The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.
American Politics
American politics includes the formal institutions of our government, such as Congress, the Supreme Court, and the various departments that compose the executive branch, and also the process by which various bodies of citizens (often called interest groups) compete for influence or control over these institutions. This competition gives rise to many terms that routinely appear in the mass media, usually without definitions. Examples include lobby, pork-barrel legislation, and machine politics.
The principal vehicles by which Americans traditionally have sought to influence their government are political parties, notably the Republican and Democratic parties. These two parties, which have long dominated American politics, are themselves loose coalitions of interest groups. These interest groups are bound together by their desire to win elections, an objective that induces them to formulate platforms that will appeal to as many voters as possible.
The goals of interest groups within a particular party often come into conflict. Try as they will, party platforms cannot always minimize the differences. As a result, interest groups sometimes shift allegiance from one party to another. For example, from 1865 until the 1930s, African-Americans overwhelmingly voted Republican, whereas southern whites gave such unflinching support to the Democratic party that their region was known as the Solid South. Today, these allegiances have been reversed. African-Americans overwhelmingly vote Democratic, whereas southern whites increasingly vote Republican. No matter how disenchanted an interest group becomes with a particular party, however, it nearly always prefers transferring to the rival party rather than forming a third party. Most interest groups recognize that their only chance for enduring influence lies in riding one of the major parties to victory.
The two-party system helps to distinguish American politics from the politics of some European democracies, which have a large number of parties. Another distinguishing feature of American politics is federalism, not only in the sense that power is divided between the federal government and the states, but also in the sense that the system of checks and balances ensures a division of power within the federal government itself. Federalism plays all sorts of tricks on the two-party system. For example, Republican presidents have often been forced to cut deals with Democratic congressional majorities. Regardless of the platform of the victorious candidate in a presidential election, the actual laws passed usually reflect compromises between the two parties.
Compared to other nations, the United States is also distinguished by the large role its courts play in its political system. Americans almost universally agree that the Constitution is a document to be venerated. As interpreters of the Constitution, federal courts have often defined and redefined social and civil relations that in other nations are set by custom and tradition. Within the last thirty years, for example, the federal courts played a critical role in breaking down racial segregation. Our list of entries necessarily includes a large number of terms related to the legal interpretation of civil rights.
Entries under “American Politics” include only terms current today. In contrast, the two “American History” sections generally cover terms that, although once of great political significance, lack current relevance. Most items pertaining to American foreign policy, including the language of the arms race, can be found in the “World Politics” section. The latter also includes philosophical movements that have affected both American and foreign political movements.
