Political culture is that set of ideas which Americans share widely about who should govern, for what ends, and by what means. Values are shared ideas about what is good. Beliefs are shared ideas about what is true. Beliefs often provide a foundation for values. When ascribing cultural beliefs they are generalizations and may not apply to every individual. Subcultures also exist, such as those based on religion, race, or ethnic identity, holding different, or even deviant beliefs and values.

Contradictions between values and actual conditions can and do exist. The struggle to attain professed values provides motivation for change in society. The best example of the contradiction between U.S. values and actual conditions is seen in the existence of slavery and racial discrimination despite the belief in the idea that "all men are created equal" that is stated in the Declaration of Independence. . The existence of a shared political culture does not prevent conflict over pressures to reconcile actual social conditions with desired cultural values, or one value with another.

Individual Liberty

Classical liberalism, which asserts individual worth and dignity, has been a foundation of American political thought. This view also emphasis the rational ability of humans to determine their own destinies. Classical liberalism derives from Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire, John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith. These men stressed reason, virtue and common sense. Thomas Jefferson drew heavily upon the ideas of these men, particularly Locke's theory of the social contract, in writing the Declaration of Independence. Capitalism, which asserts the individual's right to own private property and to buy, sell or trade it in a free market, is closely linked to classical liberalism. Capitalism stresses individual rationality in economic matters, limited governmental intervention and the right of individuals to pursue their economic interests as they choose.

Dilemmas of Equality

The cultural value of equality means that, in the abstract, Americans believe no person is better than anyone else.

This applies especially to legal equality, where every citizen is supposed to have equal rights before the law, such as the right to a speedy trial. Political equality trailed the development of legal equality, with constitutional amendments not guaranteeing the vote for ex-slaves until 1868, women until 1920, and voting rights even in modern times.

Equality of opportunity is a widely-shared value which means that Americans do not begrudge income inequalities arising from differences in education, effort, risk-taking, investment, talent, or events of luck such as winning the lottery; but this acceptance assumes that all have had an equal opportunity to become educated, make effort, take risks, invest, use talents, or be lucky. To the extent race, gender, religion, ethnicity, or other factors make equality of opportunity different for different classes of citizens, Americans feel the value of equality of opportunity is violated. Government exists in part to ensure equality of opportunity.

Americans generally do not support equality of results, which supports the idea that all individual's share equal conditions in life. In order to achieve this status, the government must actively redistribute wealth and property. Jefferson believed "leveling" would destroy incentives to work hard and save for themselves.

American believe strongly in equality of opportunity but at the same time, in terms of social outcomes, they are willing to support as fair very large inequalities in results. The public sphere sanctions a "floor" beneath which no citizen should fall, but the "ceiling" is constrained only by what is possible in the private sector. Americans do believe that those such as the elderly, the ill, the disabled and children should be cared for but they do not believe the government should seek to equalize incomes.

Americans draw a sharp distinction between the public political sphere and the private economic sphere. Although Americans are willing to tolerate inequalities of result in economics, in the public political sphere Americans value absolute equality – one person, one vote. Economic inequalities and political equalities can continue to exist as long as society perceives these spheres to be separate

Inequality of Income and Wealth

Political conflict usually occurs over the inequality in wealth and income in society. The poorest one-fifth of American households have seen little increase in their share of the household income since 1929 and the difference in percent of total income has increased between the top and bottom levels. Thus the top levels now receive a greater share of the total income generated in the nation.

The reasons for the growing inequality include the decline in manufacturing jobs, the increase in less labor intensive communications and technology sectors, the rise in the number of two-income families, the ageing of the population, the growing number of female-headed families with lower incomes, and global competition.

It should also be noted that wealth is much more unequally distributed than income. The wealthiest 1 percent of Americans own almost 40 percent of all family wealth. Its distribution, too, has been becoming more unequal since the 1970s.

Social Mobility

Social mobility is high in the United States, mitigating possible discontent over income and wealth inequalities. In a given decade, about one-third of those in the poorest 20 percent of the nation move upward, and about one-third of those in the richest 20 percent move downward. In recent years there appears, however, to be a slowing in social mobility out of the poorest 20 percent.

The belief in social mobility helps to reduce class conflict in society because it reduces class-consciousness. Most Americans describe themselves as middle class and believe they have social mobility.

Race, Ethnicity, Immigration

While America is a pluralistic society, all groups are expected to adopt the American political culture. Yet, American racial and ethnic groups maintain some of their own traditions and values.

African Americans have traditionally been nation's largest minority, however, they have fallen to only about 12.3% of the population today. As recently as 1900, 90 percent of African Americans were concentrated in the Southern states. Their migration north and west was one of the largest internal migrations in the nation's history. As a result of slavery and historical discrimination, African-American political opinion often differs from that of the general U.S. public.

Hispanic Americans now comprise the largest minority group in America. The term Hispanic encompasses all those of Spanish-speaking ancestry and culture but includes a variety of groups including Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans and Puerto Ricans. Mexican Americans comprise the largest of these subgroups and mostly reside in the southwestern states. Puerto Ricans are the second largest subgroup and primarily reside in New York City, while the third largest group, Cuban Americans mostly live in south Florida. Each group has a different history and somewhat different political culture.

