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Summary Of Dividing Power: The American System Of Government

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Summary Of Dividing Power: The American System Of Government
Chapter 4
We – the People

Dividing Power: The American System of Government
The Basics
• Americans have distrusted any concentration of political power ever since its founding
• American form of government was written down in a Constitution o 1787, after thirteen colonies gained independence from Great Britain
• “Tyranny” of King George III – the Americans wanted to make sure no person was allowed to have too much power
• Representative democracy o Elected representatives who could be regularly shifted out o Power rested with the people
• Federal system o Individual states which give only certain specific powers to a central government o Federalism
• The separation of powers o Divided the power into three o No one is too powerful …show more content…
“The winner takes it all”. The other votes are “wasted”.

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• If A and B goes together and supports one candidate, that candidate could easily win with 60% of the votes
• Problems: finding someone they both support
• The US only has two parties: The Democrats and the Republicans. Both are giant coalitions of wildly different political groups.

Shooting for the center
• Both parties are coalitions → neither party presents a very clear political profile
• A clear ideology would send away some interest groups, weakening the party
• Both parties are vague about what they stand for
• No one wants to come out with strong ideological statements that might scare away any voters, because to win you have to win the votes of the electorate, which basically is divided into two

The Democratic Party (donkey)
• Supports stronger federal authority, more liberal, willing to use government in the service of the people at the expense of “states’
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