4.10 - Ideology and Social Policy

Conservatives

• Security and justice: favor more defense spending, more police, and tougher punishment of crime, sometimes at the expense of due process protections. More likely to oppose drug decriminalization.

• Personal freedom and tradition: support restricting personal freedoms to protect traditional values, generally pro-life on abortion.

• Education: support school voucher programs, letting families use public funds for private or religious school tuition.

• Liberty vs. order: favor order and security on social issues, freedom on economic issues.

• Federalism: prefer less federal involvement in areas like education and public health, leaving it to the states.

Liberals

• Security and justice: favor less defense spending, prioritize protecting individual and civil rights and the rights of the accused, and generally support decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana.

• Personal freedom and tradition: prioritize individual freedom over traditional values, supporting LGBTQ rights and broader civil rights. Generally pro-choice on abortion.

• Education: strong supporters of public education, often opposing vouchers for reducing public school funding and potentially violating the Establishment Clause.

• Liberty vs. order: favor order on economic issues, freedom on social issues.

• Federalism: prefer more federal involvement in areas like education and public health, favoring consistent nationwide policy.

Libertarians

• Security and justice: favor dramatically reduced defense spending, strongly protect individual rights and due process, follow a "live and let live" philosophy, and favor decriminalizing victimless crimes, including legalizing all drugs.

• Education: favor privatizing education, arguing government schools have an unhealthy monopoly, and want to expand family choice.

• Liberty vs. order: always choose liberty.

• Federalism: prefer minimal government at any level, just enough to protect liberty and property rights.

Connections to Required Cases and Documents

• Brown v. Board of Education (1954): the Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation in public schools violates the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, ending "separate but equal" in public education. It's the classic example of the national government (first the Court, later federal troops and civil rights laws) stepping into education, an area usually run by the states, to protect equal rights. That's the kind of national involvement liberals generally favor. Many Southern states resisted, arguing schools were a state matter.

• Engel v. Vitale (1962): the Court ruled 6-1 that a prayer written by New York state officials and recited in public schools violated the Establishment Clause, even though it was voluntary and nondenominational. Liberals generally support keeping government-sponsored religion out of public schools, while many social conservatives want more room for religious expression in schools, so the case still comes up in school prayer debates.

• Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972): the Court ruled that Wisconsin couldn't force Amish children to attend school past eighth grade, because it violated their families' right to free exercise of religion. It limits state power over education when it clashes with religious liberty, which fits the libertarian and conservative emphasis on parents' rights and limits on government.

• Schenck v. United States (1919): the Court upheld limits on anti-draft speech during World War I as a "clear and present danger," a case of the government limiting individual liberty for the sake of order and security (details in 4.8).

• Federalist No. 10 (1787): Madison argued that a faction might take over one state, but in a large republic it would be "unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States." The same question drives today's federalism debate on social issues: liberals often want national rules so rights and services don't depend on which state you live in, while conservatives prefer leaving issues to the states, where policy can match local views.

Policy Trends Follow Party Success

• Education: the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, backed by Republican President George W. Bush and many Democrats, expanded the federal role by requiring states to test students in reading and math every year in grades 3 through 8 and hold schools accountable for the results. After complaints from both sides about too much federal control, the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015), passed by a Republican Congress and signed by President Obama, replaced it and gave much of that control back to the states.

• Health care: with Democrats in control of Congress and the presidency, the Affordable Care Act (2010) greatly expanded the national government's role in health insurance. After Republicans won control of both in the 2016 elections, they tried to repeal it in 2017. Repeal failed in the Senate by one vote, but the 2017 tax law cut the penalty for not having health insurance to $0 starting in 2019.

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