A Weakening Bedrock of American Political Culture

In a changing country, a shared set of political norms and values are extremely important in maintaining national cohesiveness and unity. Within the fourth chapter of the reading, Greenberg and Page identify key features that make up the core beliefs and political culture of the United States. These features include

Individualism
Distrust of Government
Belief in Democracy & Freedom
Populist
Religious

The textbook does a strong job in explaining how the aforementioned traits have shaped American political culture up to today. It makes one key point that is worth a closer examination

“It is fair to say, nevertheless, that most Americans believe in democracy as a general principle and take seriously any claim that their behavior is not consistent with it” (Greenberg and Page, 108)

Looking at rhetoric of presidential campaigns that reiterate the importance of a peaceful transfer of power and civic participation in democracy, one can see why Greenberg and Page believe that democratic ideals is a core belief of American civic life. Since the election of 1800, the loser has always conceded to the winner and the outgoing administration helped ensure the smooth transfer of power from one president to the next.

Recent evidence contradicts the claim that most Americans believe in democracy as an essential part of life within the United States. This is mainly due to a decline in trust seen throughout all American institutions. In fact, younger generations place less importance on living in a democracy compared to previous generations.

Statistical evidence indicates that only 30% of Americans born in the 1980’s or later place maximal importance on living in a democracy. Compared to the 72% of Americans born before World War II who place maximal importance on living in a democracy, this indicates that younger generations are moving away from the democratic ideals that form the political culture in the United States. Researchers also found that 1 in 6 Americans said that army rule would be a good or very good thing in 2014 compared to only 1 in 16 Americans who said the same thing in 1995. 23% of millennials in the United States today agree with the statement that a democratic political system is a bad way to run the country. A generational apathy gap is also present as more and more younger Americans are tuning out and not getting involved in the democratic process. More data suggests that 32% of all Americans believe that a strong leader who does have to deal with parliament or elections if preferential to a democracy.

Although the number of Americans with illiberal attitudes is still a minority in civic life, it is still an extremely concerning trend that has the potential to upend longstanding political beliefs and norms. This indicates that the government is failing to do its job in preserving institutional trust between generations. A working democratic government would not have a sizable minority of voters that prefer illiberal forms of government. Without any course corrections by democracies, the number of apathetic citizens who are willing to experiment with illiberal forms of government will only rise. The core beliefs and the political culture that make up America are only as strong as Americans faith in said beliefs and norms.

Margaret Castelli says:

September 26, 2017 at 12:43 pm

Very interesting points in your post, I really like your examination of statistical evidence. However, though the idea that many Americans are feeling negatively toward a democratic government doesn’t mean that they want all rights taken away. This is clearly evidenced by the widespread popularity of Senator Bernie Sanders. Senator Sanders openly calls himself a “socialist,” which would fall under your statistics of not thinking that a democratic form of government is the best for our nation. However, Senator Sanders and many Americans who think little of our democracy are not proposing the complete removal of our constitution and our rights. They are just looking at other, extremely successful semi-socialist countries such as Finland, Denmark, and Canada, and seeing how we have room for improvement.
As we discussed in class on Tuesday, there is a major income gap present in the United States due to a lack of a class-based revolution at our country’s origin. Some countries, such as the United Kingdom, have more socialism in their system to prevent inequalities in things like income, healthcare, school status, and more. I believe that the majority of these Americans saying, “a democratic political system is a bad way to run the country” are not saying that democracy is all bad, just that it needs some improvement.

Christopher Barry says:

September 26, 2017 at 11:27 pm

I find it very interesting how you mentioned the growth of differences in political culture and how government is viewed in regards to generations. A point that could further show the significance is by analyzing the effects of generational differences. When mentioning generational differences, it is imperative to look at the effects of generational differences from a broad unity angle and a political culture angle. Both angles have reverberating results on our political system. As older generations start to age and become less relevant, a new generation takes political power and with it has its own views and perspective on government. But what happens when there seems to be a drastic difference in political culture and beliefs as you pointed out? By looking at history, we can glean some information. For instance, the Vietnam War, on the domestic side, demonstrated the conflict between an older generation that has fought and a more reluctant and distrusting newer generation. It resulted in violent clashes and disunity among Americans as they tried to adapt to a changing political culture with its new stance on familiar stapes of American political culture. Now, looking at today, we are starting to see a similar situation. Our current clash between the generations is having drastic effects. First, as the government tries to deal with the conflicting generational interests, the respective generations are disappointed and angry that the government is representing their specific views and thus creating deep divisions. Second, each generation has a different perspective on the American political culture. As you pointed out, our generation is very different in how it views the American political culture in comparison to previous generations. There is a push and pull between each generation and their “political culture” and interests being represented, causing a significant conflict in the concept of representation. Even though millennials are starting to take over in terms of the electorate, the older generations still have a major pull and representation in the government.