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2: Politics

  • Page ID
    204103
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    The word America — derived from the name of Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci — has multiple meanings. It can refer to a patch of land, primarily located between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, or to a system of government for administering that patch of land. But it can also refer to the people who reside there: America is as much a them as it is a that.

    Photograph of the Main Building on Ellis Island in New York Harbor
    The Main Building on Ellis Island in New York Harbor, entry point for over 11 million immigrants to the United States from 1892 to 1924, today serves as a museum.

    Most of the people who make up America were born there, but many were born elsewhere, and most of those who were born in America have ancestors who were born elsewhere and came to America not so long ago. They came (some more willingly than others) from all corners of the globe, bringing their religions and languages and cultures along with their hopes and fears and dreams.

    For almost as long as it has been a country, Americans have spoken of the idea that the United States is a “melting pot,” one that blends many different peoples into a single American polity. However desirable or undesirable this outcome would be, it clearly hasn’t happened completely, as many Americans today still maintain the identities (cultural and otherwise) of their ancestors. Furthermore, the groups of people who make up America are themselves diverse, made up of subgroups with different beliefs, perspectives, and aspirations.

    The diversity of America the people — not only of race, nationality, and religion, but also of interest, opinion, and condition — is what makes America the system of government necessary. This system of government is not the only one available, and many of those dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States wish it were different in one way or another. Before examining that system of government, however, it is worth establishing what politics and government are more generally. Then it will be easier to recognize America for what it is: a machine for conducting politics, allocating power democratically, and solving collective action problems.


    This page titled 2: Politics is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Benjamin R. Kantack (Tekakwitha Press) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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