4.1 - American Attitudes About Government and Politics

Shared Core Values

• Rule of Law: no one, no matter how rich or powerful, is above the law. It's meant to be the great equalizer, though the reality often falls short of that ideal.
• Case connection, Marbury v. Madison (1803): the Court struck down part of the Judiciary Act of 1789 and established judicial review, the power of courts to strike down laws and actions that violate the Constitution. That means Congress and the president are bound by the Constitution like everyone else, which is rule of law applied to the government itself.

• Limited Government: nearly everyone agrees the government shouldn't be all-powerful, though there's real disagreement over exactly how much power the Constitution gives the federal government versus the states.

Debated Core Values

• Individualism: the idea that each person is responsible for themselves, free to make their own choices and live with the consequences. Some interpret this as full self-reliance; others think it still includes shared responsibility toward fellow citizens.
• Effect on views of government: people who read individualism as full self-reliance usually want lower taxes and fewer government programs, so people keep more of what they earn and make their own choices. People who see it as including shared responsibility are more open to a safety net, like unemployment insurance, that helps people get back on their feet.

• Equality of Opportunity: everyone should have a fair chance to compete and succeed, though not necessarily an equal outcome. The debate is over what counts as "equal opportunity," just removing barriers, or actively helping some people catch up (tied to the affirmative action debate).
• Effect on views of government: the "remove barriers" side wants government to ban discrimination, like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does in hiring, and then step back. The "help people catch up" side also supports programs like Head Start (preschool for low-income kids) and Pell Grants (college aid for low-income students).

• Free Enterprise: people should be free to buy, sell, and choose their own careers. The debate is over how much government regulation belongs in that system.
• Where it comes from: Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations (1776). The CED defines free enterprise with Smith's ideas: pursuit of self-interest, competition, efficient allocation of resources, and limited government regulation of the market. Each one is explained in the next section.
• Effect on views of government: some people want government mostly out of the market. Others want rules like minimum wage laws, antitrust laws, and consumer protections to keep the market fair.

Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations (1776)

• Pursuit of self-interest: people working for their own benefit end up serving others too. In Smith's words, "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." The baker makes good bread to earn a living, not out of kindness, and everyone gets fed anyway.

• The invisible hand: a person who "intends only his own gain" is "led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention." Millions of private choices add up to an economy that serves society, without a government planner running it.

• Competition: sellers competing for customers keep prices down and quality up. Smith warned that monopolies, including ones the government handed out, let sellers charge "much above the natural price."

• Efficient allocation of resources: when people want more of something, its price rises, which draws more workers and money into making it. When demand falls, those resources move somewhere more useful. Smith also showed how the division of labor (each worker specializing in one step, like in his pin factory example) makes production far more efficient.

• Limited government regulation: Smith called his ideal the "system of natural liberty," where every person, "as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way." Government still has three duties: defending the country, running a justice system that protects people from "the injustice or oppression" of others, and building public works and institutions (like roads, bridges, and schools) that no private person could profit from building.

• 4.2, political culture: free enterprise is part of U.S. political culture, and through globalization the U.S. has spread free-market ideas to other countries.

• 4.8, policymaking: debates over how much to regulate business, like the minimum wage, antitrust, or environmental rules, are debates over how far to follow Smith's idea of limited regulation.

• 4.9, economic policy: libertarians are closest to Smith (government protects property rights and voluntary trade, and not much else), and conservatives lean his way with lower taxes and fewer regulations. Supply-side economics builds on his focus on production and free markets. Liberals argue the market needs more regulation to protect workers, consumers, and fairness, and Smith's own warnings about monopolies are sometimes used to support antitrust laws.

• Argument essays: use Smith as evidence for less government involvement in the economy, like tax cuts or fewer regulations on business. For the other side, note that even Smith gave government real jobs to do, and liberals argue that markets alone don't fix problems like pollution or monopolies.

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