Term
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Definition
Non-repression in schools
Banning books etc. is repressive: stops students from understanding alternative points of view.
Wants a "democratic civil religion" that accommodates numerous systems of belief but supports deliberation |
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Term
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Definition
"Repressive nondiscrimination" (for instance, hiring top candidate even if doing so contributes to a system of inequality)
"Discriminatory non-repression" (including issues of social and group equality in choices about hiring, etc. Think affirmative action.)
In cases where it's on the fence, side with discriminatory no-nrepression. |
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Term
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Definition
How should we distribute schooling?
Options: Maximization (as much as possible!), equalization (everyone to the same level) and meritocracy. In order to prepare everyone for democratic society, she recommends equalization up to some democratically decided threshold and then meritocracy above that. |
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Term
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Definition
1) "Democratic authorization principle: grants authority to democratic institutions to determine the priority of education relative to other social goods"
2) "Democratic threshold principle: nondiscretionary requirement that democratic institutions allocate resources to give every child the education needed to participate in democratic processes." |
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Term
| Alinsky 1 (means and ends) |
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Definition
| Means and Ends are relative, as is morality. |
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Term
| Alinsky's Rules of Means and Ends: |
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Definition
1) "One's concern with the ethics of means and ends varies inversely with one's personal interest in
the issue"
2)"The judgment of the ethics of means and ends is dependent upon the political position of those
sitting in judgment"
3)"In war the end justifies almost any means"
4)"Judgment must be made in the context of the times in which the action occurred and not from any
other chronological vantage point"
5) "Concern with ethics increases with the number of means available and vice versa"
6)"The less important the end to be desired, the more one can afford to engage in ethical evaluations
of means"
7) "Generally success or failure is a major determinant of ethics"
8) "The morality of a means depends upon whether the means is being employed at a time of imminent
defeat or imminent victory"
9)"Any effective means is automatically judged by the opposition as being unethical"
10) "You do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments" |
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Term
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Definition
| Radicals love everyone. Have often been associated with labor movement, though labor is flawed. Radicals recognize the need for power, liberals avoid it. |
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Term
| Democracy as action (like Foucault) |
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Definition
| “Democracy is a way of life and not a formula to be ‘preserved’ like jelly. It is a process—a vibrant, living sweep of hope and progress which constantly strives for the fulfillment of its objective in life—the search for truth, justice, and the dignity of man. There can be no democracy unless it is a dynamic democracy. When our people cease to participate—to have a place in the sun—then all of us will wither in the darkness of decadence. All of us will become mute, demoralized, lost souls” (Alinsky, 47). |
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Term
| Alinsky: People's movements |
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Definition
| People's movements must have unlimited programs |
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Term
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Definition
"Democracy has been intellectually accepted but emotionally rejected as the powerful fear the
capacities of the masses." -David's summary |
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Term
| Arendt: (Chapter 4, Totalitarianism) |
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Definition
| Totalitarianism is: constantly moving, classes become masses. Semi-darwinian "Law of Nature" or "Law of History." |
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Term
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Definition
| Terror destroys the space between people, destroying negative liberty |
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Term
| Arendt: Totalitarian education and convictions |
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Definition
"The aim of totalitarian education has never been to instill convictions but to destroy the capacity to
form any" |
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Term
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Definition
Ideology is "the logic of an idea"
Ideological thinking creates a "truer" reality, using propaganda to develop a sort of "sixth sense"
and "emancipate thought from experience and reality"
"The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced
Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between true and false no
longer exist" |
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Term
| Arendt: Loneliness, solitude, and isolation |
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Definition
Isolation - characterized by powerlessness and inaction in the political realm
Loneliness - extends not only to the political realm, but the world as a whole. Characterized by a feeling
of superfluousness and meaninglessness. The lonely man loses a sense of himself and is loneliest around
others
Solitude - being alone with oneself |
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Term
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Definition
We should stand by our beliefs, let politics inform metaphysics and not the other way around. There's value in debate even if we don't know what truth is.
Political knowledge is "provisional" and ever-changing. There are no correct or incorrect positions on issues that politics is concerned with. "There are only alternative visions that compete for community acceptance." |
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Term
| Barber: Why strong democracy? |
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Definition
| Takes agenda setting role away from elites, mutuality (think self interest rightly understood), increases empathy, communal strength/autonomy, self-expression,etc. |
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Term
| Barber: Paradoxes of democracy: |
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Definition
Preferences are incommensurable, but ranked. This is more legit with strong democracy.
