inclination, time, or expertise necessary to decide political issues, these groups will speak for them. As
groups compete with one another and find themselves in conflict regarding important issues,
government policy begins to take shape. In this way, government policy is shaped from the bottom up
and not from the top down, as we see in elitist theory.
What is the TRADEOFFS PERSPECTIVE?
Since the framing of the U.S. Constitution, tradeoffs have been made between those who favor the
supremacy of the central government and those who believe that state governments should be more
powerful.
Many of the tradeoffs made by government are about freedom of speech. The First Amendment of the
Constitution gives Americans the right to express their opinions on matters of concern to them; the
federal government cannot interfere with this right. Because of the Fourteenth Amendment, state
governments must protect this right also. At the same time, neither the federal government nor state
governments can allow someone’s right to free expression to interfere with someone else’s ability to
exercise his or her own rights. Abortion Buffer zones (McCullen v. Coakley)
1.3 Engagement in a Democracy
Why get involved?
According to the pluralist theory, government cannot function without active participation by at least
some citizens. Even if we believe the elite make political decisions, participation in government through
the act of voting can change who the members of the elite are.
Are fewer people today active in politics than in the past? Political scientist Robert Putnam has argued
that civic engagement is declining; although many Americans may report belonging to groups, these
groups are generally large, impersonal ones with thousands of members. People who join groups such
as Amnesty International or Greenpeace may share certain values and ideals with other members of the
group, but they do not actually interact with these other members. These organizations are different
from the types of groups Americans used to belong to, like church groups or bowling leagues. Although
people are still interested in volunteering and working for the public good, they are more interested in
either working individually or joining large organizations where they have little opportunity to interact
with others.
U.S. history is filled with examples of people actively challenging the power of elites, gaining
rights for themselves, and protecting their interests. For example, slavery was once legal in the United
States and large sectors of the U.S. economy were dependent on this forced labor. Slavery was outlawed
and blacks were granted citizenship because of the actions of abolitionists (a person who favors the
abolition of a practice or institution). Similarly, the right to vote once belonged solely to white men until
the Fifteenth Amendment gave the vote to African American men. The Nineteenth Amendment
extended the vote to include women, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 made exercising the right to
vote a reality for African American men and women in the South.
What is Social Capital?
The collective value of all ‘social networks’ [those whom people know] and the inclinations that arise
from these networks to do things for each other.
