Title: American Democratic Values - democracy central
Headings: WHAT ARE AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC VALUES and AMERICAN CULTURAL VALUES?
WHAT ARE AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC VALUES and AMERICAN CULTURAL VALUES?
AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC VALUES
AMERICAN CULTURAL VALUES
(by Elizabeth McNamee)
AMERICA IS FALLING SHORT OF ITS VALUES
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AMERICAN CULTURAL VALUES AND AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC VALUES
SUMMARY
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Content: American democratic values focus on principles explicitly or indirectly expressed or written in fundamental US Policy (e.g. the United States Constitution) while American cultural values highlight the popular ideals and ideologies developed and shared by generations of the American people. While democratic values and cultural values may both converge or diverge in ideology, American cultural values have the ability to influence the manifestation of American democracy in practice (e.g. influence over election results, political priorities, Supreme Court case selection). The values listed below have been adapted from an essay written by Robert Kohls aimed to help visitors prepare to acclimate and understand American society. Personal control over the environment
Change/mobility
Time and its importance
Equality/egalitarianism
Self-help
Competition and free enterprise
Action and work orientation
Informality
Directness/openness/honesty
Practicality/efficiency
AMERICA IS FALLING SHORT OF ITS VALUES
A Pew survey documented public opinion as to how well America is adhering to its democratic values as of 2019. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AMERICAN CULTURAL VALUES AND AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC VALUES
American cultural values refer to common ideologies shared by the American people while American democratic values refer to the principles explicitly or implicitly found in foundational US policy (e.g., the United States Constitution). At the time of its conception (1787), the US constitution was largely motivated and structured by the persistent American cultural values of the time; and, to an extent, American cultural values and American democratic values could then be seen as congruent. Since then, American cultural values have fluctuated over time while American democratic values have also somewhat shifted or expanded as can be seen in Constitutional amendments and Supreme Court interpretations. While both sets of values have both simultaneously changed and retained some level of constancy, what happens when values from each of these sets begin to contradict one another? One could cite both a divergence of American cultural values from its democratic values and extreme political polarization that affects respect and defense for American democratic values.