American Political Culture Defining the label American can be complicated. What makes someone an American? Citizenship status? Residency? Paying taxes, playing baseball, speaking English, eating apple pie? The United States is a nation of immigrants almost every one of us has ancestors who came to America from other parts of the world, and immigrants continue to arrive today. Citizens and residents of the United States demonstrate tremendous diversity with regard to religion, culture, native language, beliefs, and tradition. As the old adage goes, America is one big melting pot. So, if we re all different, how do we define our national identity? What does it mean to be American when Americans are so diverse? Now that the United States stands as the world s only superpower, defining American has become all the more important. Many of our leaders wish to export American ideas and values abroad, but which ideas and values are distinctly American? What are the basic factors that influence and define our political identity? The Importance of Geography The United States covers a large chunk of the North American continent, incorporating a variety of climates and bound on two sides by ocean. The country s unique geography has given it a number of benefits: Isolation from conflict: For much of its early history, the United States was able to keep out of political and military entanglements with the rest of the world. Separated from Europe by one ocean and from Asia by another, America avoided the conflicts and wars among states in those regions. Peace provided a rich environment for the development and growth of the new nation. Vibrant trade: Although vast oceans separate the United States from much of the world, access to these oceans allowed for the development of lively trade routes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The United States traded regularly with Europe and increasingly with Asia as the nineteenth century wore on. America also possesses a number of long navigable rivers (including the Mississippi River) that allowed for extensive trade within the country. Rich farmland: Large parts of the United States contain excellent farmland. By producing more food than necessary, the United States could trade excess food to support a growing manufacturing economy.
A vast frontier: Early white settlers were able to expand across the continent. Access to a vast frontier encouraged development as thousands of people pushed westward. The frontier also played a role in shaping the American character. Natural resources: The size and vastly different ecologies of the terrain have also provided Americans with an abundance of natural resources, such as timber, metal ores, coal, oil, and natural gas. Unlimited access to these resources allowed the United States to develop politically and militarily because it did not have to worry about acquiring the natural resources needed to sustain its citizens. The Importance of Immigration The ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity brought by immigrants in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has shaped American history and politics. Country Origin for American Immigrants Approximate Number of Immigrants Germany 7 million Mexico 6 million Italy Great Britain Ireland Canada Austria and Hungary 4 million (total) Russia (former Soviet Union) 4 million The Philippines 2 million China and Sweden 1 million (each) Immigration has profoundly shaped American politics and culture. Immigrants not only provided labor for the growing economy but also gave the United States a distinctly unique social and political culture. These effects continue today. American Political Ideals American political culture contains a number of core ideals and values. Not all Americans share the same views, of course, but the vast majority subscribes to these general ideals, including liberty,
equality, democracy, individualism, unity, and diversity. Political debates tend to be over how best to achieve these ideals, not over whether these ideals are worth having in the first place. (1) Liberty Americans today tend to define liberty as the freedom for people to do what they want. We also 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 impinge on other people s freedom. A limited government is a government that places relatively few restrictions on its citizens freedom. There are some things that the government cannot do, such as limit freedom of speech or impose a single religion on its citizens. A limited government usually has a constitution that defines the limits of governmental power. In the United States, the Constitution outlines the structure of government, whereas the Bill of Rights guarantees some of the citizens specific liberties. For many Americans, liberty includes economic liberty. People should be free to do as they see fit in the economic sphere without government interference. 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. (2) Equality Although no two people are truly equal, they are considered equal under the law. Some Americans may be poorer 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.
In American political culture, political equality also commonly means equality of opportunity: All people get the same opportunities to compete and achieve in the world. Some people will succeed and some will fail, but most Americans believe that everyone, no matter what, is entitled to the opportunity to succeed. Most Americans oppose equality of outcome. Under this system, the government ensures all people the same results, regardless of how talented or hardworking they are. Most Americans consider this unfair because this system means that talented and diligent people do not get the success they deserve. (3) Democracy 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. 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 (the majority) of the people, is another important principle of democracy. In fact, American political culture relies on majority rule: The candidate who wins a majority of votes, for example, wins the race. Likewise, a bill that wins the support of a majority of members of Congress passes. Without majority rule, a democracy could not function. 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. Without minority rights, majority rule would easily evolve into tyranny of the majority, in which the majority would ignore the basic rights of the minority. (4) Individualism & Mistrust in Government
According to the concept of individualism, humans are fundamentally individuals who have the freedom to make choices 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. 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. Skepticism about government has always been a key component of American political culture, partly because a strong government can threaten individual rights. From the founding of the republic, Americans worried about excessive governmental power, choosing instead to put their faith in individuals and private groups. French writer Alexis de Tocqueville, for example, pointed out that Americans are far more likely than other peoples to join together to solve a problem in his two-volume book Democracy in America (1835, 1840). Many people have seen and continue to see the government as a necessary evil, something that is not good in itself but is needed to protect people. James Madison, writing in Federalist Paper No. 51 (1787), stated that government is only needed because people sometimes mistreat one another and act in their own self-interest to the detriment of others. Since the 1960s, opinion of government has deteriorated even further. Political cynicism has become common, and Americans generally no longer believe in the government s ability to effect change. (5) 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. Politicians and other leaders frequently appeal to this sense of unity, especially during times of national crisis. 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 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. (6) The American Dream & American Exceptionalism 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. The American dream is derived from American exceptionalism, the idea that the United States differs from the rest of the world. According to this view, the lessons learned by other nations do not necessarily apply to the United States because the United States is exceptional and different. Americans have believed they are different from other peoples in the world because of the following concepts: Divine providence: Some believe that America has been chosen by God to embody virtue and be a beacon to the world. The back of the one-dollar bill reads, for example, In God we trust. Just principles: Unlike most states, the United States was founded on ideas and principles, not by conquest. Geography and resources: The great wealth of resources and relative isolation of the United States for much of its history has made America unique among most other countries in the world. Diversity: The American mix of cultures and traditions is the source of American strength.