Americans are more ethnically and religiously diverse than the citizens of other democracies
Most multicultural democracies are short-lived
Long-lasting examples had authoritarian governments: suppression of cultural divisions
U.S. is diverse, yet has consistency and uniformity in political beliefs
Colonial American
Multiculturalism
E Pluribus Unum
New federal government maintained states’ policy of unrestricted immigration
Land plentiful and labor scarce
Mid-century
English, Irish, and German immigrants as high as 400,000 a year
Irish immigration became a political issue
Catholicism
Know-Nothing Party (anti-Catholic) won 43 seats in House (roughly 20% of seats)
Immigration continued at high rate until WWI
In the late 1800s the political issues included
Prohibition
Funding of parochial schools
Bilingual schools
Blue laws
Parties were attached to different ethnic groups
Chinese were the first Asians to immigrate in significant numbers
Helped build the western links of transcontinental railroads
Viewed positively at first, then backlash
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
1917 - National literacy test
But many immigrants knew how to read
1920s laws restricted numbers of those who could immigrate
Asians excluded altogether
By 1930 the era of the open door was over
Part of this fostered by Red Scare, Anti-Catholic and Anti-Jewish sentiments
Largest surge since 1890s
Congress abandoned national-quotas system favoring northern Europeans
Immigration from Latin American and West Indies increased
Growth in variety of Asian immigrant groups
Europeans are now less than three-quarters of the population
Census Bureau projects that the population of European origin will fall to less than 60 percent by 2030
Proposition 187 (1994)
Denied state services (CA) to illegal immigrants and their children
Intense controversy
Welfare reform (1996) - denied legal immigrants access to food stamps
President Bush reversed this in his 2003 budget
Also proposed granting amnesty to undocumented Mexicans working in the United States
Criticized by Democrats and Republicans
This failed to pass
Immigration differs now from that in the past
The number of so-called “illegal,” or undocumented, immigrants is unprecedented
Today, with limits on most categories of legal immigration, an estimated 12 million immigrants have entered the United States in violation of federal laws and regulations.
Opposition to immigration
Economics
Threat to political culture
A philosophy that elevates and empowers the individual as opposed to religious, hereditary, governmental, or other forms of authority.
Social Contract Theorists
Hobbes
Locke
Rousseau
American creed suggests more unified beliefs than actually exist
Liberalism competed with civic republicanism
A political philosophy that emphasizes the obligation of citizens to act virtuously in pursuit of the common good
Central themes of American political thought
Suspicious of governmental power
Skeptical of governmental competence
Americans emphasize individual responsibility much more than do people elsewhere
Belief in individual achievement and responsibility is not closely tied with the actual social and economic circumstances that Americans find themselves in — rich or poor
Embrace the work ethic whether rich or poor
Most Americans do not regard economic and social inequality as justification for government action
Initially, liberty and equality were thought to be mutually reinforcing
Free people use their liberty to achieve economic success
Industrial Revolution produced concentration of private wealth and masses of low-wage workers
Liberty and equality became detached
Reform: focus on worst abuses and not the foundation of the system generating it
Equality of opportunity
Equal chance to advance
Equality of condition (or outcome)
All individuals have a right to a more or less equal part of the material goods that society produces
While most support the first, few support the latter, believe equality of opportunity should be sufficient
An ideology is the basic lens through which someone observes and evaluates government, the collection of orientations a person uses to impose order on a complicated political world
Libertarianism most closely resembles the beliefs of liberal political philosophy, in that it gives individualism a central place in political life and permits only minimal use of government power
American liberalism supports an active government in the economic sphere
Conservatism, meanwhile, endorses less government regulation of economic matters
Early American colonists were middle class not impoverished peasants
Lacked feudal tradition to parallel the social structure of Europe
Great deal of available land in early America and scarcity of labor
Ambitious individuals did succeed: reinforcing individualistic values
Why no socialism in American?
Simplest answer: Americans never saw the need.
Process of political socialization
May still instill liberal values
Socialization perpetuates the consensus established in the 18th century
But many find this argument insufficient
What of immigrants?
Socialized primarily by political parties
Parties were NOT the embodiment of liberal, individualist values
Government and politics in U.S. create and recreate ideas
The U.S. government is so fragmented and decentralized that it can rarely act in a positive way to improve society
Rely on yourself because you cannot rely on government, which generally supports special interests
Idea: institutions that originally reflected particular values may come to generate those values.
Self-selection
What kind of person would emigrate from their country and do well here?
Perhaps those who were individualistic
Waves of immigrants may rejuvenate those values of individualism
Diversity itself may influence the staying power of America’s founding ideals and principles