Political culture plays a vital role in determining what types of policies are implemented in respected states. The political culture can include, the role citizens of the respected state see government being used for, the political ideology of each state, and the balance between powers of each party, and also the makeup of the government in each state, and how that affects legislation. I think when looking at policies for states these four factors play the most important role in determining policy directions for each state. Through this paper I will be examining the political culture and setup of two states being Illinois, and Indiana. These are two states that have very different political ideologies, view on how government should be used, and different structures of governments in relation to party ideology. When examining these states, I feel that the political landscape, and beliefs towards one party ideology, and view on role of government and current setup of each state government will play the biggest role in determining the policy landscape between different issues and why they were used.
When examining Illinois and a policy area and what caused that policy to be implemented in Illinois I look at the issue of the civil unions bill that as Project Vote Smart describes, “Vote to pass a bill that authorizes same-sex couples to enter into civil unions with the same legal protections and benefits as afforded to spouses.” (Project Vote Smart 2014.) When examining the issue of the civil unions legislation in Illinois further questions would be what were the reasons for the implementation of this bill in Illinois and if they were due to the political culture and structure of the Illinois government and if that played the overri...
... middle of paper ...
...ieve their goals, and through Illinois that is Democrats, and that being in control will do anything to achieve their goals and beliefs, and government being used as that tool and that Republican’s will be left behind due to not having control, through elected officials in the Illinois legislature and Governor, but also through the political ideology of the citizens.
The civil unions legislation in Illinois through examining the many factors is implement and put forward due to the current political structure of the Illinois government and political ideology through the state being Democratic, and also through the political culture and view on government which works on the point of political views, and Illinois being an individualistic state as noted by Smith and Greenblatt it is a political culture where Democrats who are in control now, will have the upper hand.
The book Culture Wars? The Myth of a Polarized America by Morris P. Fiorina, Samuel J. Abrams, and Jeremy C. Pope is a persuasive text regarding America and its division on political topics.
When looking at Daniel Elazar's typology of political cultures we see that each of them are very different and have distinctly different views on issues such as education or taxation. Furthermore, living in Texas we see two of the three typologies most frequently: Individualistic and Traditionalistic. An individualistic political culture can be defined by reference.com as a culture in which individual liberties and the right to pursue personal happiness are the dominant concerns and primary political virtues. Whereas, a traditionalistic society is. Furthermore, I would like to examine the political views of these two cultures on the issues of abortion and welfare.
In Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), the court determined gay marriage to be a constitutional right, striking down several dozen state laws against SSM. While there has been some residual pushback against this decision, overall there has been broad complacence due to a high level of public support for the decision. Little scholarship has been done on how this decision has been implemented because the discussion was made so recently, but some measures show that “99.87 percent of the U.S. population [lives] in a county where same-sex marriage licenses are available” ("Local Government Responses to Obergefell v. Hodges." n.d.). While there are some pockets of resistance it is clear that there is broad local compliance with this decision, likely because of its broad popularity. Instances in which local bodies choose to disregard the Obergefell decision are highly publicized, and generally receive a great deal of public criticism. Thus, the SSM marriage example has fulfilled the two conditions for successful policy, as interest groups were able to use the courts to accomplish a set of aims, and local support has allowed for the implementation of the policy. While there has been some pushback along the way, this pushback has only served to further raise awareness of issue in the minds of the American people, and helped this cause gain
Explaining Policy Differences Using Political Culture. "West Texas A&M University. Web. 20 Mar. 2011. http://www.wtamu.edu/~jrausch/polcul.html "THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC MILIEU OF TEXAS POLITICS."
