Political Subcultures in the U.S.

Political Subcultures in the U.S.
Compare and contrast the three kinds of political subcultures.

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At least one source must come;
Required Course Textbook:

Morone, J. A., & Ehlke, D.C. (Editors). (2014). Health Politics and Policy. (5th edition). Clifton Park, NY: Delmar, Cengage Learning.

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In Chapter 11, Daniel Ehlke describes the view of government from the States. State governments influence almost every feature of our health care system. The similarities and the differences among states profoundly affect both health systems and health outcomes.

Here are the key points for this chapter:

States, state health systems, and state health outcomes vary across many dimensions.
States are diverse in their underlying political cultures.
Subsequent chapters will focus on health policy in the states of Massachusetts, Texas, and Oregon.
It’s interesting to see how health systems and health policies may vary across states. One may ask, what variables affect health systems and outcomes variance across states? The text lists several state-level variables that affect health systems and health outcomes in three broad categories: “from climate to agriculture,” demography, and political culture. The first category includes climate, pollution, agricultural fertility, safety of food supplies, mining and associated carcinogens, poverty associated with reductions in mining and manufacturing, tobacco production and use, and climate-related diseases. The second category includes poverty, race and immigration, and specific health and social problems such as diabetes, obesity, teen pregnancy, suicide, and murder. The third category describes Daniel Elazar’s three types of political cultures.

The three broad political cultures that Elazar identifies are the moral political culture (the northern band across the United States), the individual political culture (the middle band), and the traditional political culture (the southern band). The moral political culture often put community interests ahead of individual interests. The individual political culture often put individual self-sufficiency ahead of government activism. The traditional political culture tended to limit government involvement to preservation of the existing social order.

What are some of the same constraints faced by all states? All states work within a single national political system and, at any given time, a national political climate. The popularity of a given president’s program and the perceived efficacy of Congress at a certain point of time are often reflected in state and local elections, and guide the hand of policymakers at all levels nationwide. In addition, in times of economic downturn such as Americans have experienced since 2008, states face a fiscal squeeze – at the very moment tax revenues from residents in straitened economic circumstances are down, reliance on such safety net programs as Medicaid is at its greatest.

Let’s see a few examples of how states have engaged in health politics in recent times. Colorado reported a sharp decline in teen pregnancies and birthrates due to a state-wide initiative to provide free long-acting reversible contraceptives over the past six years. Other states are dealing with high teen pregnancy rates but provision of long-acting reversible contraceptives can be crucial given values, contextual factors, and service delivery operations. For more information, please review the news article about Colorado’s success: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/06/colorado-larc-experiment_n_7738724.html

Another health-related state policy that is quite recent and controversial is the legalization of Marijuana use. Some states have taken this step already but the question remains, how does the Department of Justice feel about such policy? Washington State’s new law makes it legal for adults to possess up to one ounce of marijuana, but some speculate the federal government will prosecute those who use marijuana on federal land because federal law prohibits marijuana use. Here we see the federal government and the state government at possible odds. Here is a video by NBC addressing Will the Department of Justice fight Marijuana Law? https://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/browse?cuecard=62192