American political culture contains a number of core ideals and values. Not
all Americans share the same views, of course, but the vast majority subscribes to
these general ideals, including liberty, equality, democracy, individualism, unity,
and diversity. Political debates tend to be over how best to achieve these ideals,
not over whether these ideals are worth having in the first place.
Liberty
Americans today tend to define liberty as the freedom for
people to do what they want. We also tend to believe liberty is essential to
personal fulfillment and happiness. Nevertheless, liberty must be restrained on
some level in order to create a stable society. A widely accepted principle of
freedom is that we are free to do whatever we want as long as we do not impinge
on other people’s freedom.
A limited government is a government that places relatively
few restrictions on its citizens’ freedom. There are some things that the
government cannot do, such as limit freedom of speech or impose a single
religion on its citizens. A limited government usually has a constitution that
defines the limits of governmental power. In the United States, the Constitution
outlines the structure of government, whereas the Bill of Rights guarantees some
of the citizens’ specific liberties.
Economic Liberty
For many Americans, liberty includes economic liberty. People should
be free to do as they see fit in the economic sphere without government
interference. Throughout most of the nineteenth century, the American
economy was based on laissez-faire capitalism, an economic
system in which the government plays almost no role in producing,
distributing, or regulating the production and distribution of goods. Today,
people want some governmental intervention in the economy, but most
Americans want this intervention to be limited in scope.
Equality
Although no two people are truly equal, they are considered equal under
the law. Some Americans may be poorer than others, and some may have cultural
backgrounds different from the majority, but all Americans have the same
fundamental rights. The term equality refers to a number of ways
people are treated the same.
Political Equality
Political equality means that everyone is treated in the
same way in the political sphere. This means, among other things, that
everyone has the same status under the law (everyone is entitled to legal
representation, for example, and every citizen gets one vote) and that
everyone gets equal treatment under the law. Everybody must obey the laws,
regardless of race, creed, religion, gender, or sexual orientation, and in
return, everyone enjoys the same rights.
