American Political System_Baugher_Date_021210 - The...

The American Political System
- Politics as a process (The Political System - Easton (1953))
- Input: political participation, interest groups
- Output: policy
- Government v Politics
- Government
- The institution with authority to set policy for society
- Regulations
- Services
- Taxes
- Politics
- The way in which decisions for a society are made and considered binding.
- The process that determines who shall occupy the roles of leadership in
government and how the power of government shall be exercised.
- The exercise of POWER through DECISIONS which have an impact on
MATERIAL conditions
- The Public Policy Approach (will use through course)
- Method for studying politics
- How does it become an issue?
- Why does gov’t take notice?
- How are politics formulated?
- Public Policy
- Government response or lack of response of government decision makers to an
issue
- The Five stages of the Policy Process
- Agenda Building
- First - Define a problem (problems are about normative judgement and
perception)
- ex: homelessness, healthcare