Liberal and Conservative Visions in United States Politics since 1945: Cultural Politics, the Politics of Inclusion, and Two California Cases
Contemporary American political culture is filled with complexity, defies simple characterizations, and manifests an uneasy tension between recognizing (even honoring) cultural diversity and practicing (even celebrating) class inequality. The belief in social inclusivity has increased and so has th...
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| Publicat a: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/siecles, |
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| Autor principal: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
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Siècles
2014
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| Accés en línia: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Sumari: | Contemporary American political culture is filled with complexity, defies simple characterizations, and manifests an uneasy tension between recognizing (even honoring) cultural diversity and practicing (even celebrating) class inequality. The belief in social inclusivity has increased and so has the belief in direct democracy, while at the same time increasing numbers of Americans have lost faith in government and converted to the religion of the free market. The half century since the beginning of the Sixties, a decade associated with hyper-liberalism, has witnessed a steady increase in the appeal of conservatism. In the name of individual freedom, some Americans question government’s right to monitor racial discrimination, while others challenge government’s right to legalize same-sex marriages. This paper will begin with a review of cultural politics and conservatism in American political culture, and then it will analyze recent research on the use of direct democracy by the opponents and proponents of affirmative action and same sex marriage, with a particular focus on the California experience. The paper will conclude with a reflection on how these contests may relate to the theory and practice of multicultural citizenship in the United States and other pluralist democracies. |
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