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 Federalism Before the Civil War 63
The Civil War and the Expansion of National PART III Political Linkage
Power 65
Expanded National Activity Since the Civil War 66
Can Government Do Anything 5 Public Opinion 114
Well? The Interstate Highway
System 68

Mapping American Politics: Federal

5.1 Democracy and Public Opinion 117
dollars: Which states win and which
ones lose? 71 5.2 Measuring Public Opinion 118
Public Opinion Polls 119
3.4 Fiscal Federalism 73
Challenges of Political Polling 119
Origin and Growth of Grants 73
Types of Grants 73 5.3 Political Socialization: Learning
Debates About Federal Money and Control 74 Political Beliefs and Attitudes 121
Using the Framework 76 5.4 How and Why People’s Political
3.5 U.S. Federalism: Pro and Con 77 Attitudes Differ 123
Race and Ethnicity 123
Using the Democracy Standard  79
Social Class 126
Region 127
Education 128
Gender 128
The Structural Foundations Age 129
4 of American Government Religion 130
and Politics 84 Party 132

5.5 The Contours of American Public

4.1 America’s Population 87 Opinion: Are the People Fit to
Growing 87 Rule? 134
Becoming More Diverse 88 What People Know About Politics 134
Moving West and South, and to the Suburbs 91 Attitudes About the System in General 136
Growing Older 92
Can Government Do Anything
Becoming More Unequal 93 Well? Regulating the Financial
System 138
Using the Framework 96
Liberals and Conservatives 140
4.2 America’s Economy 98 Policy Preferences 141
By the Numbers: Is America becoming The People’s “Fitness to Rule” Revisited 143
more unequal? 99
Using the Democracy Standard  144
Main Tendencies 100
Globalization and Hyper-Competition 101 Using the Framework 147

4.3 America in the World 103

4.4 America’s Political Culture 104
6 The News Media 152
Individualism 105
Distrust of Government 106 6.1 Roles of the News Media in
Belief in Democracy and Freedom 107 Democracy 155
Can Government Do Anything Watchdog Over Government 155
Well? Backing Research and Clarifying Electoral Choices 155
Development 108
Providing Policy Information 155
Populist 109
Religious 109 6.2 Mainstream and Alternative
News Media 156
Using the Democracy Standard  111

vii
 Alternatives to the Mainstream 156 7.5 Interest Groups, Corporations,
The Continuing Importance of the Mainstream 160 and Inequality in American
Politics 204
6.3 How the Mainstream News Media Representational Inequalities 204
Work 163
Resource Inequalities 205
Organization of the News Media 163
Access Inequality 207
By the Numbers: How much serious crime
The Privileged Position of Business
is there in the United States? 165
Corporations 207
Political Newsmaking 166
Using the Framework 209
Mapping American Politics: The Limited
Geography of National News 167 Mapping American Politics: Greenhouse
Emissions from the Use of Fossil
Ideological Bias 173 Fuels 211
Nonideological Biases 174
7.6 Curing the Mischief of Factions 212
6.4 Effects of the News Media on
Using the Democracy Standard  213
Politics 176
Agenda Setting 176
Framing and Effects on Policy Preferences 177
Fueling Cynicism 178 8 Social Movements 218
Using The Framework 179

Using the Democracy Standard  180 8.1 What Are Social Movements? 221
8.2 Major Social Movements in
the United States 223
Interest Groups and The Abolitionists 223
7 Business Corporations 184 The Populists 224
Women’s Suffrage 224
The Labor Movement 224
7.1 Interest Groups in a Democratic
The Civil Rights Movement 224
Society: Contrasting Views 188
Contemporary Antiwar Movements 224
The Evils of Faction 188
Can Government Do Anything
Interest Group Democracy: The Pluralist
Well? Old-age pensions in Social
Argument 189 Security 225

7.2 The Universe of Interest Groups 190 The Women’s Movement 227
Private Interest Groups 190 Mapping American Politics: Worldwide
Demonstrations Against The Invasion
Can Government Do Anything Well? of Iraq 228
The Federal Minimum Wage 194
The Environmental Movement 229
Public Interest Groups 195
The Gay and Lesbian Movements 229
7.3 Why There Are So Many Interest Religious Conservatives 229
Groups 195 The Antiglobalization Movement 229
The Constitution 196 Undocumented Immigrants Movement 229
Diverse Interests 196 Tea Party Movement 230
A More Active Government 196 The Occupy Wall Street Movement 231
Disturbances 197
8.3 Social Movements in a Majoritarian
7.4 What Interest Groups Do 198 Democracy 231
The Inside Game 198 Encouraging Participation 231
The Outside Game 201 Overcoming Political Inequality 232
By the Numbers: Is there a reliable Creating New Majorities 232
way to evaluate the performance Overcoming Constitutional Limitations on
of your representative in Change 232
Congress? 203

viii
8.4 Factors That Encourage the Creation Voting, Campaigns, and
of Social Movements 233 10 Elections 276
Real or Perceived Distress 233
Availability of Resources for Mobilization 233
A Supportive Environment 234 10.1 Elections and Democracy 279
A Sense of Efficacy Among Participants 234 The Prospective (or Responsible Party)
By the Numbers: Just how many
Voting Model 279
people were at that The Electoral Competition Voting
demonstration? 235 Model 280
A Spark to Set Off the Flames 236 The Retrospective (or Reward and Punishment)
Voting Model 281
8.5 Tactics of Social Movements 237 Imperfect Electoral Democracy 281
8.6 Why Some Social Movements Succeed 10.2 The Unique Nature of American
and Others Do Not 239 Elections 282
Low-Impact Social Movements 239 Using the Framework 283
Repressed Social Movements 239
Partially Successful Social Movements 240 10.3 Voting in the United
States 285
Successful Social Movements 240
Expansion of the Franchise 285
Using the Framework 241
Low Voting Turnout 287
Using the Democracy Standard  242
By the Numbers: Is voting
turnout declining in the United
States? 290

9 Political Parties 246

10.4 Who Votes? 291
Income and Education 291
Race and Ethnicity 292
9.1 The Role of Political Parties in Age 293
a Democracy 250
Gender 293
9.2 The American Two-Party Does It Matter Who Votes? 294
System 251
10.5 Campaigning for
Why a Two-Party System? 252
Office 295
The Role of Minor Parties in the Two-Party
System 254 Gaining the Nomination 295
Shifts in the American Two-Party System 254 Can Government Do Anything Well?
The Environmental Protection
9.3 The Democratic and Republican Agency 299

Parties Today 258 The General Election Campaign 302

The Parties as Organizations 258 Money in General Elections 304

Mapping American Politics: The Shifting 10.6 Election Outcomes 308

Geography of the Parties 260
How Voters Decide 309
Can Government Do Anything Well? The Electoral College 311
FEMA and disaster relief  263
Mapping American Politics: Ad Buys and
Party Ideologies 265
Battleground States 313
Using the Framework 267
Using The Democracy
The Parties in Government and in the Standard 314
Electorate 269
By the Numbers: Are you a
Republican, a Democrat, or an
independent? 272

Using the Democracy Standard  273

ix

PART IV Government and
Governing
11 Congress 318
11.1 Constitutional Foundations of the
Modern Congress 321
Empowering Congress 321
Constraining Congress 321
Bicameralism and Representation 321
Federalism 322
11.2 Representation and Democracy 323
Styles of Representation 323
Race, Gender, and Occupation in Congress 323
The Electoral Connection 326
By the Numbers: Can congressional
districts be drawn in different
ways to include equal numbers of
voters yet favor one party over the
other? 330
Using the Framework 334
How Representative? 335
11.3 How Congress Works 336
Can Government Do Anything
Well? How Congress made voting
and citizenship in America more
inclusive 337
Political Parties in Congress 339
Congressional Leadership 341
Congressional Committees 343
Rules and Norms in the House and Senate 346
Mapping American Politics:
Majorities, minorities, and Senate
filibusters 348
11.4 Legislative Responsibilities:
How a Bill Becomes a Law 349
Introducing a Bill 350
Committee Action on a Bill 350
11.5 Legislative Oversight of the Executive
Branch 352
Using the Democracy Standard  354
12 The Presidency 358
12.1 The Expanding Presidency 361
The Framers’ Conception of the Presidency 361
x
The Dormant Presidency 362
The Twentieth-Century Transformation 363
Can Government Do Anything Well?
The National Park System  364
How Important Are Individual Presidents? 366
12.2 The Powers and Roles of the
President 367
Chief of State 368
Domestic Policy Leader 368
Chief Executive 369
Foreign Policy and Military Leader 371
Using the Framework 374
Head of His Political Party 375
12.3 The President’s Support System 376
The White House Staff 376
The Executive Office of the President 377
The Vice Presidency 378
The Cabinet 378
12.4 The President and Congress:
Perpetual Tug-of-War 379
Conflict by Constitutional Design 379
What Makes a President Successful with
Congress? 380
12.5 The President and the People: An
Evolving Relationship 382
Getting Closer to the People 382
Leading Public Opinion 383
Responding to the Public 384
Presidential Popularity 384
Using the Democracy Standard  386
13
The Executive Branch 390
13.1 The American Bureaucracy: How
Exceptional? 393
Hostile Political Culture 394
Incoherent Organization 394
Divided Control 395
13.2 How the Executive Branch Is
Organized 396
13.3 What Do Bureaucrats Do? 400
Executing Programs and Policies 400
Using the Framework 401
Regulating 402
 Can Government Do Anything
14.5 The Supreme Court as a National
Well? The Centers for Disease Control
Policymaker 441
(CDC) 403
Adjudicating 404 Structural Change and Constitutional
Interpretation 442
Discretion and Democracy 405
Can Government Do Anything Well?
13.4 Who Are the Bureaucrats? 405 Protecting the Due Process Rights of
the Accused  444
The Merit Services 405
Using the Framework 446
Political Appointees 407
The Debate over Judicial Activism 448
13.5 Political and Governmental Influences
on Bureaucratic Behavior 408 14.6 Outside Influences on the
Court 451
The President and the Bureaucracy 409
Congress and the Bureaucracy 410 Governmental Influences 451
Political Linkage Influences 452
Mapping American Politics: Tracking
Where Homeland Security Dollars First Using the Democracy
Ended Up 411 Standard 454
The Courts and the Bureaucracy 414
The Public and the Press 414
Interest Groups 415

