4.8 Ideology and Policy Making
Widely held political ideologies shape policy debates and choices in American policies.
Explain how U.S. political culture (e.g., values, attitudes, and beliefs) influences the formation, goals, and implementation of public policy over time.
Because the U.S. is a democracy with a diverse society, public policies generated at any given time reflect the attitudes and beliefs of citizens who choose to participate in politics at that time.
The balancing dynamic of individual liberty and government efforts to promote stability and order has been reflected in policy debates and their outcomes over time.
American Ideology
American political thought is uniquely defined by its strong ties to classical liberalism from the eighteenth century, which sits at the core of its values. Other European political ideologies, such as Tory conservatism, Christian Democracy, socialism, communism, and fascism, have not significantly influenced the American political landscape. The absence of a feudal system meant that there was no aristocracy or peasantry; instead, Americans were considered 'born equal' under the law, avoiding the democratic revolutions that were typical in Europe. From the beginning, white adult males held the right to vote, while black individuals and women were excluded, even before the nation industrialized. As a result, political debates have mostly occurred within a broad 'liberal consensus.' This consensus is so strong that many Americans view themselves as non-ideological, identifying not as proponents of classical liberalism but simply as supporters of ‘Americanism.’ This sense of Americanism has become so prevalent that alternative views are often seen as undesirable, suspicious, and even ‘un-American.’
A key feature of the American Creed is its opposition to government authority. While many ideologies support existing power structures and institutions, the Creed challenges hierarchical, authoritarian, and coercive systems in both politics and the economy.
4.7 Ideologies of Political Parties
No American cultural icon personifies the powerful tensions inherent in Americanism more fully than Bruce Springsteen. In 1984, during a visit to New Jersey, President Reagan invoked Springsteen’s name behind his strongly conservative brand of Republicanism: You are what America is all about. You didn’t come here seeking streets paved with gold. You didn’t come here asking for welfare or special treatment. America’s future rests in a thousand dreams inside our hearts. It rests in the message of hope so many young people admire: New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make those dreams come true is what this job of mine is all about. The Born in the USA album had catapulted Springsteen into superstardom in 1984, the year of Reagan’s landslide re-election. Its visual impact – a regular, jeans and white T-shirt wearing blue-collar guy set against a backdrop of the Stars and Stripes – suggested the quintessential patriotic American. But the album’s lyrics did not so much celebrate as censure America for its adventurism in Vietnam, mass unemployment, industrial decay, poverty and racism. That both left and right could celebrate Springsteen as an icon pointed to the gap between the enduring promise of American ideals contrasted with their partial or unrealized achievement in practice. As Jim Cullen noted, ‘. . . it is the job of the artist to remind us of who we are. When I listen to Bruce Springsteen I remember how to be an American’ (1997: 202). It is difficult to imagine a comparable statement about remembering ‘how to be British’ or ‘how to be Australian’ through listening to popular music