Representative gov. leads to fragmentation, we all get caught up in our particular identities instead of what he views as a metaidentity of citizenship. |
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Term
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Definition
In America, civic culture is passive, like a watchdog; government is accountable to citizens, but is
not a citizen composition.
Thin democracy leaves people as they are found, but strong democracy transforms individuals. |
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Term
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Definition
Learn through practice: unlike in thin democracy, in strong democracy “knowledge follows rather than
precedes political engagement: give people some significant power and they will quickly
appreciate the need for knowledge, but foist knowledge on them without giving them
responsibility and they will display only indifference.” |
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Term
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Definition
Harsh despotism means “cruel rule by a tyrant, the abnegation of freedom”
Soft despotism means “the gradual assumption of all meaningful decisions by a ‘schoolmaster’ government” |
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Term
| Berger on Tocqueville: Withdrawal from society |
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Definition
| Tocqueville focuses on four factors underlying individuals’ decisions to withdraw from society: equality, materialism, individualism, and isolation |
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Term
| Berger on Tocqueville: Energy, attention, long-term perspective |
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Definition
Energy requires attention, both of which require long-term perspective
Tocqueville pairs freedom with life and movement with existence |
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Term
| Berger on Tocqueville: Instrumental benefits of engagement |
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Definition
| when citizens choose to actively engage with one another on meaningful community projects, they accumulate power that can hedge against both domestic and foreign menaces. |
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Term
| Berger on Tocqueville: controlling citizen energy |
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Definition
Collective energy must be “limited, circumscribed, and directed” (96) lest it descend into “entropy.”
o Three ways to rein in collective energy:
Laws and political organizations
Customs and mores
Religious institutions |
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Term
| Berger on Tocqueville: Attention and Tastes |
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Definition
Attention galvanizes energy and catalyzes action, but tastes predispose citizens to attend to certain topics.
o Citizens have only a limited attentional capacity, so they must restrict their attention to a select number of issues.
Tastes can be molded! Local action (think Alinsky)
Though harnessing attention and energy is important, individuals who hope to encourage engagement must look to tastes as the root cause of these two important concepts. |
|
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Term
| Berger on Tocqueville: Equality and disengagement |
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Definition
Social equality spawns political disengagement by encouraging individualism and isolation.
o Equality promotes materialism, which further promotes isolation.
o Materialism undermines the three tenets of Tocqueville’s political philosophy: perspective, energy, and attention. |
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Term
| Berger: Engagement and Sex |
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Definition
| Engagement is like sex: people do it for different reasons, and ideally a society would have not too much and not too little. |
|
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Term
| Berger: is engagement intrinsically or instrumentally good? |
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Definition
Republican theorists: only a select few are equipped to glean the intrinsic benefits of a civic life.
Examples: Arendt, Aristotle, Machiavelli
Arguments favoring political engagement as an intrinsic good largely focus on engagement, though they rarely specify the form that that engagement should take. (Moral, social, political)
Calling civic engagement a civic duty blames disengaged communities. Coerced engagement doesn't lead to democratic legitimacy. |
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Term
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Definition
Participation is an instrumental good, and we should look for a baseline, not a maximum. But political engagement isn't absolutely necessary, especially if we have high levels of moral or social engagement.
Responsive Institutions are important!
Look at interests, which drive attention and energy. |
|
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Term
| Berger: Should we use coercive means to increase engagement? |
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Definition
No.
Coerced engagement doesn't lead to democratic legitimacy, and would disproportionately hurt disadvantaged communities.
Education, greater access to political resources, and more power at the local level are better tools for minimizing disengagement. |
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Term
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Definition
German citizens were disillusioned with unresponsive gov. Became highly insular, but highly participatory.
"Many of the consequences of associationism stressed by neo-Tocquevillean scholars-- providing individuals with political and social skills, creating bonds between citizens, facilitating mobilization, decreasing barriers to collective action--can be turned to antidemocratic ends as well as to democratic ones. " |
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Term
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Definition
Strong local democratic practices are cool! Good for Chicago schools!
Helps to have strong leadership and community buy-in. |
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Term
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Definition
Voters are selectively rational, and tend to rationalize, especially when the cost of doing so is lower than the cost of sticking with beliefs that don't actually help us.
