Direct democracy is where the people vote directly on the laws. The problem with this is rational ignorance, where cost outweighs the benefits. There are three kinds of direct democracy: recall, initiative, and referendum. It happens in four stages: preparation stage, qualifications stage, voting stage, and the implementation stage. Direct democracy is only good because people get what they want and many innovative ideas happen at the ballot box. It’s bad because there is budgeting at the ballot box as well. There are also good ideas that are bad in practice, the “lock-in effect”, which is when the only way to change a bad proposition is with another proposition, misleading propositions, few checks and balances if any that only the Supreme…
Many advocates for democratic socialism claim that it is designed to help the economy and will not interfere with capitalism. Capitalism is defined as an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. As democratic socialism is based on regulation of the market by the government, it is impossible for it to coexist with capitalism. Democratic socialism is defined as a political ideology advocating a democratic political system alongside a socialist economic system. This means that while we would remain democratic in most parts of life, the economy would be regulated by the government. You may be asking yourself, why is this a problem? The answer is…
era, a rise in the efforts from larger more powerful groups presented itself once again…
Although the United States government promises its people that they live in a true democratic country, the United States is definitely not a democracy. A democracy by definition is “the government by people.” However, the United States looks as if it is a constitutional republic, rather than democracy. A constitutional republic is “a state in which the head of state or officials are representatives of the people.” The United States is a country run by the government officials, not the people, the government is taking away the rights that the U.S. Constitution promises its people, and not all citizens are treated equally or given the same rights. Therefore, the United States is far from a democracy at this time.…
given to citizen. Rights and responsibilities of the citizen are likely to have two sides…
The Progressive reformers addressed problems of the social and economic aspect, The New Deal brought some relief from the Great Depression, and the economic problems brought by the government. America has succeeded in finding solutions for some of its issues, like the Social Security program, but failed in others such as the problem with discrimination among minorities. Major problems are rarely solved by one solution, in the case with the Great Depression, the programs were a series of solutions to one big problem.…
In Horace Mann’s “Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education,” he gives his opinion about all the different sorts of education. Examples such as, physical, intellectual, political, moral, and religious education all play a part in who we grow up to be. This is why quality education is so important. Horace Mann makes a point that public schools follow strict rules and curriculum, which transforms all students to become the same person. He asks the question, “Does education empower us? Or does it stifle personal growth by squeezing us into prefabricated cultural molds?” (Mann, page 123). The type of education we receive can critically shape and enhance our identities either in a negative or positive way. One example of a negative view would be the story written by Michael Moore. He explains how our country is simply a bunch of “idiots.”…
The last few months have seen several political surprises, the growing popularity of a grass roots social-democrat and an outspoken and controversial real-estate tycoon. Today, march 13th, there are four candidates for the GOP nomination and two for the Democratic. Both races are close, but nothing is for certain. Based upon polls, voter history and analysis of candidates for the democratic and republican party, who statistically could be the parties’ nominee and ultimately the next president of the united states?…
In Mark Kingwell’s argumentative essay “Education, Democracy, and the Life Worth Living” (2012), Kingwell argues that people should not assume how well someone is educated based on how much money he/she earns. Kingwell’s purpose is to express his opinion towards education in order to convince the reader that education should not be about currency, but rather about making an individual more intelligent and better equipped to cross the threshold into the real world. In this essay Kingwell appears to be writing to any citizen who wants to learn what real education should be about.…
Imagine living in a place where the government is all a Democracy in all parts of the world. Democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. Democracy is a strong form of government because it prevents monopoly of authority, it makes for a responsible and stable administration, and it allows a little chance of revolution.…
The National party platform that I identify with the most is the Democrat Party. Although I agree with essentially everything they vouch and want reform for, I believe there are 2 elements that mean the most to me. One of these elements is the party’s strong belief of unity. The Democratic party is in my opinion, the only party that shows consistency in the concept of “equality for all”. In many of the other parties’ preambles or ideas in general, there seems to be a common occurrence of leaving a whole group of people out. They will go on and on about protecting the rights of the people, maintaining stability in the economy, and providing basic healthcare for all people, when in reality, they intend for these things to reach only a certain group. They all seem to disregard…
Democracy is known to be one of the greatest institutionalized forms of government in our history. In America, democracy is seen as a perfect governmental system that is incapable of corruption due to its legal equality and political freedom. However Alexis de Tocqueville, a French socialist and political theorist believed that the democratic system held by the United States had several flaws that if were to come into play, would cause it to weakened and eventually collapse. He talked on and wrote on these flaws in his book, Democracy in America. Tocqueville admired and was a strong supporter of the governmental system and believed it to be a good regime, nonetheless he pointed the few key issues that would be most significant in the demise…
Incumbent parties are defined as “the current holders of political power” and it is clear that well established and organized incumbent parties in presidential and parliamentary democracies have constantly sustained economic growth and development. It is from this trend that we can assume that incumbent parties are indeed dependent on national economic performance. However, it is still important to political researchers, and electoral campaigners to investigate if national economic performance really is the most important cause for voter’s support towards incumbent parties and has ultimately led to the development of new theories in political science towards voting behavior and political economy. In this essay, The Punishment Sanction model (Powell 2000; Powell and Whitten, 1993) supported by the electoral outcomes in Greece after the 2008 Financial Crisis (Goulas and Kallandrants, 2015) will be discussed in support of the statement that voters support for incumbent parties does depend on national economic performance. On the other hand, it can be argued that to state that the success of incumbent parties is solely dependent on national economic performance is reductionist. To demonstrate the over-simplicity of this statement, this essay will explain another factor that voters support for incumbent parties depend on. This is social identity, a variable that is held in high regards for voter’s support towards incumbent parties, according to Antunes (2010).…
After the Constitution was signed and approved by delegates of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, it had to be ratified by the states. As determined by Article VII of the Constitution, ratification required the approval of nine special state conventions. States that did not ratify the Constitution would not be considered a part of the Union and would be separate countries.…
Democratic education intertwines with social justice in the respect that democratic education ensures that everyone is intellectually educated. As suggested by, Ploeg (2016) while quoting Dewey, the democratic purpose of education is further elaborated in two goals: education ought to help students develop ability to think and prepare learners for future vocations. Within these two goals, academic…