13.6 Reforming the Federal

PART V What Government
Bureaucracy 415 Does
Scaling Back Its Size 415
Becoming More Businesslike 418 Civil Liberties: The
Protecting Against Bureaucratic Abuses of 15 Struggle for Freedom 458
Power 418
Increasing Presidential Control 419
15.1 Civil Liberties in the
Using the Democracy Standard  419 Constitution 461
15.2 Rights and Liberties in the Nineteenth
14 The Courts 424 Century 461
Economic Liberty in the Early Republic 462
Economic Liberty After the Civil War 464
14.1 The Foundations of Judicial
Power 427 15.3 Nationalization of the Bill of
Rights 465
Constitutional Design 427
Freedom of Speech 467
Judicial Review 427
Freedom of the Press 471
14.2 The U.S. Court System: Organization Religious Freedom 473
and Jurisdiction 430 Privacy 478
Constitutional Provisions 430 Rights of the Accused 480
Federal District Courts 431
Mapping American Politics:
U.S. Courts of Appeal 432 Violent Crime And The Death
The Supreme Court 433 Penalty 485

14.3 Appointment to the Federal 15.4 Civil Liberties and Terrorism 486
Bench 435 Bush Administration Policies 486
Who Are the Appointees? 435 Using the Framework 487
The Appointment Process 436 Obama Administration Policies 488

14.4 The Supreme Court in Action 438 Can Government Do Anything Well? The
USA Patriot Act and protecting citizens
Norms of Operation 438 against terrorist attacks 489
Controlling the Agenda 438 The Court Responds 490
Deciding Cases 440 Using the Democracy Standard  491

xi
 Civil Rights: The Struggle
16 for Political Equality 494
16.1 Civil Rights Before the Twentieth
Century 497
An Initial Absence of Civil Rights 497
The Civil War Amendments 498
17.4 Regulation 540
Why Government Regulates 540
A History of American Regulation 540
The Future of Regulation 542
17.5 Safety Net Programs 542
Types of Safety Net Programs 543
The Costs of Safety Net Programs 543

16.2 The Contemporary Status of 17.6 Social Insurance 544

Civil Rights for Racial and Ethnic
Minorities 501
Ending Government-Sponsored Separation and
Discrimination 502
Can Government Do Anything Well?
Making “equal protection” a
reality 503
Affirmative Action 506
16.3 The Contemporary Status of Civil
Rights for Women 510
Using the Framework 511
Mapping American Politics: Gener
equality 512
Intermediate Scrutiny 513
Abortion Rights 514
Sexual Harassment and Hostile
Environment 514
Social Security 544
Medicare 546
Do Social Insurance Programs Work? 547
17.7 Means-Tested Programs 548
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families 548
Food Stamps 550
By the Numbers: How many Americans
are poor? 551
Medicaid and Health Insurance for Poor
Children 552
Using the Framework 553
The Earned Income Tax Credit 554
17.8 The Affordable Care Act (ACA) 554
Can Government Do Anything Well?
Enhancing the nutritional well-being
of poor children 555

16.4 Broadening the Civil Rights 17.9 Differences in the American System
Umbrella 515 of Safety Nets 557
The Elderly and the Disabled 516 How Exceptional? 557
Gays and Lesbians 516 Factors That Influence the Shape of the American
Safety Net System 558
Using the Democracy Standard  519
Final Thoughts on American Domestic
Policies 559
Using The Democracy Standard  560

17 Domestic Policies 524

Foreign Policy and
17.1 Why Does the Federal Government
Do So Much? 528 18 National Defense 566
Managing the Economy 528
Providing Safety Nets 529 18.1 Foreign Policy and Democracy: A
17.2 Economic Policies 529 Contradiction in Terms? 569
The Goals of Economic Policy 529 18.2 The United States as a
The Government’s Macroeconomic Policy Superpower 570
Tools 532 The American Superpower: Structural
Fashioning the Federal Budget 534 Foundations 570
17.3
Federal Revenues 536 Can Government Do Anything Well?
Providing Health Care for Veterans 576
Budget Deficits and the National Debt 537
The American Superpower: Strategic Alternatives 579

xii
18.3 Problems of the Post–Cold War By the Numbers: How much do rich
World 581 countries help poor countries
develop? 593
Security Issues 581
Congress 596
Economic and Social Issues 588
Using the Framework 597
18.4 Who Makes Foreign Policy? 592
Using The Democracy Standard  598
The President and the Executive Branch 592
Review the Chapter 598

Appendix 603 • Glossary 624 • Notes 634 • Credits 665 • Index 666 • Answer Key 694

xiii
 to the Student
Why study American
government and
politics and why read this textbook to do it? Here’s why:
Only by understanding how our complex political system
operates and how government works can you play a role in
deciding what government does. Only by understanding
the obstacles that stand in your way as you enter the politi-
cal fray, as well as the abundant opportunities you have to
advance your ideas and values in the political process, can
you play an effective role.
You can learn this best, we believe, by studying what
political scientists have discovered about American poli-
tics and government. Political science is the systematic
study of the role that people and groups play in determin-
ing what government does, how government goes about
implementing its policy decisions, and what social, eco-
nomic, and political consequences flow from government
actions. The best political science research is testable, evi-
dence-based, and peer-reviewed, as free as possible from
ideological and partisan bias as it can be.
The Struggle for Democracy not only introduces you to
that research, but it also helps you critically analyze the
American political system and identify opportunities to
make a difference. In The Struggle for Democracy, we pro-
vide a simple but powerful framework to help you see how
government, politics, and the larger society are intertwined
and how government policies are a product of the interac-
tions of actors and institutions in these domains. Our hope
and expectation is that using The Struggle for Democracy
will help you to succeed in your introduction to American
government and politics.
But we are interested in more than your class-
room success. We believe that knowing how politics and
­government work and how closely they conform to our
democratic values gives you a head start in the real world
of politics. But we are not naive. We do not believe that
making your mark on public policies is or will be an easy
matter or that all that you and like-minded individuals
need to do is vote. After all, those who have gained the
most from government policies have substantial resources
to make certain that government treats them well.
But you have resources as well. Change you are
interested in may come from, in addition to voting, your
involvement in political campaigns, using social media to
xiv
Meet Your Authors
Edward S. Greenberg
is Professor Emeritus of Political
Science and a Research Professor
of Behavioral Science at the
University of Colorado, Boulder.
Ed’s research and teaching inter-
ests include American government
and politics, domestic and global
political economy, and democratic
theory and practice, with a special
emphasis on workplace issues. His
multi-year longitudinal panel study,
funded by the NIH, examining the
impact of corporate restructuring
on employees, has recently been
published and is now being revised
and updated.
Benjamin I. Page
is the Gordon S. Fulcher Professor of Decision Making at Northwestern
University in Evanston, Illinois. Ben’s interests include public opinion
and policy making, the mass media, empirical democratic theory,
­political economy, policy formation, the presidency, and American
­foreign policy. He is currently engaged in a large collaborative project
to study Economically Successful Americans and the Common
Good and the rise and political consequences of income and wealth
­inequality in the United States.
persuade others of your views or to organize meetings and
demonstrations, participating in social movement organi-
zations, contributing to groups and politicians who share
your views, interests, and more. So, much like waging war,
making your voice heard requires that you know the “lay
of the land,” including the weapons you have at your dis-
posal (we would call them political tools), and the weapons
of those arrayed against you. But, much like peacemak-
ing, you need to know how and when compromises can be
reached that serve the interests of all parties.
Lest all of the above seems too daunting, we also have
tried to make this book enjoyable and accessible so that
reading it and learning from it will be a great deal of fun
for you. We believe we have succeeded in this goal. We
only hope you have as much fun reading The Struggle for
Democracy as we had writing it for you.
To The Instructor
We decided to write this book
because as instructors in large
American government courses, we could not find a book that provided stu-
dents with usable tools for critically analyzing our political system and making
judgments about how well our government works. The Struggle for Democracy
does not simply present facts about government and politics, but it provides
several analytical and normative frameworks for putting the flood of facts we
ask our students to absorb into a more comprehensible form. By doing so, we
believe we have made it easier and more satisfying for instructors to teach the
introductory course.
Our goal, all along, has been to create a textbook that treats students
as adults, engages their intellectual and emotional attention, and encourages
them to be active learners. Every element in this text is designed to promote
the kind of critical thinking skills scholars and instructors believe students
need in order to become the engaged, active, and informed citizens that are so
vital to any democracy. Over the next several sections, we show the elements
we have created to meet these objectives.