Miracle of aggregation assumes there aren't any systematic errors.
Rational ignorance lets us off too easily. It's just rational irrationality. (since the cost of our irrationality is so low at the margin).
“The market has a ‘user fee’ for irrationality, and democracy does not.”
Voting plays an expressive role.
Precisely because people put personal interests aside when they enter the political arena, intellectual errors readily blossom into foolish policies”
Test for economic literacy to vote, weigh certain people's votes more highly.
Thinks voters sway policy, while Verba, Hacker and Pierson think money sways policy. |
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Term
| Constant: Liberty of Ancients v liberty of moderns |
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Definition
Moderns basically have negative liberty, plus some representative government.
Ancients had positive liberty, but no personal freedom in the private realm. Collective but direct sovereignty.
We shouldn't confuse the two. |
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Term
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Definition
"The top .1% of income earners make 12.3% of the U.S. income, while the top .01% earns 6% of national income."
Real wages for most of us have only increased slightly, b/c of women entering workforce and increased work hours.
Tax rates on the top .01% have decreased from 75% in 1970 to 35% in 2004 |
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Term
| Hacker and Pierson: How has the gov. had an impact? |
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Definition
1) Treatment of Unions
2) Done nothing to curb executive pay
3) Taxes
4) Deregulation or lack of regulation of new financial products |
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Term
| Hacker and Pierson: Gov. is more responsive to rich |
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Definition
| “High degree of congruence between senator’s positions and the opinions of their constituents—at least when those constituents are in the top third of the income distribution. For constituents in the middle third of the income distribution, the correspondence is much weaker, and for those in the bottom third, it is actually negative” |
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Term
| Hibbing and Theiss-Morris (Stealth Democracy) |
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Definition
Stealth democracy: decision-making by objective, impartial elites.
Don't like the idea of joining more groups, since it doesn't lead to more confidence in Gov.
Deliberating more doesn't lead to better people, better decisions, etc.
Increased participation might actually decrease social capital.
When people encounter diversity they are less likely to participate in politics. When people work together, their trust in government and fellow citizens does not increase.
Debate can polarize, make people feel bad, People like decisions they think an expert made (supreme court)
“Why get people to participate if it just frustrates them and turns them away from politics?”
"Constitutional facts and impassioned pleadings to vote and to be good citizens are not the answer. A political system that people believe deals with relevant issues in a way that is no wired for the benefit of the decision makers is the answer. "
Give people a reason to be confident in politicians by removing self-interest from the job." |
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Term
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Definition
15th was written to allow disenfranchisement practices like literacy requirements.
"Debate raged between the House and the Senate, and eventually (because of time constraints and the failure of a conference committee to shave off the differences between narrow and broad proposals approved by the two houses) approved a version of Henry Wilson's proposition, which he himself called "half-loaf""
Wars were important... soldiers were expected to enjoy full citizenship rights.
Rift between suffragists and black voting rights activists
After civil rights act, racial redistricting became a big thing.
Civil Rights Act: 1957, 1960, 1964.
Voting Rights Act: 1965. |
|
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Term
| Kornhauser: Comparing mass, pluralist, communal, and totalitarian societies |
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Definition
Uniform and Fluid, populist, dissolving of all elites into non-elites.
In totalitarian society, standards are fixed by elites.
In mass society, people are self-alienated. Become one with the group.
Totalitarian society, ppl are self-alienated but group centered
four types of society:
1. Communal, which has low accessibility of elites and low availability of non-elites.
2. Pluralist, which has high accessibility of elites but low availability of non-elites.
3. Totalitarian, which has low accessibility of elites but high availability of non-elites.
4. Mass society, which has high accessibility of elites and high availability of non-elites. |
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Term
| Kornhauser: How conduct is regulated |
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Definition
o Communal society = honor and shame
o Mass society = suggestibility and anxiety
o Pluralist society = self-reliance and guilt
o Totalitarian society = submissiveness and fear |
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Term
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Definition
firm social relations and open/accessible institutions fosters a firm conception of self and stable personal identity
o "The state and society are conditions and means for individual well-being, rather than ends in themselves"
***Self-alienation in mass society lends itself extremely well to becoming a totalitarian
society*** |
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Term
| Kornhaouser: elite accessibility and social atomization |
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Definition
societal atomization and elite accessibility are both necessary for the formation of mass society, which is often irrational and unrestrained due to lack of individual capacity.
