What is the relationship between the citizen and the state?

Politics, the process by which groups make decisions, plays a part in all human interactions. When we study history, the social sciences, religion, or business, we learn about politics; whenever we read the newspaper or watch the news on television, we see politics in action; and when we discuss issues with our classmates and friends or involve ourselves in our community, we engage in politics. Politics is as much the context for our daily lives as it is for government legislation and international affairs. Thus, one could argue that politics is the cause of all social change.

Democratic governments, such as the one under which we live, exercise power through the will of the people. With that power comes responsibility, even the responsibility to dissent if necessary. So what is the nature of patriotism in a democracy? Is it loyalty to the government or loyalty to the ideals of the nation? How is American patriotism colored by the fact that our country was born out of a revolution? In this chapter, writers on American politics ranging from Henry David Thoreau to Tim O’Brien examine the rights of citizens to resist and remind us of the connection between political action and social change.

In America, a former subject of colonial power, colonialism is an especially interesting subject. Looking at the effects of colonialism elsewhere gives us a more informed view of our own nation’s experience as well as that of other nations and peoples. Is our view of colonialism affected by our nation’s origin? Does colonialism ever have positive benefits? And how does patriotism work when the government is a foreign power? The selections in this chapter raise those questions and also remind us of the effects of both colonialism and postcolonialism on language, culture, social change, and global politics.

Educated citizens—the root of the word politics is the Greek word for citizen—must know about the politics of the world as well as the politics of their own country. This chapter presents a variety of voices and perspectives on national and world politics. The selections examine the interrelationships among citizens, their states, and the world. Here you will read classic voices delivering sardonic criticism and lofty idealism; you will encounter the immediacy of personal reflections on the nature and experience of war; and you will read contemporary reflections on the lingering effects of colonialism in the modern world.