New to This Edition

Key updates to this eleventh edition of The Struggle for Democracy include:
• Substantial coverage of the consequential 2012 national and the 2014
midterm congressional elections, with special attention to these elections
in Chapter 10 on voting, campaigns, and elections and in Chapter 11 on
Congress.
• Coverage throughout, but especially in Chapters 3, 10, 14, 15, 16, and 17,
on important rulings by the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage, efforts
to limit voting rights, immigration, affirmative action, election financing, the
commerce clause, and the Affordable Care Act.
• Consideration, especially in Chapter 12, “The Presidency” and Chapter
18, “Foreign Policy and National Defense,” on the new challenges posed
by the rise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, nuclear weapons programs in North
Korea, Pakistan, and especially Iran, China’s emergence as a competing
world power, and Russia’s attempt to reassert its power in Ukraine and in
other countries formerly a part of the Soviet Union.
• Increased attention to the growing partisan bitterness in Washington
and across much of the nation that affects how government addresses or
fails to address virtually every major problem facing the nation whether
it be energy, illegal immigration, climate change, or the shrinking middle
class (Chapters 9, 10, 11, and 17).
• A focus in several chapters on the question of whether and to what degree
income and wealth inequality has increased, and if it has, with what politi-
cal and public policy consequences. We also look at globalization and
technological change and their impact on Americans. xv
 • We also look at the ways economic and technological trends shape gov-
ernment action, including new legislation to regulate the financial indus-
try, executive orders increasing gas mileage requirements for cars, and
prosecution of government employees who leak confidential government
information to social media sites (Chapters 4, 6, 15, 17, and 18).
• Photos in this edition were selected not only to capture major events from
the last few years but to illustrate politics’ relevancy. They show political
actors and processes as well as people affected by politics, creating a visual
narrative that enhances rather than repeats the text. The data in all of the
figures and tables have been updated throughout with the intention of
helping users think critically not only about political decisions in retro-
spect but also about pending government action.

Revel™
Educational technology designed for the way today’s
students read, think, and learn When students are engaged
deeply, they learn more effectively and perform better in their courses. This
simple fact inspired the creation of REVEL: an immersive learning experi-
ence designed for the way today’s students read, think, and learn. Built in
collaboration with educators and students nationwide, REVEL is the newest,
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REVEL enlivens course content with media interactives and a­ ssessments—
integrated directly within the authors’ narrative—that provide opportunities
for students to read about and practice course material in tandem. This immer-
sive educational technology boosts student engagement, which leads to better
understanding of concepts and improved performance throughout the course.
Learn more about REVEL at http://www.pearsonhighered.com/revel/.

Features
Approach The Struggle for Democracy provides several analytical and nor-
mative frameworks for putting the flood of facts we ask our students to absorb
into a more comprehensible form. Although all topics that are common and
expected in the introductory American government and politics course are
covered in this textbook, our three main focal points—the analytical frame-
work for understanding how politics and government work and the questions
“How democratic are we?” and “Can government do anything well?”—allow
us to take a fresh look at traditional topics.
We pay great attention to structural factors—which include the American
economy, social change in the United States, technological innovations and
change, the American political culture, and changes in the global system—
and examine how they affect politics, government, and public policy. These
factors are introduced in Chapter 4—a chapter unique among introductory
texts—and they are brought to bear on a wide range of issues in subsequent
chapters.
We attend very carefully to issues of democratic political theory. This fol-
lows from our critical thinking objective, which asks students to assess the
progress of and prospects for democracy in the United States, and from
our desire to present American history as the history of the struggle for
democracy. For instance, we examine how the evolution of the party system
has improved democracy in some respects in the United States, but hurt it
in others.
xvi
 We also include more historical perspective because that is the best way to
evaluate the progress of democracy in the United States. We show, for exam-
ple, how the expansion of civil rights in the United States has been associated
with important historical events and trends.
We have integrated substantial comparative information because we believe
that a full understanding of government and politics and the effect of struc-
tural factors on them is possible only through a comparison of developments,
practices, and institutions in the United States with those in other nations. We
understand better how our system of social welfare works, for example, when
we see how other rich democratic countries deal with the problems of poverty,
unemployment, and old age.

Coverage Part 1 includes an introduction to the textbook, its themes, and

the critical thinking tools used throughout the book. Part 2 covers the struc-
tural foundations of American government and politics, addressing subjects
such as America’s economy, political culture, and place in the international
system; the constitutional framework of the American political system; and
the development of federalism. Part 3 focuses on what we call political linkage
institutions, such as parties, elections, public opinion, social movements, and
interest groups that convey the wants, needs, and demands of individuals and
groups to public officials. Part 4 concentrates on the central institutions of the
national government, including the presidency, Congress, and the Supreme
Court. Part 5 describes the kinds of policies the national government pro-
duces and analyzes how effective government is at solving pressing social
and economic problems. Our approach also means that the subjects of civil
liberties and civil rights are not treated in conjunction with the Constitution
in Part 2, which is the case with many introductory texts, but in Part 5, on
public policy. This is because we believe that the real-world status of civil
liberties and civil rights, while partly determined by specific provisions of the
Constitution, is better understood as the outcome of the interaction of struc-
tural, political, and governmental factors. Thus, the status of civil rights for
gays and lesbians depends not only on constitutional provisions but also on
the state of public opinion, degrees of support from elected political leaders,
and the decisions of the Supreme Court.

Pedagogy  The Struggle for Democracy offers unique features that help stu-
dents better understand, interpret, and critically evaluate American politics
and government.
• Using the Democracy Standard helps students to think about the
American political system as a whole using a normative democracy “yard-
stick” that measures the degree to which we have become more or less
democratic. This yardstick is introduced at the beginning of each chapter
and revisited in the final section of each chapter, which asks students what
conclusions they have reached regarding “How democratic are we?”
• Using the Framework is a unique visual tool that shows the many influ-
ences in the American political process and how they shape political deci-
sions and policies. This feature makes clear that government, politics, and
society are deeply intertwined in recognizable patterns; that what might
be called “deep structures”—the economy, society, political culture, and
the constitutional rules—are particularly important for understanding
how our system works; and that understanding American politics requires
the holistic focus this feature encourages.
• By the Numbers encourages students to understand the numbers and
statistical information on government, politics, economy, and society and
to distinguish between good and bad statistical information in a world xvii
 increasingly described by numbers. In each box, we describe a particular
statistic, telling why it is important, what the story behind the statistic is,
why the statistic was first calculated, and what assumptions are embedded
in it. We then show how the statistic is calculated, examine what critics
and supporters say about its usefulness and validity, and ask students what
they think about issues addressed by the statistic, whether it is an issue
like party identification or voting turnout.
• Mapping American Politics features cartograms—maps that display
information organized on a geographical basis with each unit (e.g., a
county, state, or country) sized in proportion to the data being reported.
This helps students visualize politically consequential numeric informa-
tion. A broad range of issues—how the geographic bases of the political
parties are changing, where American economic and military assistance
dollars go, and more—are illuminated.
• Can Government Do Anything Well? asks whether government or the
market or some combination of the two is the most appropriate instru-
ment for solving our most important national problems. We highlight
some important areas of federal government activity that have functioned
well over the years and examine claims that the private sector can do a
better job. In providing this feature, we hope we help bridge the deep
divide that separates those who believe that “government is always the
solution” and those who believe that “government is always the problem.”
• Timelines appear throughout this book to help students develop a sense
of historical context. Topics include federalism milestones, development
of the U.S. census, a history of the Internet, and the rise and fall of labor
unions.
• Every chapter includes a marginal glossary to support students’ under-
standing of new and important concepts at first encounter. For easy refer-
ence, key terms from the marginal glossary are repeated at the end of each
chapter and in the end-of-book glossary.

