Preface

The original title we proposed for this book was The Accidental Citizen. It was inspired by Anne Tyler’s award-winning novel and, like her fictional character who writes guidebooks for business travelers who would rather stay home, we proposed a book for people who prefer to avoid politics but who end up voting out of a sense of civic duty. This approach works well for our students, mostly non-political science majors compelled to take an introductory course in American government to complete a general education requirement. For these students and others, we offer a comprehensive assessment of the American political system to help citizens understand and participate effectively in democratic governance without an unreasonable expenditure of time and effort.

Inspiring active civic engagement, which is a major goal of this book, has a long history. At the turn of the nineteenth century, Progressive Movement reformers sought to wrest control of government from political parties whose power was based on personal and ethnic loyalties, reinforced by political favoritism and patronage. The replacement values were objective, impersonal moral standards with an orientation toward the larger community. These principles were to be taught in the newly created public schools as a means of indoctrinating the children of immigrants. The result of this effort is the idealized civics-book citizen: a rational, objective individual, who closely follows political events, understands the workings of public policy, and who grasps the true consequences of his or her decisions. As we mention in our first chapter, however, the problem with this notion is that it assigns rather heroic characteristics to average people who, like our students, would rather be doing or learning something that can be more directly used to improve their individual lives or career prospects.

Because we were taught to view civic engagement as it should be rather than how it actually works, we are led toward an unrealistic understanding of the incentives and capacities of ordinary citizens and away from an appreciation for how political institutions (like campaigns, parties, and public interest groups) help voters by providing free and accessible information and cues to make participation cost effective. It is this cost-effective and realistic approach to politics that is at the heart of this text.

One of the most difficult challenges of teaching an introductory course in American politics lies in the fact that no robust, theoretically based framework has been developed to integrate the various parts of the discipline into an understandable whole. Approaches based on systems theory and political culture were deemed excessively vague. Pluralism was forsaken as naively optimistic. Since the 1960s, American political science has been practiced in sub-disciplines. Presidential scholars have developed their own theories somewhat separately from those who study Congress. Those who study interest groups, political parties, public opinion, voting behavior, the judiciary, the media, and the bureaucracy have done much the same. The result is a fine grained and nuanced understanding of the parts of the American political system,  but only rough notions about how it works together. Some textbook writers, seeking to integrate American politics for their readers, have adopted the old systems and political culture frameworks. Others take the theories developed in the sub-disciplines at their face, but only within each chapter. Still others discard a theoretical framework altogether in favor of pure description. In our view, the result of all these attempts is the same–the student is unable to relate one part of the system with others because the framework is imprecise or missing, or the theoretical basis of one chapter is incompatible with the others.

We attempt to integrate the American political system through the idea of self-interest, a common and accepted theory of individual behavior used across the social sciences. It is well developed, scientifically defensible, and cutting-edge. We understand, however, that rational action by itself does not explain all political behavior; thus, the full range of influences, institutions, history, and culture are integrated to convey an understanding of the American political system.

Beyond theory, the organization of the text is an important tool in conveying the notion that the system operates as a cohesive whole. We begin with the overall legal framework, starting with the Constitution, its origins, and its key features. We follow with fundamental elements of the Constitution in chapters on federalism, civil liberties, and civil rights to provide an understanding of the rules by which the games of government and politics are played.

The heart of the text is a bottom-up or “individual-up” view of the political system. Like other democracies, our system attempts to put ordinary citizens in control by connecting the self-interests of voters to the careers of leaders who want to maintain power. In chapters on public opinion, citizen participation, and voting,  we show how cognitive or collective action problems lead many to free-ride on the work of others, either not participating at all or voting with scant information. We acknowledge that most citizens have little reason to bear the costs associated with being a civics-book citizen. The implication is that citizens need help in the form of linking institutions to control their leaders. The following chapters on political parties, interest groups, and the media illuminate how these institutions join citizens to each other and their representatives, making participation cost effective. Because they have the potential to increase the influence of average citizens, we argue that many of their functions are underappreciated. Chapters on Congress and the presidency offer important details on how these institutions work to provide, or fail to provide, representation. The courts, on the other hand, work to keep the various institutions in balance and provide individual justice as envisioned by the Constitution. The two chapters on domestic and foreign policy provide insight into what the government does and how it accomplishes its goals. Lastly, two features at the end of each chapter summarize the chapter’s main points, help readers critically assess its implications, and challenge readers to imagine how our institutions can be rearranged to make the system more democratic.