First Advisor

Craig Carr

Term of Graduation

Spring 1999

Date of Publication

6-3-1999

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.) in Political Science

Department

Political Science

Language

English

Subjects

Nativism, Political culture -- United States, United States -- Politics and government

Physical Description

1 online resource (98 pages)

Abstract

The purpose of this discussion is to dispel the notion that the United States is and always has been a polity grounded in egalitarian ideals and open political processes. We should not ignore or make light of injustices such as slavery, segregation, Eurocentric immigration policies, and social and economic discrimination that have played a major part in our history. If only for the sake of historical accuracy, we should not dismiss these trends as temporary lapses in judgment in an otherwise open and plural society.

Yet some scholars do make the claim that we are a country founded on the ideals of liberty and equality for all, while giving little or no attention to the injustices that many groups have suffered due to the idea that America is a place for some and not others. Louis Hartz in The Liberal Tradition in America and Samuel Huntington in American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony extend such an argument.

Hartz and Huntington and the general idea that we are a strongly equalitarian society will be refuted in the chapters that follow by demonstrating first that our political and social ideals are elastic in a sense and even contradict each another at times, and that even ideas that exclude some groups from full participation have roots in our nation's founding principles. It will then be put forward that nativism, the belief that only those who are native born should be able to fully participate in American society, is as strong a force today as it was when non-Anglo immigrants from China, Italy and other countries were socially, politically and economically challenged for their cultural differences in the last century. Finally, it will be argued that nativism is as much a part of our culture as liberalism due to the burgeoning presence of organized groups such as militias that advocate the enforcement of highly conservative moral values and the exclusion of many ethnic groups from citizenship.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44864

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