HOW DEMOCRATIC IS AMERICA?

BY HOWARD ZINN

½ of the questions on the first quiz will be about the information in this essay.

(INTRO portion only)

I. ESSAY SETTING

• Written in 1971.
• Vietnam War.
• Civil Rights movement.
• Protests, riots, assassinations.
• What’s wrong with American society?

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Shortly before his death in 2010 at age 87.

Zinn during World War II.

Howard Zinn

EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY**

Subject: Zinn, your last name, per. #

DUE before class on the day of the first quiz.

**E.C. can add 2-3% to your overall grade

After doing a little online research, write a two-paragraph answer in the body of an email to this question:

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Who was Howard Zinn?

Email to: rhall@opusd.org

II. STANDARD DEFINITION OF DEMOCRACY

*The ANSWERS (NOT the questions) are what Zinn refers to as the “standard” definition of democracy.

• 4 questions* are usually asked about a country to determine if it is a democracy:

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II. STANDARD DEFINITION OF DEMOCRACY (CONT.)

#1 Q: Who makes decisions?

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A: Elected officials in a representative system.

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(a.k.a., a Republic

or an Indirect Democracy)

people vote on the laws themselves.

Direct democracy =

II. STANDARD DEFINITION OF DEMOCRACY (CONT.)

#2 Q: Who can vote?

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A: All adult citizens.

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(a.k.a., Universal Suffrage)

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Original obstacles to voting in U.S.:

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White,

Male,

Wealthy,

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II. STANDARD DEFINITION OF DEMOCRACY (CONT.)

#3 Q: Does the government protect individual rights?

A: Yes. A Bill of Rights is backed up by government action.

First 10 Amendments to the Constitution.

II. STANDARD DEFINITION OF DEMOCRACY (CONT.)

#4 Q: Is there open competition for office?

A: Yes there is. There are no arbitrary restrictions* on who can run.

*Examples of arbitrary restrictions:

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Race, gender, religion, political beliefs,

sexual orientation, gender identity, etc..

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II. STANDARD DEFINITION OF DEMOCRACY (CONT.)

• Zinn rejects using this standard definition for TWO reasons:

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1) It doesn’t tell you nearly enough about a country.

II. STANDARD DEFINITION OF DEMOCRACY (CONT.)

2) Democracy is too complex to be a simple YES/NO question.

YES

NO

Don’t ask “IS?”

ask “HOW?”

III. METHODS OF COMPARISON

• To find out HOW democratic America is, we might compare it to 3 things:

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1) Other countries.

BETTER THAN BAD

GOOD

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III. METHODS OF COMPARISON (CONT.)

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2) Our own history.

Comparing to things you already know you’re better than leads to:

= DEATH

OF PROGRESS

COMPLACENCY

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III. METHODS OF COMPARISON (CONT.)

3) Perfection, utopia,

the ideal democracy.

BUT WHY?

REVEALS

FLAWS!

BREAK TIME!!!

Get back together with your group during the break –

(take ALL of your stuff with you).

Get out your paper from last class and take a couple of minutes to quickly review what your group decided to write in the four boxes of that document.

– Quickly choose one person to be your group’s SPOKESPERSON, and someone else to be your group TECH MASTER.

– Go to Google Classroom.

– Read all of the instructions for the assignment titled: “Zinn Group presentation slideshow” – Don’t do anything with the assignment yet, just read the instructions.

Get out the notes you took earlier about the Zinn essay, and prepare to add to them by adding this heading:

ZINN’S 10 CRITICISMS

Warm-up #1

a) Briefly describe the 4 parts of what Howard Zinn refers to as the “standard” definition of democracy.

b) Explain one reason why Zinn does NOT like using this definition.

c) To what does Zinn think we SHOULD compare our country to determine HOW democratic it really is and WHY?