Democracy and how the government is run are behind theories. Majoritarianism is a theory of what both political scientist and ordinary citizens think the democracy should be. Unfortunately this is known as a poor way to find out data for elections through pulling data from Americans that may not be interested in politics or are unaware of the system. “Elite theory holds that society is ruled by small number of people who exercise power to further their own self-interest” (Schmidt, Shelley, & Bardes, 2011). Elite theory is known as the American system. People prefer to have their country ran by elite people verse privileged minorities. The politics in pluralism can become a struggle for some and conflicts may be accommodated through compromise because there is not a dominate process in the political acts.
The United States is a Republic, Democratic, Federal and Constitutional government that is limited in power. “The US Constitution is the ‘supreme law of the land’” (Damerow, 2009). Through different forms of dictatorship, totalitarianism, absolutism, and tyranny the structure of our national government runs. The political system of the United States democracy “refers to political systems where the rulers are popularly elected by a majority of voters” (Damerow, 2009). All US citizens above the age 18 have the right to vote. The republic aspect of a political system is not hereditary or monarchy form of government. The rulers of a republic are elected but not necessary through democracy. The Presidential system has a chief executive who by voters is directly elected and is in control of administrative and executive branches of government. The Presidential systems operated independently and have legislative branches ...
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...akes our government run.
Works Cited
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Class notes from POSC 201, Introduction to Western Political Theory , by Dr. Scot Hammond, Department of Political Science, James Madison University. Spring Semester 2002.
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In discussing the problems surrounding the issue of factionalism in American society, James Madison concluded in Federalist #10, "The inference to which we are brought is that the causes of cannot be removed and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its effects." (Federalist Papers 1999, 75) In many ways, the nature of American politics has revolved around this question since our country's birth. What is the relationship between parties and government? Should the party serve as an intermediary between the populace and government, and how should a government respond to disparate ideas espoused by the factions inherent to a free society. This paper will discuss the political evolution that has revolved around this question, examining different "regimes" and how they attempted to reconcile the relationship between power and the corresponding role of the people. Beginning with the Federalists themselves, we will trace this evolution until we reach the contemporary period, where we find a political climate described as "interest-group liberalism." Eventually this paper will seek to determine which has been the most beneficial, and which is ultimately preferable.
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Landy, Marc and Sidney M. Milkis. American Government: Balancing Democracy and Rights. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2004.
Walter M. Simon The American Political Science Review , Vol. 45, No. 2 (Jun., 1951), pp. 386-399
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The political culture that defines American politics shows that despite this compromise, America is still very much a democratic society. The very history of the country, a major contributor to the evolution of its political culture, shows a legacy of democracy that reaches from the Declaration of Independence through over two hundred years to today’s society. The formation of the country as a reaction to the tyrannical rule of a monarchy marks the first unique feature of America’s democratic political culture. It was this reactionary mindset that greatly affected many of the decisions over how to set up the new governmental system. A fear of simply creating a new, but just as tyrannic... ...
There have been enormous efforts to spread democracy as a political system throughout the world by the developed democratic countries and the international development organizations including the World Bank. By the late 1990s the United States alone spent over a half billion dollars to promote democratic expansion throughout the world (Diamond, 2003). These were done considering that the democratic system leads towards development. As a result in the late 20th century we saw a huge political transformation towards democracy. During the last few decades a huge number of countries adopted democracy as their political system. However, it retain a big question how far democracy is successful in bringing development of a country? At this stage, some people also criticizes the effort of democratization arguing that it is done without considering the context of a country, sometimes democracy is not ideal for all countries and it is an effort to extinct diversity of political system. In studying the literature regarding the debate, we found a paradoxical relationship between democracy and development. Some argue that democracy has failed to ensure expected outcomes in terms of development. While others confronted that democracy has a considerable impact on development. Another group of people argue that form of political system actually does not have any impact on development process. On the verge of these debates, some development institutions and academics throw light on why democracy is not working properly, and what measure should be taken to make it more successful in bringing effective development of developing countries. Consequently, this writing is an effort of revisiting the different views about impact of democra...
The foundation of the modern political system was laid in the times when the world was strangled in slavery. In those moments, enlightened minds in Greek came up with the new system that was there to remain for the next thousands of years. This system, now known as democracy, is a form of government in which supreme power is vested to the people themselves. People have the right to elect their leaders directly or indirectly through a scheme of representation usually involving periodically held free elections. A new democratic government is usually established after every 4-5 years, and it is trusted with the responsibility to cater to the needs of all the people irrespective of the fact that they voted for them or not. Although the minorities may not be very pleased with the idea of democracy, however, a democratic government is certainly the best because it establishes social equality among people, reduces the conflicts in the state to a minimum, gives the chance to vote repeatedly, and creates patriotism.
Democracy is a form of a regime that is associated with “rule by the people” that implies rights and liberties for citizens, such as civil liberties and political rights to partake in elections. Democratization is the process of a regime becoming more democratic through democratic transition or consolidation. Democratization is a progression that can take several generations (Meisburger 155). A democratic transition is a movement from an authoritarian rule to a democratic one, whereas consolidation is the process in which a new democratic order becomes institutionalized, and the idea of authoritarianism is rejected (Dickovick and Eastwood 121-123). For example, Tunisia has seen a democratic transition, which was created by a civil society with strong, non-violent demands for respect for human rights (Chan 2). Human rights include civil rights, such as equal access to institutions and freedom of speech, and political rights, which gives people the right to political expression and the right to vote (Dickovick and Eastwood 121). The change had begun after massive demonstrations, after a street vendor, named Mohamed