The United States started as a nation of immigrants and still accepts more immigrants than all other nations of the world combined. Early immigration acts were biased, such as the 1882 act, which barred nearly all Asians from immigration. The Immigration Act of 1921 established as an immigration quota 3 percent of the number of a given nation's foreign-born living in the U. S. in 1910. This was later reduced to 2 percent of those residing here in 1890. These quotas were directed against massive immigration of Southern and Eastern European Catholics and Jews. The quota system was abolished by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, replacing quotas with a system giving preferences to close relatives, professionals, and skilled workers.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 sought to control rising immigration, especially from Mexico and Latin America (not restricted by the 1921 act). It did this by establishing fines for employers of illegal immigrants. Partly because it allowed employers to accept easily-forged documents as evidence of residency, the 1986 act did not reduce illegal immigration. Approximately one million legal residents are admitted to the U.S. each year and twenty-five million receive temporary visas to enter the nation.

With its long borders and many seaports, the U.S. faces a difficult dilemma in trying to secure its borders. Historically, the nation has chosen not to create barricades. As a result, it is estimated that from 400,000 to 3 million people illegally immigrate to the U.S. each year. As many as 10 million people may be residing illegally in the nation.

Because of the constitutional principles of due process which apply to immigrants as well, the U.S. is not prepared to attempt to round up and deport millions of illegal residents. Instead, law enforcement has focused on trying to prevent more individuals from entering the nation. With increases in personnel and technology this could reduce the number of illegal immigrants by half.

Native born persons are automatically American citizens. Those who are admitted lawfully, who reside in the U.S. for five years and their state for six months are then eligible for naturalization as a citizen. To become a citizen one must be over eighteen years of age, of good moral character, able to read and write and speak English and understand the history, principles and form of the American government.

Ideologies: Liberalism and Conservatism

An ideology is a consistent and integrated system of ideas, values, and beliefs about who should get what, when, and how. While many Americans avoid labeling, preferring to call themselves "moderates," two major ideologies are prominent in American politics. Political elites who are more consistent in their political views are also more likely to describe their views in ideological terms.

Modern conservatism is a belief in free market capitalism, limited government, and individual self-reliance without government aid. Much of modern conservatism reflects values it shares with classic liberalism, discussed above. Conservative perspectives, different from classic liberalism, include pessimism about human nature, belief in the importance of strong law and order measures, and support for efforts to strengthen traditional institutions, such as families and churches. Although conservatives believe in limiting government in the economic sphere, they often favor strengthening government's power to regulate social conduct (restricting abortion, promoting school prayer, prohibiting pornography, and supporting the death penalty).

Modern liberalism is a belief in a strong government to provide economic security and protection for civil rights, combined with a belief in freedom from government intervention in social conduct. In its commitment to individual dignity, modern liberalism shares much with classic liberalism. It differs, however, in not viewing government as a negative force to be limited, but instead favors government action to end discrimination, reduce poverty, provide medical care for all, educate all, and protect the environment. Modern liberalism supports free markets, but it endorses government actions to mitigate what it sees as hardships associated with capitalism. Modern liberals also believe that individual dignity and true equality of opportunity to some extent rest on government action to limit extreme inequalities of income. On social issues, liberals often favor the right to choose abortion, support homosexual rights, oppose the death penalty, support civil liberties for all (even those accused of crimes), and strong liberals may even favor decriminalization of "victimless" crimes like smoking marijuana.

Age apparently plays a role in ideology. Younger adults typically hold more liberal views while older adults claim to be more conservative.

Dissent in the United States

Dissent from the principal elements of American individualism, free enterprise, democracy, and equality of opportunity has arisen from both the right and the left. Radicals on each end of the spectrum are extremists who reject democratic politics, compromise and coalition building. Conspiracy theories run rampant among extremists; Richard Hofstadter refers to this as "paranoid style of politics." These extremists are very intolerant of other views and can be prone to violence.

Dissent can include antidemocratic ideologies like fascism (belief in the supremacy of the state or race over individuals), Marxism (belief a working class revolution should, and will, overthrow capitalism), communism (authoritarian single-party rule in the alleged interests of the working class), and socialism (seeks democratically and peacefully to replace capitalism with an egalitarian order).

Some have argued that the collapse of communism and the worldwide movement toward free markets and democracy in the late twentieth century have led to an "end of history," making irrelevant all those ideologies focused on issues surrounding capitalism. However, these trends do not spell an end to ideology since capitalism does not automatically ensure democracy or other values of the American political culture, conflict over which can, and does continue. This continuing conflict is evidenced, for instance, in the debate over "politically correct" (PC) thinking, a form of academic radicalism which views America as racist, sexist, and homophobic, requiring correction in curriculum, books, and the media to assure racial, gender, and sexual choice sensitivity

Chapter Objectives

After mastering the concepts in this chapter, you will be able to

• Define and differentiate political culture, beliefs, and values.
• Explain why shared political culture does not eliminate political conflict.
• Describe classic liberalism with reference to John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Adam Smith.
• Identify the different meanings of equality and show how they involve dilemmas, as described in the text.
• Trace trends in income and wealth inequality in twentieth-century America.
• Trace trends in social mobility, relating this to the issue of class conflict.
• Give a brief history of U.S. immigration policy.
• Compare and contrast modern liberalism and modern conservatism with each other, and with classical liberalism.
• Discuss dissent in the United States with reference to its historical roots.
• Distinguish areas where liberals favor limited government from areas where they favor government action.
• Distinguish areas where conservatives favor limited government from areas where they favor government action.
• Define and differentiate fascism, Marxism, Leninism, communism, and socialism.
• Explain Francis Fukuyama’s “end of history” thesis.