Supplements
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tive learning assessments and classroom engagement. Pearson’s partnership
with educators does not end with the delivery of course materials; Pearson is
there with you on the first day of class and beyond. A dedicated team of local
Pearson representatives will work with you to not only choose course materials
but also integrate them into your class and assess their effectiveness. Our goal
is your goal—to improve instruction with each semester.
Pearson is pleased to offer the following resources to qualified adopters of
Government in America. Several of these supplements are available to instantly
download on the Instructor Resource Center (IRC); please visit the IRC
www.pearsonhighered.com/irc to register for access.

Test Bank Evaluate learning at every level. Reviewed for clarity and ac-
curacy, the Test Bank measures this book’s learning objectives with multiple
choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, short answer, and essay questions. You
can easily customize the assessment to work in any major learning manage-
ment system and to match what is covered in your course. Word, BlackBoard,
and WebCT versions available on the IRC and Respondus versions available
upon request from www.respondus.com.
xviii
Pearson MyTest This powerful assessment generation program includes
all of the questions in the Test Bank. Quizzes and exams can be easily au-
thored and saved online and then printed for classroom use, giving you ulti-
mate flexibility to manage assessments anytime and anywhere. To learn more,
visit, www.pearsonhighered.com/mytest.

Instructor’s Manual Create a comprehensive roadmap for teach-

ing classroom, online, or hybrid courses. Designed for new and experienced
instructors, the Instructor’s Manual includes a sample syllabus, lecture and
discussion suggestions, activities for in or out of class, and essays on teaching
American Government. Available on the IRC.

PowerPoint Presentation with Classroom Response

System (CRS) Make lectures more enriching for students. The PowerPoint
Presentation includes a full lecture script, discussion questions, photos and
figures from the book, and links to MyPoliSciLab multimedia. With inte-
grated clicker questions, get immediate feedback on what your students are
learning during a lecture. Available on the IRC.

Acknowledgments
We want to thank the many students and Graduate Teaching Assistants who
have used this book as a learning and teaching tool and let us know what
worked and what didn’t work in previous editions. We appreciate their insight
and candor. Our thanks go as well to our editors at Pearson, Jeff Marshall and
Vikram Mukhija, who have been strong believers in our book and our princi-
pal guides into the brave new world of digital learning. Laura Town and Judy
O’Neill were magnificent development editors, keeping us on track, offering
compelling suggestions for content updates and helping with everything from
photo selection to the design of rendered exhibits. Nancy Thorwardson and
Scott Minkoff created the cartograms—most originally designed for the fifth
edition by Mike Ward of Duke University—for updated and new material in
the Mapping feature. Ed Greenberg would like to especially thank the follow-
ing advanced undergraduate and graduate students who helped with research:
Hunter Coohill, Zach Seigel, Corey Barwick, and Bill Jaeger.
This edition of The Struggle for Democracy benefited greatly from the wis-
dom and generosity of David Doherty of Loyola University, Scott Minkoff of
Barnard College, and Josh Ryan of Bradley University, who revised eight of
the eighteen chapters. Each of these, former head teaching assistants at the
University of Colorado and recognized scholars and admired teachers at their
respective institutions, have become key collaborators and major contributors
to this project. It can be said without exaggeration that this revision could not
have been done without them.

xix
 1
Democracy
and American
Politics
Robert Moses and the Struggle
for African American Voting Rights
he right to vote in elections is fundamental to democracy. But many Americans

T
won the right to vote only after long struggles. It took more than 30 years from
the adoption of the Constitution, for instance, for most states to allow people
without property to vote. Women gained the right to vote in all U.S. elections
only in 1920, and young people ages 18 to 20 did so only beginning in 1971.
African Americans in the South were not able to vote in any numbers until after 1965, despite
the existence of the Fifteenth Amendment—which says the vote cannot be denied to American
citizens on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude—adopted in 1870 after the
Civil War.
In Mississippi in the early 1960s, only 5 percent of African Americans were registered to
vote, and none held elective office, though they accounted for 43 percent of the population. In
Walthall County, Mississippi, not a single black was registered, although roughly 3,000 were
eligible to vote.1 What kept them away from the polls was a combination of exclusionary vot-
ing registration rules, economic pressures, and violence against those brave enough to defy
the prevailing political and social order. In Ruleville, Mississippi, civil rights activist Fannie Lou
Hamer was forced out of the house she was renting on a large plantation; fired from her job; and
arrested, jailed, and beaten by police after she tried to register to vote.2
The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) launched its Voter Education Proj-
ect in 1961 with the aim of ending black political powerlessness in the Deep South. Composed

1.1 1.2 1.3

Explain the mean- Outline a system- Think about ways

ing of democracy atic framework to analyze the
and its use as a for thinking about question: “Does
standard to evalu- how government government
ate American and politics work, work?” p. 19
government and p. 15
politics, p. 4

2
WORTH THE WAIT African American voters wait outside the
­Haywood County court house in Tennessee to cast their ballots after
passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

3
 primarily of African American college students, SNCC worked to increase black voter reg-
1.1 istration, to challenge exclusionary rules like the poll tax and the literacy test, and to enter
African American candidates in local elections. Its first step was to create “freedom
schools” in some of the most segregated counties in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia
1.2 to teach black citizens about their rights under the law. Needless to say, SNCC volunteers
attracted the malevolent attention of police, local officials, and vigilantes.
The first of the freedom schools was founded in McComb, Mississippi, by a remarkable
young man named Robert Parris Moses. Despite repeated threats to his life and more than
1.3
a few physical attacks, Moses traveled the back roads of Amite and Walthall Counties, meet-
ing with small groups of black farmers and encouraging them to attend the freedom school.
At the school, he showed them not only how to fill out the registration forms, but also how
to read and interpret the constitution of Mississippi for the “literacy test” required to regis-
ter to vote. Once people in the school gathered the courage to journey to the county seat to
try to register, Moses accompanied them to lend support and encouragement.
Moses paid a price. Over a period of a few months in 1963, he was arrested several
times for purported traffic violations; attacked on the main street of Liberty, Mississippi,
by the county sheriff’s cousin and beaten with the butt end of a knife; assaulted by a mob
behind the McComb County courthouse; hit by police while standing in line at the voting
registrar’s office with one of his students; and jailed for not paying fines connected with his
participation in civil rights demonstrations.
Despite the efforts of Moses and other SNCC volunteers, African American registration
barely increased in Mississippi in the early 1960s. Black Americans there and in other states
of the Deep South would have to await the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which
provided powerful federal government protections for all American citizens wishing to exer-
cise their right to vote.3 The Voter Education Project was a key building block of a powerful
civil rights movement (see Chapters 8 and 16) that would eventually force federal action in
the 1960s to support the citizenship rights of African Americans in the South. Robert Moses
and many other African Americans were willing to risk all they had, including their lives, to
gain full and equal citizenship in the United States. They surely would have been gratified
by the election of African American Barack Obama in 2008 as the nation’s 44th president.
The struggle for democracy is happening in many countries today, where people fight
against all odds for the right to govern themselves and control their own destinies, whether
in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Burma, Tunisia, or Sierra Leone. Americans are participants in this
drama, not only because American political ideas and institutions have often provided in-
spiration for democratic movements in other countries, but also because the struggle for
democracy continues in our own society. Although honored and celebrated, democracy
remains an unfinished project in the United States. The continuing struggle to expand and
perfect democracy is a major feature of American history and a defining characteristic of
our politics today. It is a central theme of this book.

Democracy
1.1 Explain the meaning of democracy and its use as a standard to evaluate American
government and politics

Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any
better, or equal, hope in the world?

—Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address

ith the exception of anarchists who believe that people can live in har-

W mony without any form of authority, it is generally recognized that when

people live together in groups and communities, an entity of some sort is
needed to provide law and order; to protect against external aggressors;
and to provide essential public goods such as roads, waste disposal, education, and
clean water. It is safe to say that most people do not want to live in places where there
4 is no government to speak of at all, as in Somalia, or where there is a failed state, as
in Haiti. If government is both necessary and inevitable, certain questions become
unavoidable: Who is to govern? How are those who govern to be encouraged to serve 1.1
the best interests of society? How can governments be induced to make policies and
laws that citizens consider legitimate and worth obeying? How can citizens ensure
that those who govern both carry out laws and policies the people want and do so 1.2
effectively? In short, what is the best form of government? For most Americans the
answer is clear: democracy.
Democracy’s central idea is that ordinary people want to rule themselves and are 1.3
capable of doing so.4 This idea has proved enormously popular, not only with Americans,
but with people all over the world.5 To be sure, some people would give top priority to
other things besides self-government as a requirement for the good society, including
such things as safety and security or the need to have religious law and values determine
what government does. Nevertheless, the appealing notion that ordinary people can and
should rule themselves has spread to all corners of the globe, and the number of people
living in democratic societies has increased significantly over the past two decades.6
It is no wonder that a form of government based on the notion that people are
capable of ruling themselves enjoys widespread popularity, especially compared with
government by the few (e.g., the Communist Party rule in China and Cuba) or by a
single person (e.g., the dictatorship of Kim Jong-un in North Korea). There are reasons
for its appeal. Some political thinkers think that democracy is the form of govern-
ment that best protects human rights because it is the only one based on a recognition
of the intrinsic worth and equality of human beings. Others believe that democracy is
the form of government most likely to produce rational policies because it can count
on the pooled knowledge and expertise of a society’s entire population: a political ver-
sion, if you will, of the wisdom of crowds, something like the Wiki phenomenon.7 Still
others claim that democracies are more stable and long-lasting because their leaders,
elected by and answerable to voters, enjoy a strong sense of legitimacy among citizens.
Many others suggest that democracy is the form of government most conducive to
economic growth and material well-being, a claim with some scholarly support. (The
relative economic growth in the years ahead of India, a democracy, and China, a party-
state, will be a good, real-world test of this proposition.) Others, finally, believe that
democracy is the form of government under which human beings, because they are
free, are best able to develop their natural capacities and talents.8 There are many com-
pelling reasons, then, why democracy has been preferred by so many people.
Americans have supported the idea of self-government and have helped make the
nation more democratic over the course of our history.9 Nevertheless, democracy remains
an aspiration rather than a finished product. Our goal in this book is to help you think
carefully about the quality and progress of democracy in the United States. We want to
help you reach your own independent judgments about the degree to which politics and
government in the United States make our country more or less democratic. We want
to help you draw your own conclusions about which political practices and institutions
in the United States encourage and sustain popular self-rule and which ones discourage
and undermine it. To do this, we must be clear about the meaning of democracy.

◻ Democratic Origins
Many of our ideas about democracy originated with the ancient Greeks. The Greek
roots of the word democracy are demos, meaning “the people,” and kratein, meaning
“to rule.” Philosophers and rulers were not friendly to the idea that the many can and
should rule themselves. Most believed that governing was a difficult art, requiring the
greatest sophistication, intelligence, character, and training—certainly not the prov-
ince of ordinary people. Aristotle expressed this view in his classic work Politics, where
he observed that democracy “is a government in the hands of men of low birth, no
property, and vulgar employments.”
Instead, they preferred rule by a select few (such as an aristocracy, in which a
hereditary nobility rules, or a clerical establishment as in Iran today, where ­religious
leaders rule) or by an enlightened one, somewhat akin to the philosopher king 5

democracy
1.1 A system of government in which the
people rule; rule by the many.
1.2 oligarchy
Rule by the few, where a minority
holds power over a majority, as in an
aristocracy or a clerical establishment.
1.3
monarchy
Rule by the one, such as where power
rests in the hands of a king or queen.
direct democracy
A form of political decision making in
which policies are decided by the peo-
ple themselves, rather than by their
representatives, acting either in small
face-to-face assemblies or through the
electoral process as in initiatives and
referenda in the American states.
6
described by Plato in his Republic, or a hereditary monarch as in England in the time
of ­Elizabeth I. Democracy, then, is “rule by the people” or, to put it as the Greeks did,
self-­government by the many, as opposed to oligarchy (rule by the few) or monarchy
(rule by the one). The idea that ordinary people might rule themselves represents an
important departure from most historical beliefs.10 In practice, throughout human his-
tory, most governments have been quite undemocratic.
Inherent in the idea of self-rule by ordinary people is an understanding that gov-
ernment must serve all its people and that ultimately none but the people themselves
can be relied on to know, and hence to act in accordance with, their own values and
interests.11
Interestingly, democracy in the sense described here is more a set of utopian ideas
than a description of real societies. Athens of the fifth century bce is usually cited as the
purest form of democracy that ever existed. There, all public policies were decided upon
in periodic assemblies of Athenian citizens, though women, slaves, and immigrants were
excluded from participation.12 Nevertheless, the existence of a society in Athens where
“a substantial number of free, adult males were entitled as citizens to participate freely
in governing”13 proved to be a powerful example of what was possible for those who
believed that rule by the people was the best form of government. A handful of other
cases of popular rule kept the democratic idea alive across the centuries. Beginning in
the fifth century bce, for example, India enjoyed long periods marked by spirited and
broadly inclusive public debate and discourse on public issues. In the Roman Republic,
male citizens elected the consuls, the chief magistrates of the powerful city-state. Also,
during the Middle Ages in Europe, some cities were governed directly by the people (at
least by men who owned property) rather than by nobles, church, or crown. During the
Renaissance, periods of popular control of government (again, limited to male property
holders) occurred in the city-states of Venice, Florence, and Milan.
◻ Direct Versus Representative Democracy
To the ancient Greeks, democracy meant rule by the common people exercised directly
in open assemblies. They believed that democracy implied face-to-face deliberation
and decision making about the public business. Direct democracy requires, however,
RULE BY THE FEW
Although the elected president of Iran is influential in determining what the Iranian government does,
real power in the country is exercised by an unelected clergy and the Revolutionary Guards, the country’s
leading security force with considerable influence in the political sphere. The mullahs (or clerics), the
ideological custodians of all Iranian institutions and debates, listen to presidential addresses for any
slackening in ideological commitment. Is a system that is responsive, in theory, to the many but run, in
reality, by the few likely to retain legitimacy over the long term? How might the people of Iran move their
system to one where the majority rules rather than the few?
 representative democracy
I n d i r e c t d e m o c r a c y, i n w h i c h 1.1
the people rule through elected
representatives.
1.2

1.3

RULE BY THE MANY

In small towns throughout New England, local policies and budgets are decided upon at regular town
meetings, in which the entire town population is invited to participate. What are some advantages to
such a system? What might be the drawbacks? What other kinds of forums might there be where direct
democracy is possible?

that all citizens be able to meet together regularly to debate and decide the issues
of the day. Such a thing was possible in fifth century bce Athens, which was small
enough to allow all male citizens to gather in one place. In Athens, moreover, male
citizens had time to meet and to deliberate because women provided household labor
and slaves accounted for most production.
Because direct, participatory democracy is possible only in small communities
where citizens with abundant leisure time can meet on a face-to-face basis, it is an
unworkable arrangement for a large and widely dispersed society such as the United
States.14 Democracy in large societies must take the representative form, since mil-
lions of citizens cannot meet in open assembly. By representative democracy we
mean a system in which the people select others, called representatives, to act on
their behalf.
Although representative (or indirect) democracy seems to be the only form
of democracy possible in large-scale societies, some political commentators argue
that the participatory aspects of direct democracy are worth preserving as an ideal
and that certain domains of everyday life—workplaces and schools, for instance—
could be enriched by more direct democratic practices.15 It is worth pointing out,
moreover, that direct democracy can and does flourish in some local communities
today. In many New England towns, for example, citizens make decisions directly
at town meetings. At the state level, the initiative process allows voters in many
states to bypass the legislature to make policies or amend state constitutions. Some
observers believe that the Internet is empowering people to become more directly
engaged and influential in the political process and that this process will accel-
erate in the ­future.16 Increasingly, the Internet, mobile devices, and social media
sites ­enable people to more easily gather information, deliberate with other citi-
zens about important issues, organize political meetings and demonstrations, and
directly communicate their interests and demands to political leaders at all levels
of government.17 These new forms of communication and mobilization were espe-
cially evident in the so-called Arab Spring in 2011 when popular uprisings drove
autocratic leaders from power in several countries and forced leaders in others to
pay attention to popular demands. 7
 popular sovereignty
1.1 The basic principle of democracy that
the people are the ultimate source
of government authority and of the
policies that government leaders
1.2 make.
autocracy
1.3 General term that describes all forms
of government characterized by rule
by a single person or by a group with
total power, whether a monarchy, a
military tyranny, or a theocracy.
8 society, the weaker the democracy.
◻ Benchmarks of Representative Democracy
In large societies such as our own, then, democracy means rule by the people, exer-
cised indirectly through representatives elected by the people. Still, this definition is
not sufficiently precise to use as a standard by which to evaluate the American politi-
cal system. It does not tell us what features indirect representative systems must have
to ensure that those who govern do so on behalf of and in the interest of the people.
You will see that this involves more than the existence of elections.18 To help further
clarify the definition of democracy, we add three additional benchmarks drawn from
both the scholarly literature and popular understandings of democracy. These bench-
marks are popular sovereignty, political equality, and political liberty, with the latter two
being necessary for the first (that is to say, for popular sovereignty to work political
equality and political liberty must exist). A society in which all three flourish, we
argue, is a healthy representative democracy. A society in which any of the three is
absent or impaired falls short of the representative democratic ideal. Let us see what
each of them means.
Popular Sovereignty Popular sovereignty means that people are the ulti-
mate source of government authority and that what the government does is deter-
mined by what the people want. If ultimate authority resides not in the hands of the
many but in the hands of the few (as in an aristocratic order), or of the one (whether
a benevolent sovereign or a ruthless dictator), democracy does not exist. Nor does it
exist if government consistently fails to follow the preferences and serve the inter-
ests of the people.
How can we recognize popular sovereignty when we see it? The following seven
conditions are especially important.
Government Leaders are Selected in Competitive Elections The existence of a
close match between what the people want and what government does, however, does
not necessarily prove that the people are sovereign. In an autocracy, for example, the
will of the people can be consciously shaped to correspond to the wishes of the lead-
ership. For the direction of influence to flow from the people to the leadership, some
mechanism must exist for forcing leaders to be responsive to the people’s wishes and to
be responsible to them for their actions. The best mechanism ever invented to achieve
these goals is the contested election in which both existing and aspiring government
leaders must periodically face the people for judgment. (See the “Mapping American
Politics” feature on competition in U.S. presidential elections.)
Elections are Free and Fair If elections are to be useful as a way to keep govern-
ment leaders responsive and responsible, they must be conducted in a fashion that is
free and fair. By free, we mean that there is no coercion of voters or election officials
and that virtually all citizens are able to run for office and vote in elections. By fair, we
mean, among other things, that election rules do not favor some over others and that
ballots are accurately counted.
People Participate in the Political Process Although government leaders may be
elected in a balloting process that is free and fair, such a process is useful in convey-
ing the will of the people and keeping leaders responsive and responsible only if the
people participate. If elections and other forms of political participation only attract a
minority of the eligible population, they cannot serve as a way to understand what the
broad public wants or as an instrument forcing leaders to pay attention to it. Wide-
spread participation in politics—including voting in elections, contacting public of-
ficials, working with others to bring matters to public attention, joining associations
that work to shape government actions, and more—is necessary to ensure not only
that responsive representatives will be chosen, but that they will also have continuous
incentives to pay attention to the people. Because widespread participation is so cen-
tral to popular sovereignty, we can say that the less political participation there is in a
 majority rule
The form of political decision making 1.1
in which policies are decided on the
basis of what a majority of the people
want.
1.2