Available Non-Elites: Those without engagement with their work or local community are made available
for mass behavior.
Everyone relates to each other through a central authority. |
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Term
| Korhauser: Why should we support engagement? |
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Definition
| Because non-participation fosters mass movements and totalitarianism across all strata of society in times of crisis, as it undermines the democratic values of discussion, debate, negotiation and compromise during times of stability. |
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Term
| Kornhauser: Importance of intermediary groups (community, civil associations, etc.) |
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Definition
Intermediate groups serve the purposes of protecting elites from non-elites by helping to meet the latter’s needs, aid in the maintenance of general authority and
channel popular participation in a constructive manner.
Competition amongst these groups, whether economic, social or political, furthers plurality and helps resist elite imposition on non-elites by supporting liberal democracy. These groups are targeted by totalitarian regimes as enemies. |
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Term
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Definition
Unequal participation is a big problem:
-class bias
--politicians are more likely to respond to voters
-US turnout is way low, relative to other places
How to fix it?
-Weekend voting
-less frequent elections,combining big elections with smaller ones, so that more questions get addressed at once
-proportional representation
-easier registration
-HIS BIG THING: mandatory voting |
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Term
| Lijphart: Counterarguments |
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Definition
It forces people who have no political interest to vote. Lijphart claims this ignores the possibility that compulsory voting will entice people to be better informed. Also, parties have stronger incentive to pay attention and work harder to reach previous non-voters
High turnout can be a bad thing. In times of crisis, jumps in turnout mean citizens who never participated before will come out and support extremist groups. Lijphart says this is an argument for compulsory voting because it will maintain steady high levels.
Possibly unconstitutional, since voting is a form of speech. But you don't need to cast a ballot, just show up. |
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Term
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Definition
Voting sucks. No one knows enough, and it's boring, and it doesn't actually live up to its promises. Every country needs leaders, is led.
We're controlled by our emotions.
We only use majority rule so that the majority won't rise up. Voting is a substitute for warfare.
Best case scenario, the role of the public is to choose a leader in crisis situations
The public as a whole only cares that there is law, contract, and custom; it does not care what the contents of these forms are.
Public opinion should help generate general rules for society, leaving the specifics up to experts. |
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Term
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Definition
Disenfranchisement is a race thing: "States with larger proportions of nonwhites in their prison population were more likely to pass restrictive laws, even
after statistically controlling for the effects of time, region, economic competition between whites and blacks, partisan control of government, and punitiveness”
Even though fellons would likely vote less often than the rest of the population, they would vote disproportionately for democrats (not true from 1970s-2000)
Majority of citizen favor some restrictions on voting for felons but don’t support restricting voting rights for past offenders.
USA has WAY higher incarceration rates than other countries, more than 12 times higher than in Japan for instance.
2/3 of released fellons are rearrested within three years |
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Term
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Definition
suggests larger network of weak ties, over close networks.
Diverse networks discourage participation.
Like-minded networks promote and encourage political
discussion/participation (ex: anti-slavery movement, gay rights movement) but also has downsides (see
Weimar Germany). Meanwhile, heterogeneous networks have cross-cutting properties that decrease likelihood of dangerous polarization. Downside of this is that it could "also subdue enthusiasm for...desirable forms of participation" |
|
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Term
| Mutz: Cross-Cutting exposure |
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Definition
"Low levels of cross-cutting exposure characterize those who generally have higher status in life: whites, those with high incomes levels and high levels of formal education."
The more you know about politics, the less likely you are to talk politics with people you disagree with.
the workplace is the arena in which the most cross-cutting political conversation takes place
The more exposure you have to other people's views in your network, the more tolerant you tend to be |
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Term
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Definition
| "Although bridging and bonding social capital are typically described as subspecies of a single concept, the conditions likely to promote bonding social capital may be precisely the opposite of those that facilitate bridging social capital." |
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Term
| Mutz democratic detraction |
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Definition
| Mutz agrees with Hibbing and Theiss-Morse on the fact that deliberation over divisive issues does not always happen/have positive effects. But she thinks we should practice to get better at it. |
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Term
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Definition
Cross-cutting exposure can increase tolerance, but it also decreases activism. (You want to preserve your social network, and hearing other ppl's beliefs makes us less sure in our own).
