American Ideologies
All of have some sort of ideology.In the sense that our various ideas about politics bear some sort of relationship one to another. However, not every ideology isequally next and tidy,nor is every ideology organized than those of other people. In fact, Americans lerad to admit exceptions and inconistencies into their ideologies rather cheorfully.
Two main ideologies are found arnong Americans: American liberalism and American conservatism. As we shall see, both of these ideologies are variants of a more genaral and well-worked-out ideology known as libernlism. American liberalism and American conservation are sienply differing versions that have sprung up in a predceninantly liberal society. As you will see when we look at more established ideologies before,ideologies usually are determined by an intellectual structure---a core value or values,stance,you will see that the core value of liberalism in its general (not American) sense is that all individuats should be able to develop their capcities to the fullest;from this is possible to deduce argurments for the defense of froe speech, for democracy, for minirnzing regulation, and so no. Since in American political thought was dominated from the start by general liberanlism in this sense. Americans did not sort themselves out politically by competing deductive systems. Rather,ideologies in America have evolveg as rival coalitions operating within a common intellectual structure.
American liberalism, for instance,has developed as a rather loosely held sense of support for underdogs. As a result,concerns for economic equality are strong in American liberalism (the poor as underdogs),as is support for the interests of ethnic minorities, women, and gays. Support for environmental protection is also part of American liberalism. And so is support for a fairly radical defense of freedom of expression, as exemplified by the American Civil Liberties Union.
American conservtism has traditionally emphasized more the maintenance of an efficient, minimally regulated economy,which has involved opposition to governmental budgets.In recent decades American conservalism has added to these concerns a desire to maintian common values of moraliry and spintuility,and opposition to legalized abortion.
American liberalism and American convervatism are not neat ideologies. It is hard to see, for instance,what logical connections exist among the various attitudes detailed.It frequently happens that an American political figure is "liberal" on some of these issues and "conservative" on other. American labor unions, for example, have generally been quite concerned about issues of equality but have not been equally concerned about an issue such as abortion riahts. There are many other complexities as well. As one more exanple, American conservatives generally favor free trade but are also concerned about the repression of religion in China.This leaves them to grapple with the question of what sort of trade relations the United states should maintain with China.
Both ideologies are therefore mixtures, representing marriages of political convenience, and it is difficult to find internal coherence among the various parts of either one.
The two American ideologies have been shaped as coalitions largely by the American two-party system. As you will see in Chapter 10,the American system of elections forces Americans into a system of two large parties; small parties find it very difficult.