Chapter 1: Introduction: The Citizen and the Government

Chapter Review

Citizenship Is Based on Political Knowledge and Participation

1. Although today we consider voting the building block of citizenship, Americans can participate in their government in other ways—like serving on a jury, lobbying, writing a letter to the editor, or engaging in a public rally or protest.

Government Is Made Up of the Institutions and Procedures by Which People Are Ruled

1.  Governments vary in their structure, in their size, and in the way they operate.
2. Beginning in the seventeenth century, two important changes began to take place in the governance of some Western nations: governments began to acknowledge formal limits on their power, and governments began to give citizens a formal voice in politics through the vote.

The Identity of Americans Has Changed over Time

1.  As the American population has grown it has become more diverse. In the early years of the Republic, the majority of Americans were European settlers, mainly from northern Europe. One in five Americans were of African origin, the vast majority of whom had been brought to the United States against their will to work as slaves. There was also an unknown number of Native Americans, the original inhabitants of the land, who were not initially counted by the census.
2. In the 1800s and early 1900s, a large wave of immigrants from Germany, Ireland, and later from southern and eastern Europe changed the demographic profile of the United States. As the percent of foreign-born residents reached 14.7 percent in 1910, a movement to limit immigration gained ground. After World War I, Congress placed sharp limits on immigration. It also established a National Origins Quota System designed to limit the numbers of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe.
3. From the start, the American government used racial and ethnic criteria to draw boundaries around the American population. Until 1870, nonwhites could not become naturalized citizens. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 outlawed the entry of Chinese laborers to the United States, a restriction that was not reversed until 1943.
4. In 1965, Congress opened the doors to immigrants once again. The American population has become much more diverse as a result. European Americans accounted for only two thirds of the population in 2006. The African American population stood at 13 percent, and reflecting the new immigration, Hispanics accounted for close to 15 percent, with Asian Americans at 4 percent of the American population. In 2005, 12 percent of the population was foreign-born.

America Is Built on the Ideas of Liberty, Equality, and Democracy

1. Three important political values in American politics are liberty, equality, and democracy.
2. At times in American history there have been large gaps between the ideals embodied in Americans’ core values and the practice of American government.
3. Many of the important dilemmas of American politics revolve around conflicts over fundamental political values. One such conflict involves the ideals of liberty and democracy. Over time, democracy promotes stronger, more active government, which may threaten liberty.

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