Age of the City, The: Lure of the City, The
The United States is becoming urban nation in the late 19th century. The industrial revolution has made the city the center of economic life, drawing young adults from country, African Americans from South, and immigrants to the shores of the countr...
Voices of the People: How Lack of Participation Affects Public Policy and Government Action
Who votes influences public policy and governmental action. When elected officials hear from some people and not others equal protection of interests is jeopardized. Politicians recognize that they will never attract some members of the electorate s...
American Heritage: A Nation of Nations
The Framers of the Constitution excluded many people from active participation in the newly-created government, but the fact that the language of the Constitution they created was inclusive, provided the opening for excluded groups to be brought int...
Balancing Act: Status of Workers, The
Workers began gaining a degree of power in the 1930s when Congress passed legislation that guaranteed their right to bargain collectively and established a minimum wage. In the decades that followed American workers continued to strengthen their pos...
Voices of the People: Slowly Expanding Electorate, A
The privilege of voting so basic to democratic government is a right that took many Americans centuries to achieve. During the early days of the country voting was generally restricted to white males. Even though the Civil War amendments gave black ...
Voices of the People: Social Stratification of Political Participation
The poor and minorities in the U.S., even some affluent members of the middle class feel alienated from the political system. Unlike other democracies, lower income people are dropping out of the electorate in the U. S. This not only affects the kin...
Voices of the People: U. S. Voter Turnout Lags Behind Other Democracies
If you look at the long history of American engagement in the political process, the vast expansion of the franchise in the 20th century is ironically tied to a decline in political participation. Voter turnout in the U. S. is much lower than in oth...
American Heritage: Distinctions Between the Public and Private Sectors
Another defining characteristic of the American system is the relatively sharp distinction between what is political and should be decided in the public arena, and what is economic and should be controlled by the private sector. Since the 1970s ther...
American Heritage: Government of the People
The American political system must respond to competing interests that result from the nation's size, diversity and economic complexity, and yet it remains the most stable, continuous political system in the world As Robert Reich cautions, we must n...
American Heritage: Guarding Against Overreaching Power
The federalist system that characterizes U. S. government has different branches that exercise checks and balances on each other in order to prevent any one branch from acquiring too much power. The rule of law embodied by the Constitution also limi...