1.3

VOTING AT LONG LAST

The South Sudanese woman in this photograph is believed to be the oldest voter to cast a vote for
independence in a referendum that secured South Sudan’s future as a state independent of the much-larger
predominately Muslim nation of Sudan. Following a January referendum, South Sudan became an independent
nation in July 2011. Is voting a sufficient condition for the existence of democracy or must other conditions
exist to ensure that political leaders act as representatives of the people?

High-Quality Information is Available If people are to form authentic and rational

attitudes about public policies and political leaders, they must have access to accurate
political information, insightful interpretations, and vigorous debate. These are the re-
sponsibility of government officials, opposition parties, opinion leaders, and the news
media. If false or biased information is provided, if policies are not challenged and
debated, or if misleading interpretations of the political world (or none at all) are of-
fered, the people cannot form opinions in accordance with their values and interests,
and popular sovereignty cannot be said to exist.

The Majority Rules How can the opinions and preferences of many individual citi-
zens be combined into a single binding decision? Because unanimity is unlikely—so
the insistence that new policies should require unanimous agreement for them to be
adopted would simply enshrine the status quo—reaching a decision requires a deci-
sion rule of some sort. If the actions of government are to respond to all citizens, each
citizen being counted equally, the only decision rule that makes sense is majority rule,
which means that the government adopts the policy that the most people want.19 The
only alternative to majority rule is minority rule, which would unacceptably elevate
the preferences and the interests of the few over the many. 9
1.1
Mapping American Politics
All the States Are Purple
1.2 Introduction WA-12
Voting in elections in which people can choose among MT-3 ND-3 ME-4
VT-3
competing candidates and political parties is one of the OR-7
MN-10
hallmarks of democratic political systems. As we suggest ID-4
SD-3 WI-10 NY-29
NH-4
MA-11
1.3 in this chapter, democracy requires other things, such WY-3 MI-16
RI-4
CT-7
as political equality, civil liberties, and a free press, but NV-6
NE-5
IA-6
OH-18
PA-20
NJ-14
competitive elections are essential. For the most part, at CA-55
UT-6
CO-9
IL-20 IN-11
WV-5
DE-3
MD-10
DC-3
all levels of government in the United States, the most KS-6 MO-10
KY-8
VA-13

important public offices are filled by election, including OK-7

TN-11
NC-15

that of the president. Both the map and the cartogram AZ-11
NM-5 AR-6 SC-9

show the results from the 2012 presidential election won MS-6 AL-9 GA-16

by Democrat Barack Obama over Republican Mitt TX-38

LA-8
Romney, focusing on turnout and competition between AK-3 FL-29

the candidates.
HI-4
Obama
Different Maps; Different Stories Romney
The standard geographic map of the United States on Standard U.S. Map, Blue for Obama States, Red for Romney States
this page shows states won by Mitt Romney (in red) and
Barack Obama (in blue). Election maps like this are widely
distributed in newspapers, magazines, and on television. ME
VT NH
However, they are misleading in a very fundamental way WA
NY
MA
ND MN
because they emphasize geographical space over people OR
ID
MT WI MI
WY SD CT RI
and overplay the partisan divisions in the country. They NV NE IA PA
take no account of the relative populations of the states CA
UT
CO IL IN
OH NJ
and exaggerate the political importance of large, underpop- KS
MO WV DC
MD
DE
ulated spaces. This map suggests a country that is mostly AZ NM OK KY VA

red, or Republican, yet we know that the Democratic can- AK AR TN NC

didate won a relatively decisive victory. So, is there a bet- TX MS AL
SC
GA
ter way to visualize who voted and for whom in 2012? LA

The second map on this page is called a cartogram. FL

We will be using cartograms throughout this book to HI

learn more about American politics. A cartogram is a way

to visually present information that is organized on a geo-
Size of States Adjusted to Reflect Voter Turnout; Each State Is a Mixture
graphical basis, with each unit (in this case, state) sized in of Red and Blue, Reflecting the Percentage of Obama and Romney Voters
proportion to the data being reported (in this case, num-
ber of voters). So rather than thinking of the cartogram as
a “map,” think of it as a figure displaying some aspect of
American politics in a geographical fashion. Sometimes
a cartogram shows geographical units in relation to one
another in direct proportion to some simple measure,
such as population size. Sometimes a cartogram shows
geographical units drawn to reflect some measure on a
per capita basis (such as the distribution of homeland se-
curity defense dollars to states divided by population size,
which we use in Chapter 13). Sometimes a cartogram Standard U.S. Map
shows geographical units expanded or diminished from
their “normal” geographical scale using mathematical
transformations that enable the viewer to easily compare lots of voters and Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska,
units (such as states and countries) while preserving the and Maine have relatively few.
rough outlines of the normal shapes of these units. In Color is often used to convey additional information
each “Mapping American Politics” feature in this book, in cartograms, as we do here. The proportions of blue
we will specify clearly what sort of cartogram we are (for Democratic voters) and red (for Republican voters)
using. in each state reflect the proportions of Democratic and
The cartogram here uses a simple and direct propor- Republican voters in that state. The result is a map with
tion; each state is sized according to the number of votes various shades of purple, because all states contain a
cast in the 2012 presidential election. By adjusting the mix of Democratic and Republican voters. The closer a
size of the states to reflect the number of citizens who state comes to the blue end of the spectrum, the more
voted for president in 2012, this cartogram shows clearly Democratic voters it has relative to Republicans; the
that California, Florida, New York, Texas, and Ohio have closer a state comes to the red end of the spectrum, the

10
(Continued)
more Republicans it has relative to Democrats. There are blue), such as California, have many Republican voters, 1.1
no pure red or blue states, no pure Republican or Demo- while states that are more red, such as Utah and Wyo-
cratic states. Even states that are deep purple (more ming, have many Democratic voters.

What Do You Think? 1.2

• How does the cartogram convey more information than the conventional map about competition in the 2012
election and where the most voters are located? Do you see anything interesting in either the map or the
cartogram that we have not mentioned here? How about your own state? What, if anything, about its portrayal 1.3
in the cartogram surprises you?

Source: U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk, http://clerk.house.gov/members/electionInfo/2012/Table.htm.

Cartogram produced in ArcMap using Tom Gross’s Cartogram Geoprocessing Tool (v2). ArcMap uses the Newman-Gastner
method [see details in Michael T. Gastner and Mark E. J. Newman, “Diffusion-Based Method for Producing
Density-Equalizing Maps,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 101 (2004): 7499–7504.]