Americans have developed a system for maintaining a healthy system of political plurality being compatible with social harmony by placing politics outside the social sphere
advocates promoting greater heterogeneity because homogenous networks form on their own and do not need encouragement |
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Term
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Definition
Job Enlargement: giving workers more control over their environments. Should make them more dedicated, empowered, etc.
Composite systems don't have rigid division of labor:
"Productivity is higher under composite longwall systems, and there are lower costs, higher work satisfaction, better interpersonal relations, and greater social health."
pseudo, partial, and full participation.
Democratization of industry scales up: laborers will be more participatory in other areas too. |
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Term
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Definition
TV is bad. All entertainment, no critical thought. No real fact-checking, fragmented, decontextualized.
He thinks we can correct for the effects if only we know about them... ha. |
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Term
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Definition
Social trust is important! Linked with economic growth, social capital, engagement, etc. Ppl are also more likely to act morally if they trust the ppl around them.
We're less trusting now than 5 decades ago.
They blame this on materialism, which does correlate negatively with trust. Materialism doesn't vary along economic lines.
Religion decreases materialism. |
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Term
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Definition
Attempting to equalize voice in order to equalize schooling.
Schools can train students and families to be participatory.
Co-construction, building alliances and partnerships.
Alliances are potential building blocks of social movements. |
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Term
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Definition
Texas IAF is badass! Alliance initiative.
Worked with parents. Raised test scores (took more time in high school) but also had a ton of less tangible impacts on the community. |
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Term
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Definition
The old voluntary organizations of the civil war era are gone. They were important identity markers, pretty egalitarian economically, political, and broadly participatory.
Most voluntary organizations today are professional groups, or national organizations without members or chapters. (7). The other major change is that voluntary associations are no longer thought of as something on a par with or related to political life (8)
“American civic voluntarism was never predominantly local and never flourished apart from national government and politics. […] Americans joined and led voluntary associations not merely to interact with friends and neighbors and solve local problems but also so as to reach out to fellow citizens of a vast republic and build the organizational capacity to shape national culture and politics”
Boom in national groups after civil war
Growth of welfare state didn't kill civic organizations: many of them pushed for welfare provisions, and then grew as they helped to implement them.
Democratic governance and civic organizations have historically gone hand in hand. (civic organizations were also often modeled on federal gov.). |
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Term
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Definition
Poverty and the ghetto: not "culture of poverty," but deindustrialization and hyper-ghettoization.
Joblessness and economic exclusion are structural, not cultural |
|
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Term
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Definition
What's the best governmental system? Considers socialism, polis democracy/communitarianism, capitalism, nationalism, and, his favorite, critical associationalism.
Critical associationalism is a frame in which all the others can coexist, the best elements of each.
“Here is the paradox of the civil society argument. Citizenship is one of many roles that members play, but the state itself is unlike all the other associations. It both frames civil society and occupies space within it.”
Citizens can't be entirely participatory, but they should be sometimes.
Prescribes: socialize economy, decentralize government, pluralize nationalism (whatever that means) |
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Term
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Definition
Participatory distortion. Participation can require money, skills, and time. Civic Voluntarism Model.
Type of participation is key: information rich v. information poor.
Political activity increases with income. Lowest income averages 1 political act (voting) vs. highest income average 3.
Voting is most egalitarian, wealthy are most likely to protest.
Though poor are less likely to become politically active, among those who do there's sweat equity. Inequality is much more pronounced for money than time, across the board.
Voters and general public are almost the same, but voters are a little bit more conservative
Though most communication (esp among the poor) is about basic human needs, the people communicating are not the disadvantaged but in fact a smaller group of advantaged activists, generally much more conservative on average than the poor. |
|
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Term
|
Definition
| Time is more equitably distributed, and most people have approximately the same amount of free time (whites and ppl who never finished high school a little more). Money is much more elastic, with white men having much more. |
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Term
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Definition
Believed that the wealthy would choose to avoid politics, because they are outnumbered and would rather focus on private life.
The free press is important, though poorly achieve in America. Keeps ideas in circulation, and allows people to have more developed opinions since they can choose them freely.
