Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Unit 1.1
Journal Entry
Explain the components of your identity and the
privileges attached to these.
Example: I am straight therefore one of the privileges
I have is the fact that my sexual orientation is
constantly reinforced in the media.
Think of your
Race
Class
Gender
Sexual Orientation
5-7 sentences
Identity
Social identity is a person's sense of who
they are based on their group
membership(s). Tajfel (1979) proposed that
the groups (e.g. social class, family, race)
which people belonged to were an
important source of pride and self-esteem.
Identity is how you perceived yourself and can
also be how others perceive who you are.
RACE, CLASS, ETHNICITY, SEXUAL
ORRIENTATION, GENDER AND PHYSICAL ABILITY.
Privilege
Privilege
A right or benefit that is given to some people
and not others.
The advantage that wealthy and powerful
people have over other people in a society.
-Merriam-Webster
When people say you have privilege they are
not saying that you dont have any problems.
They are saying you do not have the specific
problems that come from oppression.
Class
The system of ordering a society in which people
are divided into sets based on perceived social
or economic status.
Gender
The state of being male, female or anything in
between.
Intersectionality
The interconnected nature of social
categorizations such as race, class, and
gender as they apply to a given individual
or group, regarded as creating overlapping
and interdependent systems of oppresion.
Introduction
Politics and government matter.
Americans are apathetic about
politics and government.
American youth are not likely to be
informed about government and
politics and rarely participate in
politics.
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
Government
Definition:
Government is the institutions and processes
through which public policies are made for
society.
Politics
Definition:
Politics is the process by which we
select our governmental leaders and
what policies they producepolitics
produces authoritative decisions about
public issues.
The process
by which
policy comes
into being
and evolves
over time
People
Interests
Problems
Concerns
Linkage Institutions
Definition:
Linkage institutions are the
political channels through which
peoples concerns become political
issues on the policy agenda.
Political Parties
Elections
News & Entertainment Media
Interest Groups
Policy Agenda
Definition:
The Policy Agenda are issues that attract
the serious attention of public officials.
Political issues arise when people disagree
about a problem and how to fix it.
Some issues will be considered, and others
will not.
A governments policy agenda changes
regularly.
Policymaking Institutions
Definition: Policymaking institutions
are the branches of government
charged with taking action on
political issues.
Legislature (Congress)
Executive (President)
Courts (Federal and State)
Bureaucracies (Federal and State)
Democracy
Definition: Democracy is a system of
selecting policymakers and of organizing
government so that policy represents and
responds to the publics preferences.
Components of Traditional Democratic
Theory:
Equality in voting
Effective participation
Enlightened understanding
Citizen control of the agenda
Inclusion
Challenges to Democracy
Increased Technical Expertise
Experts keep people away from participating
in Government.
Liberty
Egalitarianism
Individualism
Laissez-faire
Populism
Summary
Young people are apathetic about
government and politics, even though they
affect everyone.
Democratic government, which is how the
United States is governed, consists of
those institutions that make policy for the
benefit of the people.
What government should do to benefit the
people is a topic central to questions of
American government.