Government Policies Reflect the Wishes of the People The most obvious sign of
political equality
popular sovereignty is the existence of a close correspondence between what govern-
The principle that each person c­ arries
ment does and what the people want it to do. It is hard to imagine a situation in which equal weight in the conduct of the
the people rule but government officials continuously make policies contrary to the public business.
expressed wishes of the majority of the people; sovereign people would most likely
react by removing such officials from power.
But does the democratic ideal require that government officials always do exactly
what the people want, right away, responding to every whim and passing fancy of the
public? This question has troubled many democratic theorists, and most have answered
that democracy is best served when representatives and other public officials respond to
the people after the people have had the opportunity to deliberate among themselves
about the issues.20 We might, then, want to speak of democracy as a system in which
government policies conform to what the people want over some period of time.

Government Policies are Effective Finally, for the people to rule, it is not sufficient
that government policies are put into place that reflect what the people want it to do. Ad-
ditionally, these policies must be carried out as intended and must effectively address the
problems or concerns that led to the formation of these policies in the first place. Without
this seventh and last condition for popular sovereignty, the people might end up with poli-
cies in place that reflect their wishes in name only. Government policies must be turned into
government actions that work. Thus for example, if the government, in response to popular
pressures, institutes a program to provide student loans for higher education, that program
must be designed and carried out in such a way that funds for the program get to the in-
tended beneficiaries—they are not wasted or diverted to financial institutions—and access
to higher education is expanded. Anything less, and the people cannot be said to fully rule.

Political Equality The second benchmark of representative ­democracy and a nec-

essary condition for popular sovereignty to exist is p
­ olitical equality, the idea that each
person, being of equal intrinsic value as other human beings, carries the same weight in
voting and other political decision making.21 Imagine, if you will, a society in which one
person could cast 100 votes in an election, another person 50 votes, and still another 25
votes, while many unlucky folks had only 1 vote each—or none at all. Democracy is a
way of making decisions in which each person has one, and only one, voice.
Most people know this intuitively. Our sense of what is proper is offended, for in-
stance, when some class of people is denied the right to vote in a society that boasts the
outer trappings of democracy. The denial of citizenship rights to African Americans in
the South before the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act is such an example. We
count it as a victory for democracy when previously excluded groups win the right to vote.
Political equality also involves what the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitu-
tion calls “equal protection,” meaning that everyone in a democracy is treated the same 11

civil rights
1.1 Guarantees by government of equal
citizenship to all social groups.
1.2 political liberty
The principle that citizens in a de-
mocracy are protected from govern-
ment interference in the exercise of a
1.3 range of basic freedoms, such as the
freedoms of speech, association, and
conscience.
social contract
The idea that government is the re-
sult of an agreement among people
to form one, and that people have the
right to create an entirely new govern-
ment if the terms of the contract have
been violated by the existing one.
12
by government. Government programs, for example, cannot favor one group over an-
other or deny benefits or protections to identifiable groups in the population, such as
racial and religious minorities. Nor should people be treated better or worse than oth-
ers by law enforcement agencies and the courts. Taken together, political equality and
equal treatment are sometimes called civil rights, a subject we will address in more
detail in Chapter 16.
But does political equality require that people be equal in ways that go beyond
having a voice in decision making and treatment by government? In particular, does
democracy require that inequalities in the distribution of income and wealth not be too
extreme? While many do not think this to be the case, thinkers as diverse as Aristotle,
Rousseau, and Jefferson thought so, believing that great inequalities in economic
circumstances are almost always translated into political inequality.22 Political scientist
Robert Dahl describes the problem in the following way:
If citizens are unequal in economic resources, so are they likely to be unequal in
political resources; and political equality will be impossible to achieve. In the ex-
treme case, a minority of rich will possess so much greater political resources than
other citizens that they will control the state, dominate the majority of citizens,
and empty the democratic process of all content.23
In later chapters, we will see that income and wealth are distributed in a highly un-
equal way in the United States, that the scale of this inequality has become dramatically
more pronounced over the past two decades,24 and that this inequality is sometimes
translated into great inequalities among people and groups in the political arena. We
will see for example, how powerful groups representing the most privileged sectors of
American society shape not only elections and legislation more than other Americans.
We will see how government agencies and leaders administer laws and regulations. In
such circumstances, the political equality benchmark is in danger of being violated.
Political Liberty A third benchmark of democracy in representative systems,
and a necessary condition for popular sovereignty to exist, is political liberty. Political
liberty refers to basic freedoms essential to the formation and expression of majority
opinion and its translation into public policies. These essential liberties include the
freedoms of speech, of conscience and religion, of the press, and of assembly and asso-
ciation embodied in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Philosopher John
Locke thought that individual rights and liberties were so fundamental to the good
society that their preservation was the central responsibility of any legitimate govern-
ment and that their protection was the very reason people agreed to enter into a social
contract to form government in the first place.
Without these First Amendment freedoms, as well as those freedoms involving
protections against arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, the other fundamental principles
of democracy could not exist. Popular sovereignty cannot be guaranteed if people are
prevented from participating in politics or if opposition to the government is crushed by
the authorities. Popular sovereignty cannot prevail if the voice of the people is silenced
and if citizens are not free to argue and debate, based on their own ideas, values, and
personal beliefs, and to form and express their political opinions.25 ­Political equality is
violated if some people can speak out but others cannot. Voting without liberty can lead
to elected autocrats such as Vladmir Putin in Russia and ­Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Egypt,
an outcome that is clearly undemocratic because opposition voices have been silenced.
For most people today, democracy and liberty are inseparable. The concept of self-
government implies not only the right to vote and to run for public office, but also
the right to speak one’s mind; to petition the government; and to join with others in
political parties, interest groups, or social movements. Over the years, a number of
political philosophers and practitioners have viewed liberty as threatened by democracy
rather than as essential to it. It is our position that self-government and political lib-
erty are inseparable, in the sense that the former is impossible without the latter.26 It
follows that a majority cannot deprive an individual or a minority group of its political
liberty without violating democracy itself.
◻ Objections to Liberal Democracy liberal democracy
Representative democracy character- 1.1
What we have been describing—a system of representative government charac-
ized by popular sovereignty, liberty,
terized by popular sovereignty, political equality, and liberty—commonly is called and political equality.
liberal democracy. Not everyone is convinced that liberal democracy is the best form
of government. Following are the main criticisms that have been leveled against liberal 1.2
majority tyranny
democracy as we have defined it. Suppression of the rights and liberties
of a minority by the majority.
“Majority Tyranny” Threatens Liberty James Madison and the other Found- 1.3
ers of the American republic feared that majority rule was bound to undermine free-
dom and threaten the rights of the individual. They created a constitutional system (as
you will see in Chapter 2) that was designed to protect certain liberties against the un-
welcome intrusions of the majority. The fears of the Founders were not without basis.
What they called the “popular passions” have sometimes stifled the freedoms of groups
and individuals who have dared to be different. In the 1950s, for example, many people
in the movie industry, publishing, and education lost their jobs because of the anti-
communist hysteria whipped up by Senator Joseph McCarthy and others.27 For a time
after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, Muslims in the United States became tar-
gets of popular hostility (see Chapter 15). As well, Mexican American immigrants have
become the object of popular disapproval in many places in the United States recently,
blamed for taking jobs from others in the midst of a period of high unemployment.
Although there have been instances during our history of majority tyranny, in
which the majority violated the citizenship rights of a minority—the chapter-opening
story is a good example—there is no evidence that the many consistently threaten lib-
erty more than the few or the one. To put it another way, the majority does not seem

FEAR CAN UNDERMINE DEMOCRACY

Political hysteria has periodically blemished the record of American democracy. Fear of domestic communism,
and anarchism, captured in this editorial cartoon, was particularly potent in the twentieth century and led
to the suppression of political groups by federal and state authorities acting, in their view, in the name of a
majority of Americans. Why was such hysteria able to take hold in the United States? How likely is it that
political hysteria will emerge today in the United States given the current economic troubles? 13
 to be a special or unique threat to liberty. Violations of freedom seem as likely to come
1.1 from powerful individuals and groups or from government officials responding to
vocal and narrow interests as from the majority of the people.
Liberty is essential to self-government, and threats to liberty, whatever their ori-
1.2 gin, must be guarded against by all who value democracy. But we must firmly reject
the view that majority rule inevitably or uniquely threatens liberty. Majority rule is
unthinkable, in fact, without the existence of basic political liberties.28
1.3
The People Are Irrational and Incompetent Political scientists have spent
decades studying the attitudes and behaviors of citizens in the United States, and
some of the findings are not encouraging. For the most part, the evidence shows that
individual Americans do not care a great deal about politics and are rather poorly
informed, unstable in their views, and not much interested in participating in the
­political process.29 These findings have led some observers to assert that citizens are
ill-equipped for the responsibility of self-governance and that public opinion (the will
of the majority) should not be the ultimate determinant of what government does.
This is a serious charge and bears a great deal of attention, something we shall ad-
dress in various places in this book. In Chapter 5, for example, we will see that much
of the evidence about individual opinions often has been misinterpreted and that the
­American public is more informed, sophisticated, and stable in its views than it is
generally given credit for, though there remains considerable room for improvement
on this front.

