American Political Culture

American culture has been referred to as a “melting pot.” Different cultures have added their own distinct aspects to society, making America a diverse country. Despite the plethora of cultures, certain norms, mores, and folkways are evident in American society. These ideas are vital to the function and stability of America. They provide guidelines for what is acceptable and not. In virtually every society, there are people who engage in deviant behavior and do not abide by the values that the rest of society follows. Theorists have debated if people are socialized into acting this way and if it is a social or personal problem. The sociological study of culture focuses on norms, mores, and folkways.

Chapter one of The American Political Tradition by Richard Hofstadter is centered on the Founding Fathers. The very beginning of the chapter says that the Constitutional Convention was trying to create a government that would pay debts and avoid currency inflation. The Democratic ideas that the Founding Fathers were so against appealed mostly to less privileged classes, and not at all to the higher classes. This chapter says that the Founding Fathers thought that if no constitutional balance were achieved, one specific class or would take over others. Three advantages of a good constitutional government were listed in this chapter as well. One: keep order against majority rule. Two: a representative government. Three: aristocracy and democracy

Kansas Political Culture Since the founding of the state of Kansas, the state has went through different phases of political culture. Political culture can provide us a look into the history of the state and justification as to why certain laws and regulations are passed in Kansas. The local level can often led to policy innovation and influence national policy.

Richard Hofstadter examines the political beliefs of the founding fathers in the first chapter of the American Political Tradition. Ideas thought about by most Americans to be the center of our organization, our founders viewed liberty, democracy, and property, as evil. The composition can be depicted to be vicious as well, because liberty, democracy, and property are linked to the United States Constitution.

Liberty is in inalienable right of each and every person, and is the pre-political concept that gives us intrinsic worth.

Canadian Political Culture, in a nation- state context, can be break down as beliefs and attitudes that Canadian have of political objects( Jackson, Politics in Canada.1994).

1. How can an understanding of the complexities of culture help us make sense of the day-to-day world which we live? Give an example from your life to illustrate your answer.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," says the Declaration of Independence. This phrase encompasses three major values shown throughout early American literature. The strong belief in religion, freedom, and a strong will for a better life. Each piece had one or more of these themes within them.

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” is a phrase nearly every American knows as being the three unalienable rights that cannot be revoked by the government. These self-evident truths first appeared in the Declaration of Independence, a document written to rid the United States from its torrid oppressors. Liberty, however, is the most important of the three, seeing as if American did not have it, residents would simply be slaves to their government and could not be truly free-thinking citizens.

     The third and most important value, I feel in America today, is morality. This is a tough subject to say weather or not a person is correct or if society is correct on their moral values. A person will only know in their heart if they are truly moral or not. Society has a set of morals that they set to live by in the world today and the moral values may change as everyday passes. That is that one good thing, I think, that society has an advantage over a single person. If society does not accept a value then society will gradually get rid of it and just the

Individualism and equality are two of America’s core values. These core values are the standards by which every American uses to distinguish what behavior are acceptable and what is not in the society in which we live in. It is these two values that our responsible for molding our personalities as well as our behaviors. I believe out of all the values the United States possess, individualism and equality are the two most important values to follow.

A culture can be defined as a way of life of a group of people- their behaviors, beliefs, values that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next. It also includes the customs, arts, literature, morals/values and traditions of a particular society or group (Virginia Encyclopedia). Culture can also be considered as a way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in places or organizations. This topic is of huge importance to our society mainly in the state of

The idea of political culture is found within the state’s history. The history of the state is impacted by the people settled in the region, religious backgrounds, and geography. The history of the state influences the attitudes and beliefs that people hold regarding their political system. Daniel Elazar theorized a connection between the states’ history and attitude towards government by explaining differences in government between states. Every state is different with some common ground. Elazar’s theory divides states into three types: moralistic, traditionalistic and individualistic. The state’s constitution defines the powers of government with political culture bias. Because of the state constitution, the political culture

In the American political culture many people have many different core values and ideals. In America even though many have different values and ideals, but the vast majority of Americans identify with general ideals of liberty, equality, democracy, individualism, unity, diversity, nationalism, capitalism, the rule of law, and civic duty. The meaning of liberty in America is basically giving the citizens the freedom to do what they want; Americans tend to believe its essential to happiness. Although it means giving people its freedom, there has to be limitation on how much freedom to maintain order in America. Equality is also an essential to the American political culture, it simply means that everyone should be treated the same under the law in America.

Liberty, equality and justice. Those three words are the values the United States was founded on. Over time the United States has struggled to abide by these values. However they try to promote them in schools, in court and in work. An African American and women do not have the same treatment as a Caucasian. In 1955, there was a trial for the murder of Emmett Till. The United States highlights these values but, fail to follow through with them.