While Americans are naturally independent, they band together to get things done when necessary. |
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Term
| Tocqueville on public expenses and corruption |
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Definition
| Democracies are more succeptable to corruption since officials aren't rich. Expenses are higher since 1) poor advocate for higher tax rates (they don't pay taxes) and 2) the gov changes direction more often. |
|
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Term
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Definition
| Frequent elections are inefficient, but make revolution less likely. The rich don't tend to be elected. |
|
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Term
| Tocqueville on associations |
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Definition
Minorities form associations to: Break the moral authority of the majority, show their numbers, and stimulate change. Freedom of association is super super important to him.
Associations are necissary since democratic citizens are powerless alone. The government cannot take over the role of associations since this will squash them, so it must foster them instead: "Government that goes beyond politics risks becoming tyrannical, since “it is never
easy to tell the difference between its advice and its commands” |
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Term
|
Definition
American laws are often badly created, even though the aim behind them is for the good of the people.
Legislators work for the majority, because they are of the majority. |
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Term
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Definition
“Civic spirit inseparable from the exercise of political rights.”
civil and political involvement described as “continual agitation”. This vibrant political life becomes a part of civil society, the “greatest” advantage of democracy by making people more enlightened and active
Majority is highly respected... Americans lack a freedom of spirit that Europeans posses, b/c they fear going against the majority |
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Term
| Tocqueville on democratic strengths: |
|
Definition
people are enlightened and active b/c/ of civil society.
Majority is respected above any individual
frequent elections
administrative power is decentralized, while governmental power isn't.
Lawyers are powerful, respected, and are "the strongest barriers against the faults of democracy:" they are anti-revolutionary, respect law, a sort of aristocracy.
America's position is based first on mores, then laws, then physical circumstances (abundant resources, no need for strong military)
Religion is important: creates restraint, and denomination doesn't really matter. |
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Term
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Definition
Racial prejudice will stay with us forever, and is stronger in the north since the Southern whites don't worry about equality. In the South idleness is became a virtue among the whites, squashing econ. Predicts war between the races.
In considering the South I see only
two alternatives for the white people living there: to free the Negroes and to mingle with
them or to remain isolated from them and keep them as long as possible in slavery.” |
|
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Term
| Tocqueville on Equality and Liberty |
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Definition
Americans love equality more than liberty. Each one can cause problems when taken to the extreme, but liberty's problems are more obvious so less dangerous.
Americans have a taste for liberty, but a passion for equality. Neither freedom nor despotism can be maintained without equality, since equality severs lines of obligation between people. |
|
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Term
| Tocqueville on Individualism and Egoism |
|
Definition
Individualism (the thoughtful withdrawal into family and friends) leads to egoism (self-love).
Since in democracy our social positions and responsibilities are not as determined as they are in aristocracy, we don't feel impelled to stick with our community if we don't want to. Our place is not pre-determined, so we feel free to leave if we don't like it. |
|
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Term
| Tocqueville on Despotism: |
|
Definition
Americans protect themselves from despotism through free associations and liberty.
Liberty: people gain liberty through responsibility for local affairs. This responsibility makes association necessary, and prompt the development of habits of and tastes for engagement.
liberty functions to channel self-interest into pro-social actions and norms, which
ultimately becomes so routine and natural that “calculation becomes instinct” and society has, in a deep sense, become more benevolent
• So liberty is the remedy to the evils generated by equality |
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Term
| Tocqueville on love of physical pleasures: |
|
Definition
In democracy, everyone dreams of being rich. This weakens us. Americans are infatuated with the idea of getting rich. Because of equality, small differences seem more real and we want to get ahead.
There's a danger that our desire to get ahead will drive us away from public associations. If all ambition is channeled into industry, then one person can take control of goverment and get away with it as long as industry is happy. |
|
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Term
|
Definition
| Religion is important, because it detracts from materialism and helps us focus on the long-term. |
|
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Term
|
Definition
In democracy, the rich are not necessarily rulers, and in fact may be barred from rule by their very wealth. Having time and resources at their disposal, they are impelled to put them to some end, and this end is commerce.
This makes Americans vulnerable to economic crises.
Also, division of labor separates workmen from masters, creating a new aristocracy, with none of the old obligations.
This industrial phenomenon is the only force threatening a return to aristocracy. |
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Term
|
Definition
Fewer participants means less representative engagement.
voting participation and class inequality (in participation) are strongly and negatively linked. |
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