Who’s got the power?
Who Makes the Decisions? Who Has the Power?
The Big Question we are chasing today: when a decision gets made in America, who is actually behind it? The few (elite), the many (participatory), or organized interest groups and factions fighting it out (pluralist)? In other words: who has the power?
Here is the honest answer before we even start: every real decision probably has a grain of truth from all three models tangled up in it. Your job today is not to find a perfectly clean answer. It is to figure out which model does the best job, overall, of describing how power actually works in America.
You will meet the three models, pick a modern issue you actually care about, referee a fight between Brutus No. 1 and Federalist No. 10, sort real arguments into the right model, and then build your own case for which model actually runs America today.
Three Theories of Who Holds the Power
Each model below is a theory of how power mostly works in America: concentrated in a few hands, spread broadly across everyday citizens, or fought over by organized groups. Click each card to flip it over and see that theory tested against a real issue happening right now. Flip all three to unlock the next stop.
Participatory
Broad, hands on involvement by everyday citizens in politics and civic life.
Real world lens: Local ballot referendums, school board elections, town halls, climate strikes, and grassroots voter drives all assume regular people should show up and steer government directly, not just watch from the sidelines.
Example today: Cities letting residents vote directly on ballot measures like rent control or minimum wage instead of leaving it only to elected officials.
Pluralist
Organized groups compete and bargain to influence government decisions.
Real world lens: You personally may never testify before Congress, but the interest group representing your industry, union, or cause probably has a lobbyist who does.
Example today: Tech companies, privacy advocates, and civil liberties groups all lobbying Congress over how AI should be regulated, each pulling policy in a different direction.
Elite
Limited participation, key decisions made by a small, informed, or powerful few.
Real world lens: Some decisions are considered too technical or too important to leave to a popular vote, so unelected experts or a small governing body make the call instead.
Example today: The Federal Reserve setting interest rates, or federal judges deciding a major constitutional question, with zero direct vote from the public.
Pick an Issue You Actually Care About
You will carry this issue with you through the rest of the activity, including your final argument. Pick the one that gets you fired up, or write your own.
Robert Yates vs James Madison
Both men were trying to solve the same problem: how do you set up a government that actually gives the people the power, instead of just saying it does? They landed in very different places. Here is the quick version before you referee the fight yourself.
Brutus No. 1 · Robert Yates (Anti-Federalist)
Yates, writing as Brutus, worried that a single national government stretching over such a huge and diverse country could never truly reflect the people. Real representation, he argued, requires representatives who closely resemble and live among the people they serve. To keep power in the hands of the people, government needs to stay small and close to home, or power will drift upward into the hands of a distant few.
His theory of power: the people keep power only through the participatory model, close and direct. A huge national government, he feared, would actually hand power to the elite.
Federalist No. 10 · James Madison
Madison flipped the argument. He said a large republic actually protects the peoples power better than a small one. Spread the country across many competing interest groups (factions) and no single faction can dominate everyone else. On top of that, elected representatives can filter and refine raw public opinion into better, cooler headed decisions than a pure direct democracy ever could.
His theory of power: the people keep power through a blend of the pluralist model (many competing factions checking each other) and the elite model (trusting a filtered, elected few to make wiser calls).
Yates wants power to stay close to the people. Madison wants power spread out and filtered so that no one faction, and no direct majority mob, can run the table. That single disagreement about who really holds the power still shapes American politics today, and you are about to test it.
Sort the Argument
Each card below is adapted from Brutus No. 1 or Federalist No. 10, rewritten at a friendlier reading level. Decide which model of democracy the argument lines up with. Roger is watching.
Make Your Case
Remember the issue you picked earlier? Time to bring it back. Think about how decisions on that issue actually get made in America today. Are they mostly made by a small group (elite), by broad numbers of everyday citizens (participatory), or by interest groups and factions fighting it out (pluralist)? Pick the model that best fits, and build your case.
Step 1: Choose the model your issue best supports.
Step 2: After the word BECAUSE, write one compelling reason that advances your argument.
You Have Been Sworn In
You defined all three models, tested them against a real issue, refereed Brutus vs Madison, sorted primary source arguments, and built your own case. That is the whole learning objective, done.
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