracy, the Rights of The Minority must also be protected, even at the expense of overriding the will of the majority. The minority always has the right to speak out against the majority, for example. Similarly, the minority cannot be arrested or jailed for disagreeing or voting against the majority.

Speaking For The Majority

Because of the power of the majority, political groups often claim to speak for the majority even if they do not actually do so. International elections officials monitor the casting and counting of ballots in elections around the world to make sure democratic elections are really fair.

Individualism

According to the concept of Individualism, humans are fundamentally individuals who have the freedom to make choices and join (or not join) groups as they wish. An individual’s life belongs to no one but that individual, so people should make choices that are right for them regardless of what other people think. A true individual is unlike anyone else. Americans value individualism and respect people who make independent choices.

Individual Rights In American History

The protection of individual rights had been a hallmark of American politics even before the American Revolution. Many colonial governments had bills of rights that, to some extent, granted freedoms of speech, religion, and assembly. At the start of the revolution, states wrote new constitutions for themselves and listed rights that the government could not take away. The first ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, were added as soon as the new government took office in 1789.

Rugged Individualism

The quintessential American view that we are responsible for our own lives and ultimately must rely only on ourselves. People who ignore society’s wishes and do as they choose are rugged individuals. These people make their own way in the world at the risk of being ostracized by the rest of society.

Conformity

The opposite of individualism is Conformism, a term used to describe the act of people trying to be the same. Over the centuries, many observers have noted that even in democracies, conformism is common. This seems to conflict with the ideal of individualism but is nevertheless an important component of any civil society.

Unity and Diversity

Two interconnected ideals in American political culture are unity and diversity. Unity refers to Americans’ support of the republic and democracy, even if they disagree with one another about policies. The name of our country—the United States—emphasizes the importance of unity to our national political culture.

Diversity refers to the fact that Americans have many different cultural traditions and hold a variety of values. Nearly all Americans descend from immigrants, and many of them take pride in their heritage and cultural history. Americans also hold diverse views and creeds.

Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is the view that we should embrace our diversity and learn about one another’s cultures. Much of American culture derives from western European cultures (the British Isles in particular), which makes some other groups feel excluded. Learning about new cultures and respecting diversity have taken on new force in recent years. For many people, being American is about adhering to ideas and principles, not to a particular religious or ethnic identity. So one can be a patriot while still honoring one’s ancestral traditions.

The American Dream

Nearly every group that has come to the United States has embraced the idea of the American dream, which, in turn, has different meanings for different people. Some immigrants escaped brutal regimes and therefore pursue an American dream of living in freedom. Others subscribe to an American dream in which hard work leads to economic success.

American Ideals in Practice

Although Americans have always cherished the ideals of liberty, equality, democracy, individualism, unity, and diversity, the United States has not always lived up to them. Slavery, the mistreatment of Native Americans, and the failure to give women the right to vote for more than a century are the most glaring examples.

American Symbols

Americans have embraced a number of concrete symbols to stand for the abstract American ideals discussed in this chapter. The best example is the American flag, which is honoured as a symbol of the United States. The soaring eagle is another significant American symbol that stands for freedom. In popular culture, the trio of mom, baseball, and apple pie encapsulates what many see as the core of American identity.

Application of Democracy in republican form of government

The following statement is often used to define the United States' system of government: "The United States is a republic, not a democracy.” This statement suggests that the concepts and characteristics of republics and democracies can never coexist in a single form of government. However, this is rarely the case. As in the United States, most republics function as blended “representational democracies” featuring a democracy’s political powers of the majority tempered by a republic’s system of checks and balances enforced by a constitution that protects the minority from the majority.

To say that the United States is strictly a democracy suggests that the minority is completely unprotected from the will of the majority, which is not correct.

Republics and Constitutions

As a republic’s most unique feature, a constitution enables it to protect the minority from the majority by interpreting and, if necessary, overturning laws made by the elected representatives of the people. In the United States, the Constitution assigns this function to the U.S. Supreme Court and the lower federal courts.

For example, in the 1954 case of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court declared all state laws establishing separate racially segregated public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional.  

In its 1967 Loving v. Virginia ruling, the Supreme Court overturned all remaining state laws banning interracial marriages and relationships.

More recently, in the controversial Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that federal election laws prohibiting corporations from contributing to political campaigns violated the corporations’ constitutional rights of free speech under the First Amendment.

The constitutionally-granted power of the judicial branch to overturn laws made by the legislative branch illustrates the unique ability of a republic’s rule of law to protect the minority from a pure democracy’s rule of the masses.