University of California Irvine Government and Politics Discussion

I’m working on a sociology discussion question and need the explanation and answer to help me learn.

Government and Politics

A central question in studies of government and politics is “Who gets what?” and “What is the role of Big Government?” These are important questions to ask not only because it captures individual preferences and opinions (e.g. agency), but because it also reflects the positions of power that those in the government have to shape society (e.g. structural functionalism).  Page and Jacob (2009) argue Americans are “conservative egalitarians”.  That is, we do not consistently demand from our government action that matches our beliefs.  For example, most Americans know smoking causes cancer, but we don’t create laws that ban it.  Rather, we leave the choice up to individuals.