Essay On Cultural Differences In America
In 1985 Sidney Verba and Gary Orren compared the views of Swedish and American political party leaders on a variety of economic issues. Swedish leaders were more likely to believe in giving workers pay more than American leaders. They were also more likely than Americans to favor putting a top limit on incomes. These cultural differences make a difference in politics.
Tocqueville was amazed at how religious Americans were compared to Europeans. People in churches tend to have a feeling of civic duty. Since churches do volunteer work and donate to charity, they might feel obligated to do so as well. But this goes back to Robert Putnam’s “Bowling Alone.” Even though many people participate in civic activities such as volunteering at churches, …show more content…
If this were true, why hasn’t large budget deficit been balanced like the people want? Why are children being bussed when people opposed it? The House of Representatives impeached Bill Clinton while most most Americans opposed it. The list could go on and on. Like Lawrence Jacobs and Robert Shapiro said in “Politicians Don’t Pander,” They do not listen to what the public wants. Instead they try to create a new public opinion by manipulating the citizen’s ideas. That is another reason why there is mistrust in the government. But then again, the American government was created to do what the people want. It was aimed for real goals, like the ones stated in the preamble of the constitution. Popular rule was only one of several means toward these goals. Such a large nation has several “publics” with many “opinions. The framers did not want theses opinions to dominate. Also, we may not even know what the public really wants because we get our information from polls that can be inaccurate a lot of the times. In addition, the government tends to listen more to the political elites because there opinions carry more
Tocqueville was amazed at how religious Americans were compared to Europeans. People in churches tend to have a feeling of civic duty. Since churches do volunteer work and donate to charity, they might feel obligated to do so as well. But this goes back to Robert Putnam’s “Bowling Alone.” Even though many people participate in civic activities such as volunteering at churches, …show more content…
If this were true, why hasn’t large budget deficit been balanced like the people want? Why are children being bussed when people opposed it? The House of Representatives impeached Bill Clinton while most most Americans opposed it. The list could go on and on. Like Lawrence Jacobs and Robert Shapiro said in “Politicians Don’t Pander,” They do not listen to what the public wants. Instead they try to create a new public opinion by manipulating the citizen’s ideas. That is another reason why there is mistrust in the government. But then again, the American government was created to do what the people want. It was aimed for real goals, like the ones stated in the preamble of the constitution. Popular rule was only one of several means toward these goals. Such a large nation has several “publics” with many “opinions. The framers did not want theses opinions to dominate. Also, we may not even know what the public really wants because we get our information from polls that can be inaccurate a lot of the times. In addition, the government tends to listen more to the political elites because there opinions carry more