Description
Preparing a survey of 10 questions,then interview anyone you want and transcribe the interview. Then conduct your survey on campus. Then write a reflection paragraph: What did you learn from writing the questions, conducting the interview, the interviewee’s answers? Were you surprised by anything?
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For this project you need to conduct an interview on the concept of the “political”. You
will be assigned a partner in our class.
You need to prepare a survey of 10 questions. The questions should be centered on
the concept of politics and citizenship. You MUST have one key term from this unit in
each question.
For example: What it means to be political? What it means to be a citizen?
You can interview anyone you want, a friend, teacher, family member, roommate
etc transcribe the interview. You can interview over the phone, Skype, in person. You
can even video or audiotape the interview for submission. Make sure to ask your
interviewee open ended questions and probe them for personal connections to the
material.
Then conduct your survey on campus. You’ll need to survey at minimum two
additional people. Collect your data.
Then write a reflection paragraph: What did you learn from writing the questions,
conducting the interview, the interviewee’s answers? Were you surprised by
anything?
To complete the project submit 1)original interview questions, 2)interview data
collected for all 4 interviews, and 3)reflection. When you transcribe make sure to
explain who is asking the questions and who is answering. Bold the key terms!
An Example:
This is an example of the video portion of a past submission. Students also submitted
the original survey, data collection, and written critical reflection with the video/face-toface interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHB85LMExz4 (Links to an external site.)Links to
an external site. (Links to an external site.)
Unit 1 Lecture
Notes
Lecture Notes
Politics & Political Activism
In this lesson we utilize Barbour’s definition of politics as power and resource
distribution.
Politics: who gets what, when and how; a process of determining how power and
resources are distributed in a society without recourse to violence.
Political activism consists direct action, such as a strike or demonstration in opposition
or in support of a cause.
Power: The ability to get others to do what you want.
Government: a system or organization for exercising authority over a body of people.
Authority: the power that people recognize as legitimate
Institutions: organizations in which government power is exercised
Colleges and Universities as political action sites
Many Colleges and Universities are very politically active. Major social movements have
often started on college and university campuses, with students just like yourself
choosing to become politically active. The top 25 most politically active campuses in the
USA are listed HERE (Links to an external site.).
Democracy, some definitions
● Democracy: government that vests power in the people; based on popular
sovereignty
○ Popular sovereignty: the concept that the citizens are the ultimate
source of political power
● Elite democracy: limits the citizens’ role to choosing among competing
leaders
● Pluralist democracy: citizen membership in groups is the key to political
power
● Participatory democracy: citizens should actively and directly control all
aspects of their lives and participate in all aspects of lawmaking
● In authoritarian systems, individuals are subjects of their state government:
○ They are obliged to submit to a government authority against which
they have no rights
● In democratic systems, individuals are citizens:
○ They are members of a political community having both rights and
responsibilities
Origins of Democracy
●
Ancient Greece (700-400 BC): Athenian democracy.
○ See History Channel’s video, “The Birth of Democracy (Links to an
external site.)”
● Middle Ages (400-1400 AD): politics based largely on the divine right of kings
(the principle that earthly rulers receive their authority from God)
● Age of Reason/Enlightenment (1600-1700 AD): divine right discredited,
notion that citizenship confers both rights and responsibilities emerged
Social Contract Theory
●
Social contract theory: society is based on an agreement between
government and the governed in which people agree to give up some rights
in exchange for the protection of others
● John Locke (1632-1704): legitimate government requires that people consent
to it and if government breaks contract, people may form a new one
● Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): government did not exist due to divine right;
instead, people agree to be governed for their own protection
Democracy in America
● James Madison feared “pure democracy” because people may create
“factions”
○ Factions: groups that might pursue only their self-interest
● Instead, he preferred a republic
○ Republic: a government in which decisions are made through
representatives of the people
● Madison did not trust average Americans to act beyond their own interests
○ His view contrasted with the idea of republican virtue: citizens
can put interests of community ahead of their own
● American citizenship today illustrates elements of both views
Thinking Critically About American Politics
2 views of citizenship
1. Madison’s View:
● Human nature is to be self-interested, individual participation in government
should be limited, and “too much” democracy is a bad thing
● Republican Virtue:
○ Faith in the citizen’s ability to act virtuously, not just for his or her
own good but for the common good as well
Is Democracy a Human Right?
Please watch the video
HERE. (Links to an external site.)。
Who is an American?
You are an American citizen if you are:
● Born in the United States, whether or not parents are citizens. Jus soli: “the
right of the soil”
● Born to American parents abroad. Jus sanguinis: “the right by blood”
●
Immigrants: citizens or subjects of other countries who move to another
country to live or work
● Naturalization: the legal process of acquiring citizenship for someone who
has not acquired it by birth
Melting Pot?
Please review The Next America (Links to an external site.) by Pew Research Center.
Can you pass the test? Try it HERE (Links to an external site.).
Political Culture
● Political culture: the broad patterns of ideas, beliefs, and values about
citizens and government held by the citizens of a country
○ Values: central ideas, principles, or standards that most people
agree are important
○ We often take our political culture for granted or aren’t aware of it
○ Often, our values are shared and handed down
Ideas the unite us
● Most Americans believe we should focus on fair rules and processes rather
than guaranteeing results
○ Procedural guarantees: government assurance that the rules will
work smoothly and treat everyone fairly, with no promise of
particular outcomes
○ Other democracies, such as those in Sweden and Norway,
concentrate on substantive guarantees: assuring outcomes are
fair
● In the United States, our politics also revolve around the belief that
individuals are usually the best judges of what is good for them
○ Individualism: belief that what is good for society is based on what
is good for individuals
○ Individuals, not government, are responsible for their own wellbeing
○ Contrasts with a collectivist point of view, which gives government
some responsibility for individual welfare
Ideas that divide us
●
Ideologies: sets of beliefs about politics and society that help people make
sense of their world
○ In our political culture, the range of ideological debate is narrow
compared to other democracies
○ Additionally, we have fewer political parties than in other postindustrial, democratic nations
● Conservatives: people who generally favor limited government and are
cautious about change
● Liberals: people who generally favor government action and view change as
progress
See NPR’s story, “The Thinking Behind Red and Blue States (Links to an external site.)”
How would you describe your political ideology? Take Pew Research’s “Political
Typology Quiz (Links to an external site.)”
Read the Pew article, “American’s Agree Inequality has grown, but don’t agree on why”
HERE (Links to an external site.).
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