African Americans and other people of color, women, the poor, and most recently gays and lesbians have spent the last two centuries fighting an uphill battle for parity. The policy framework continues to provide built-in advantages to the economic elite. Public policy outcomes cannot be separated from political culture. The Declaration of Independence sets the stage for our individual rights to life, liberty and property. While liberal individualism creates a dilemma for public policy.
American liberalism defines common good as the sum of individual good.
This means that the community must provide the foundation to make individual rights possible. It is organized around economic interaction, which creates independent economic players. Cahn discusses the dilemma of democracy in a capitalist political economy. Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis state that people are created by the role they play in society. Our values are tied to our culture.