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American Heritage: Conflict and Political Discourse
03:16

American Heritage: Conflict and Political Discourse

Politics is more than the pursuit of shared ideals. It is the way that a society makes its governing decisions. Two major sources of disagreement dominate the political stage: conflict over distribution of scarce resources and differences in values....

American Heritage: A Nation of Nations
02:54

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...

American Heritage: Building on Historic Origins
01:13

American Heritage: Building on Historic Origins

American politics today--complex, forceful, and sometimes confusing--can only be understood against the backdrop of the nation's heritage. "Europeans often think of us as historically shallow, " notes Bernard Bailyn, but "we're exceptionally close ...

American Heritage: Distinctions Between the Public and Private Sectors
01:00

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
03:51

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
02:39

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...

American Heritage: Vast Wilderness Kindles Individualism and Self-determination
01:49

American Heritage: Vast Wilderness Kindles Individualism and Self-determination

America's vast wilderness and its distance from the old world gave settlers far more liberty, equality, and self governance that they could have imagined. Social class played less of a role than in their home countries. This and the fact that ordina...

American Heritage: Who Governs?
04:04

American Heritage: Who Governs?

The ultimate question about any political system is the issue of who governs. Is power widely shared or closely held? Does it function on the basis of majority rules and minority participation? How can "rational deliberation" be employed as a means ...

American Heritage: Americans Linked by Ideals, Not Ancestry
02:47

American Heritage: Americans Linked by Ideals, Not Ancestry

Ideals rather than common ancestry serve as the basis of the common identity Americans share. Many of these ideals--belief in the autonomy of the individual, limited government that depends on the consent of the governed, and the capacity to share i...