Elazar, Daniel. "Explaining Policy Differences Using Political Culture." Reading. West Texas A&M University. Political Culture Handout. Dr. Dave Rausch, Teel Bivins Professor of Political Science. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. < http://www.wtamu.edu/~jrausch/polcul.html.>
A Democratic Party long ruled by moderates and conservatives succeeded in stunting what seemed like the natural growth of a successful Republican Party until the 1990s. Since then, various forces have contributed to the growth of the Republicans, and in the end, to an altering of the core membership of each party. Most recently, the state has seen the development of a dominant Republican Party that doesn't yet hold quite the dominion the Democrats enjoyed through most of the twentieth century. The Republican Party has certainly benefited from the defection of former Democrats, the arrival of Republicans and independents from out of state, and organizational difficulties in the Democratic Party. Thus, Republican officials dominate state government, and Democrats find themselves reduced, for the present, to the status of an embattled minority party seeking to recreate themselves among their voting and financial constituencies. This is showing that the newfound Republican dominance can be the beginning of a new strong party system, or if we are in a state of transition in which the terms of political competition are still in change. If it is a new party system, I don’t think it will be very durable or last too long for that matter. Now, it seems that Republican dominance of state government will
I got the Faith and Family Left result on my Political Typology Quiz. It says The Faith and Family Left combine strong support for activist government with conservative attitudes on many social issues. Fully 85% of the Faith and Family Left says religion is very important. Besides that, 51% of them want the government to do more to protect morality - the highest percentage of any typology group. This is an only typology group that is “majority-minority”.
In the United States, for the last four decades, from Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan through the two Bush Presidencies, the Republican Party won the White House by amassing large margins among white voters (Lizza.) The state of Texas has been reliably Republican since the 1970s and there are various elements to Texas political culture that can be narrowed down to three essential ideological trends: economic liberalism, or faith in the free market economy, social conservatism, or favoring traditional values and moralism, and populism, or promoting the rights and worthiness of ordinary people (Texas Political Culture.) As a result, the dominant political mood in Texas favors low taxes, minimal government services, and policies that are pro-business. This phenomenon is not static, however, since changing demographics in the state are causing changes in the profile of Texas in reference to electoral politics, among other major issues. This paper will explore different perspectives about the changing demographics of Texas, and where they might lead the state politically, and will present a variety of viewpoints regarding this complex subject.
"American Government: Institutions and Policies [Hardcover]." American Government: Institutions and Policies: James Q. Wilson, Jr. John J. DiIulio, Meena Bose: 9781111830014: Amazon.com: Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
In the following essay I will be talking about the disadvantages and advantages of partisan elections for state politics. I will also examine the last couple year’s election results and costs. Finally, I will discuss if partisanship made a difference in the vote, as well as if a judge should be decided by partisan vote. In the next couple paragraphs I will talk more specifically about these topics.
To define the terminology of federalism to a simplistic way is the sharing of sovereignty between the national government and the local government. It is often described as the dual sovereignty of governments between the national and the local to exert power in the political system. In the US it is often been justified as one of the first to introduce federalism by the ‘founding fathers’ which were developed in order to escape from the overpowered central government. However, federalism in the United States is hitherto uncertain where the power lies in the contemporary political system. In this essay I will outline and explain how power relationship alternates between states and federal government. Moreover I will also discuss my perspective by weighing the evidence based upon resources. Based on these resources, it will aid me to evaluate the recent development in the federal-state relationship.
According to Daniel Elazer, there are three separate manifestations of the American political culture. Daniel states that there wasn’t just one political culture that there was three, these being moralistic, individualistic, and traditionalistic. Daniel states that each individual state has a culture type of the three that were named above. He shows that the southern states are more of the traditionalistic type. Elazer goes on to explain that migration in the 19th century gave pattern to the dominant cultures, and that migration was happening from east to west. As these people migrated throughout the United States not only did they move to get a new life or so to say a fresh start, these people also took their values with them. Dominant culture
Since the beginning of American politics, we have lived in a two party political system. These two parties play a very important role in our government, they are a source of ideas for public policy, and they legally oppose each other (class citation), forcing compromises of ideas which are beneficial to the people of the United States of America. Though these two parties generally always oppose each other on the issues, some people believe that there are not significant differences between the Democratic National Party and the Republican National Party. Despite similarities in views on foreign policy, the Democratic National Party and the Republican National Party are different based on their stands on domestic economic issues in the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections.
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 influences the power and limitations of governors, legislative, and judiciaries.
From the beginning of time people practiced an idea of political culture; the “setting of attitudes and practices held by people that help shape their political behavior including moral judgments and ideas that makes for a good society” (Sparknotes). American political culture is based on the basic ideas of political culture, in that American political culture “subscribes to general ideas including liberty, equality, democracy, individualism, unity, and diversity; although not all Americans share the same values, a vast majority abide by this idea” (Sparknotes). Our founding fathers based the U.S Constitution on the idea of political culture in trying to make good for society, the founding fathers wanted to develop a system that tailored to