Majoritarian Democracy Threatens Minorities We have suggested

that when rendering a decision in a democracy, the majority must prevail. In most
cases, the minority on the losing side of an issue need not worry unduly about its
well-being, because many of its members are likely to be on the winning side in future
decisions about other matters. Thus, people on the losing side of one issue, such as
welfare reform, may be part of the majority and winning side on another issue, such as
how much to spend on education. What prevents majority tyranny over a minority in
most policy decisions in a democracy is that the composition of the majority and the
minority is always shifting, depending on the issue.
However, what happens in cases that involve race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual
orientation, for example, where minority status is fixed? Does the majority pose a
threat to such minorities? Many people worry about that possibility. 30 The worry
is that unbridled majority rule leaves no room for the claims of minorities. This
worry has some historical foundations, because majorities have trampled on minor-
ity rights with alarming frequency. Majorities long held, for example, that Native
Americans and African Americans were inferior to whites and undeserving of full
citizenship. Irish, Eastern European, Asian, and Latin American immigrants to our
shores, among others, have been subjected to periods of intolerance on the part of
the majority, as have Catholics and Jews. Gays and lesbians have been discrimi-
nated against in housing and jobs and have sometimes been violently victimized.
As Robert Dahl points out, however, there is no evidence to support the belief
that the rights of minorities are better protected under alternative forms of political
government, whether rule by the few (note the persecution of the Christian minority
in China by the Communist ruling party) or by the one (note the persecution of Shia
Muslims under the rule of Saddem Hussein in Iraq), and that given the other benefits
of majority rule democracy, it is to be preferred.31
In any case, democracy, as we have defined it, requires the protection of crucial
minority rights. Recall that majority rule is only one of the defining conditions of
popular sovereignty and that popular sovereignty is only one of the three basic bench-
marks of democracy, the others being political equality and political liberty. The posi-
tion of minorities is protected in a fully developed liberal democracy, in our view, by
the requirements of equal citizenship (the right to vote, to hold public office, to be
protected against violence, and to enjoy the equal protection of the law) and access
14 to the full range of civil liberties (speech, press, conscience, and association). To the
 How Democratic Are We? 1.1

A fter this discussion, it should be easy to see how and why the democratic ideal can be used as a
measuring rod with which to evaluate American politics. We have learned that the fundamental
attributes of a liberal representative democracy are popular sovereignty, political equality, and politi- 1.2
cal liberty. Each suggests a set of questions that will be raised throughout this book to encourage
critical thinking about American political life.
1.3
■ Questions about popular sovereignty. Do ■ Questions about political liberty. Are citi-
citizens participate in politics? Can citizens zens’ rights and liberties universally avail-
be involved when they choose to be, and able, protected, and used? Are people free
are political leaders responsive? Do political to vote? Can they speak openly and form
linkage institutions, such as political parties, groups freely to petition their government?
elections, interest groups, and social move- Do public authorities, private groups, or the
ments, effectively transmit what citizens majority threaten liberty or the rights of
want to political leaders? What is the quality minorities?
of the public deliberation on the major public
policy issues of the day? Do the news media These questions will help us assess where we are
and political leaders provide accurate and and where we are going as a democracy. They will help
complete information? Does government do us go past superficial evaluations based on the existence
what citizens want it to do? Does govern-
or nonexistence of this institution or that institution—for
ment effectively carry out the policies they
have instituted in response to what the peo- example, an elected legislature—and allow us to raise
ple want? questions about the quality of democracy in the United
States and its prospects. Popular sovereignty, politi-
■ Questions about political equality. Do some
individuals and groups have persistent and cal equality, and political liberty are benchmarks to help
substantial advantages over other individuals us in this evaluation. None are attainable, of course, in
and groups in the political process? Or is the perfect form. They are, rather, ideals to which our nation
political game open to all equally? Do govern- can aspire and standards against which we can measure
ment decisions and policies benefit some indi- everyday reality.
viduals and groups more than others?

extent that a majority violates the citizenship rights and liberties of minorities, society
falls short of the democratic ideal.

A Framework for Understanding

How American Politics Works
1.2 Outline a systematic framework for thinking about how government and politics work

n addition to helping you answer questions about the quality of de-

I mocracy in the United States, our goal in this textbook is to help you
understand how American government and politics work. To help you,
we describe in this section a simple way to organize information and to
think about how our political system works.

◻ Organizing the Main Factors of Political Life

If we are to understand why things happen in government and politics—for exam-
ple, the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that Robert Moses and his SNCC
colleagues did so much to bring about—we must begin with what biologists call
taxonomy: placing things in their proper categories. We believe that each and every
actor, institution, and process that influences what our politics are like and what our
national government does can be placed into four main categories: structure, political
linkage, government, and government action. 15
 Jim Crow
• Structure. Structural factors are enduring features of American life that play key
1.1 Popular term for the system of legally roles in determining what issues become important in politics and government,
sanctioned racial segregation that ex- how political power is distributed in the population, and what attitudes and be-
isted in the American South until the liefs guide the behavior of citizens and public officials. This category includes the
middle of the twentieth century.
1.2 economy and society, the constitutional rules, the political culture, and the inter-
national system: the most fundamental and enduring factors that influence gov-
ernment and politics. They form the foundation upon which all else is built. They
1.3 are the most enduring parts of the American system, the slowest to change.32
• Political linkage. Political linkage factors are all of those political actors, institu-
tions, and processes that transmit the wants and demands of people and groups in
our society to government officials and that together help shape what government
officials do and what policies they adopt. These include public opinion, political
parties, interest groups, the news media, and elections. While not a formal part of
government, they directly influence what sorts of people are chosen to be govern-
ment officials and what these officials do once they are in office.
• Government. Government factors include all public officials and institutions
that have formal, legal responsibilities for making public policy for the United
States. These include Congress, the president and the executive branch, the federal
bureaucracy, and the federal courts, including the Supreme Court.
• Government action. This is about what government does. This category includes
the wide range of actions carried out by government: making laws, issuing rules
and regulations, waging war and providing national defense, settling civil disputes,
providing order, and more.

◻ Connecting the Main Factors of Political Life

To understand passage of the landmark legislation, we might begin with government, focus-
ing our attention on Congress and its members; President Lyndon Johnson (who was the
most vigorous proponent of the voting rights legislation) and his advisers; and the Supreme
Court, which was becoming increasingly supportive of civil rights claims in the mid-1960s.
Knowing these things, however, would not tell us all that we needed to know. To
understand why Congress, the president, and the Court behaved as they did in 1965,
we would want to pay attention to the pressures brought to bear on them by political
linkage actors and institutions: public opinion (increasingly supportive of civil rights),
the growing electoral power of African Americans in the states outside the South, and
most important, the moral power of the civil rights movement inspired by people like
Robert Moses and Martin Luther King.
Even knowing these things, however, would not tell us all that we needed to know
about why the 1965 Voting Rights Act happened. Our inquiry would have to go deeper
to include structural factors: economic, cultural, and social change; constitutional rules;
and the international position of the United States. For example, economic changes
in the nation over the course of many decades triggered a “great migration” of African
Americans from the rural South to the urban North. Over the long run, this popula-
tion shift to states with large blocs of Electoral College votes, critical to the election
of presidents, increased the political power of African Americans. Cultural change
increased the number of Americans bothered by the second-class citizenship of
African Americans, even as combat service in World War II and the Korean War led
many black Americans to insist on full citizenship rights. Finally, the Cold War strug-
gle of the United States against the Soviet Union played an important role. Many Ameri-
can leaders, recognizing the contradiction between asking for the support of people
of color in Third World countries in the struggle against communism while treating
African Americans in the United States as second-class citizens, sought an end to the
system of official segregation in the South (known as Jim Crow).33
We see, then, that a full explanation of why the 1965 Voting Rights Act happened
(government action) requires that we take into account how governmental, political
linkage, and structural factors interact with one another to bring about significant
16 change in American politics.
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 DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
 FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
 Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA

I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
 The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

 This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
 “We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
 Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
 BRAZIER

Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT

SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB

CUTTING THE EDGE

 FINISHING THE BOTTOM

LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING

FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

 LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE

TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL

NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
 Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK

DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG

REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

 BEATING THE BARK

WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT

MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN