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About Civil Rights
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Fareed Zakaria’s The Rise of Illiberal Democracy expresses the views he has on the differences between liberal democracy and illiberal democracy, and which one causes civil war. He also explains how both types of democracy go hand in hand with other in the formation of the United State government and it constitution. Zakaria also talks about how majority of the countries in the world are democratic, but majority of which are an illiberal democracies. His ideals could also be reflected during the civil rights movement. To begin democracy simply is defined as being for the people, but Zakaria explains how western countries governments version of democracy has meant liberal democracy, a system that has the qualities where there is not only fair and free election, but also constitutional limitation of power that the government has, separation of powers and protection of basic rights such as freedom of speech, assembly, religion and property. Liberal Democracy avoided civil war by providing protection of its citizens and their rights. This form of democracy differs from the historical and theoretical form of democracy. There are many different forms of government besides liberal democracy, in fact, many countries goes through many types of government before becoming a liberal democracy. Countries tend to start of with self-elected ruler that do not protect its people rights, this form of government is an Illiberal Autocracy, then they go on to become a Liberal Autocracy, still self elected but protects its peoples rights, and then finally become Liberal Democracy. Another form of government is illiberal democracy; this government is not free and fair. Majority of the democratic countries in the world are an illiberal democracy and th... ... middle of paper ... ...oycott began when Rosa Parks, an educated person who attended Alabama State College, was arrested for refusing to giving up her seat to a white person who saw that the first few rows where full and wanted her seat. The boycott lead to the United State Supreme court ruled that the segregation law in Montgomery was unconstitutional. By the early 1960, another Civil Right movement began, Sit-Ins. Four college students, Ezell Blair, Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil and David Richmond walked in to establishments to be served but by the end of the night they were never served. They would later come back with larger group and sit once again. They did so with rules to prevent any trouble from the authorities, just by not talking to anyone, never blocking the entrances and by simply being nice. The movement picked up momentum being done by many throughout the north and south.
In inspiration of Rosa Park’s actions, many college students took a part of sit-ins for civil rights. “When students refused to leave,” they were denied service and “the police arrested and jailed them,” just like Rosa Parks. They needed to do more, so in 1960, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Community (SNCC) formed. The SNCC would travel to bus stations to peacefully assemble in hopes to desegregate buses. Law enforcement treated them with brutality and denied them their “basic constitutional rights to free speech and peaceful assembly.” In 1963, King organized peaceful marches in Birmingham, but just like all other African American movements, whites responded with violence. The violence of the marches was so brutal, that it finally encouraged, “President John F. Kennedy to propose important civil rights legislation.” In order to push forward a civil rights legislation, “The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom… in August 1963…” This eventually lead to a new civil rights
Democracy is a total system that is considered to be ruled by the people. Democracy is considered to be the key role in how citizens live their public lives. For a successful democracy to work, you need to have the key understandings of how it started when it started and why it started. It truly shows that you need the role of society and the rights of the people to be considered successful. In my articles reading I came across three that stood out that help me better understand how democracy became what it is. The articles I talk about are "Thank your taxes", "The letter that won the American Revolution", and "Compromise 1: Philadelphia Story". In the article "Thank your taxes" the citizens were struggling with the government and how they
In 1954, the landmark trial Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, ruled that segregation in public education was unfair. This unanimous Supreme Court decision overturned the prior Plessy vs. Ferguson case, during which the “separate but equal” doctrine was created and abused. One year later, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. launched a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama after Ms. Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat in the “colored section”. This boycott, which lasted more than a year, led to the desegregation of buses in 1956. Group efforts greatly contributed to the success of the movement.
Democracy’s major focus is on the freedom and representation of the people, along with the promotion of a the fluid free market system. “One man, one vote” being one of the inspirational quotes used to demonstrate the democratic outlook on the liberty within the government; and its ability to establish and make decisions based upon the will of the people. However, like our textbook, “Introduction to Comparative Politics,” points out, “No country fully satisfies all these criteria for democracy. Even in long established democratic states, there remains a gap—often a substantial one—between the aspirations and ideals of democracy and the practice and results of any actually existing democracy.” Furthermore, despite efforts to amplify this political system as a proper means for representation and freedom in other countries, various authoritarian regimes now present themselves under the guise of democratic political ideology in order to gain power.
One of the first documented incidents of the sit-ins for the civil rights movement was on February 1, 1960 in Nashville, Tennessee. Four college African-Americans sat at a lunch counter and refused to leave. During this time, blacks were not allowed to sit at certain lunch counters that were reserved for white people. These black students sat at a white lunch counter and refused to leave. This sit-in was a direct challenge to southern tradition. Trained in non-violence, the students refused to fight back and later were arrested by Nashville police. The students were drawn to activist Jim Lossen and his workshops of non-violence. The non-violent workshops were training on how to practice non-violent protests. John Lewis, Angela Butler, and Diane Nash led students to the first lunch counter sit-in. Diane Nash said, "We were scared to death because we didn't know what was going to happen." For two weeks there were no incidences with violence. This all changed on February 27, 1960, when white people started to beat the students. Nashville police did nothing to protect the black students. The students remained true to their training in non-violence and refused to fight back. When the police vans arrived, more than eighty demonstrators were arrested and summarily charged for disorderly conduct. The demonstrators knew they would be arrested. So, they planned that as soon as the first wave of demonstrators was arrested, a second wave of demonstrators would take their place. If and when the second wave of demonstrators were arrested and removed, a third would take their place. The students planned for multiple waves of demonstrators.
The NAACP is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, organized in 1909 by Moorfield Storey, Mary White Ovington and W. E. B. Du Bois. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination” (“NAACP”). In 1955, Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat in the middle of the bus so a white man could sit there. Though the city's bus ordinance did give the drivers the authority to assign seats, it didn't specifically give them the authority to demand a passenger to give up a seat to anyone. Because she didn’t give up her seat, and because of her civil disobedience, she was arrested (“Rosa Parks Biography”). Rosa Parks was not the first woman to get arrested for refusing to give up her seat. Nine months before Rosa Parks was arrested, Claudette Colvin, a 15-year old, was the first Montgomery bus passenger to be arrested for refusing to give up her seat for a white passenger (Parks was involved in raising defense funds for Colvin). Three other African-American women, Aurelia Browder, Mary Louise Smith and Susie McDonald, also ran afoul of the bus segregation law prior to Rosa Parks. The four were plaintiffs in the Browder v. Gayle case. In 1955, King was asked to serve as spokesman for the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was a campaign by the African Americans in Montgomery, Alabama to force integration of the city’s bus lines (“About Dr. King”). Rosa Parks was chosen by King as the face for his campaign because of her good standing with the community, her employment and her marital status. While Rosa was in jail as a victim of Montgomery's racism, King was able to develop an effective response to her arrest that
The Greensboro sit-in was the launch of the civil rights movement. The sit-in took place in a Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, North Carolina. The sit-in movement was started on February 1, 1960 when four African American college students sat at the white’s only counter in a Woolworth’s store and were refused service. Woolworth’s was a diner that allowed everyone in despite their color but they only served whites. After being refused service the students sat patiently while being threatened. This caused a spark of sit-ins that no one has ever done without a serious purpose.
It was considered the first large scale demonstration against segregation. A couple of days before the boycott, Rosa parks did her part. Rosa parks got arrested and this sparked the American civil rights movement. This brought out the leader of the movement: Martin Luther King Jr. Within a year, the goal was achieved and buses were desegregated. Many did not trust him and didn’t want him to speak out. Many people kept quiet due to fear of violence if they spoke anything about the unfairness everyone was facing.
One of the contemporary definitions of democracy today is as follows: “Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives; Rule by the majority” (“Democracy” Def.1,4). Democracy, as a form of government, was a radical idea when it manifested; many governments in the early history of the world were totalitarian or tyrannical in nature, due to overarching beliefs that the strong ruled over the weak.
Zakaria, F. (2007). The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (Revised Edition). New York: W. W. Norton.
The rise of illiberal democracy is about how democracy for some countries has become illiberal democracy. Free and fair elections have become the majority and so what happens is the majority gains power and the citizen’s natural rights are completely abuse and ignore. Zakaria mentions that “Leaders in these countries have argued that they need the authority to break down feudalism, split entrenched coalitions, override vested interests, and bring order to chaotic societies” ( Zakaria 32). Illiberal democracy is on the rise is growing fast especially in the third world countries where leaders feel having more power would actually aid in changing its countries into a more liberal democracy. Today more than half of the countries in the world are illiberal democracies. Illiberalism is nowhere near going away it’s actually a mixed of democracy and illiberalism. So what happening is the majority are electing these dictators into office which are going as extreme as restrictions on speech, assembly and etc. Zakaria believed that in order to truly have a liberal democracy they should be strong base for checks on the power of each branch of government, equality under the law, impartial courts and tribunals and the separation of church and state. The truth is that an illiberal democracy doesn’t cater to all races, to which really cause more problems. Zakaria also mentions to democracy, but democracy does not seem to bring constitutional liberalism. In contrast to the Western and East Asian paths, during the last two decades in Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia dictatorship with little black ground in “Constitutional liberalism have given way to democracy.( Zakaria 28)”. Most countries today are in face democratic, but actually have s...
A memorable expression said by President Abraham Lincoln reads, “Democracy is government of the people, by the people, and for the people”. Democracy, is a derived from the Greek term "demos" which means people. It is a successful, system of government that vests power to the public or majority. Adopted by the United States in 1776, a democratic government has six basic characteristics: (i) established/elected sovereignty (where power and civic responsibility are exercised either directly by the public or their freely agreed elected representative(s)), (ii) majority rule(vs minority), (iii) (protects one’s own and reside with) human rights, (iv) regular free and fair elections to citizens (upon a certain age), (v) responsibility of
This movement started in centuries-long attempts by African slaves to resist slavery. After the Civil War, American slaves were given basic civil rights. However, even though these rights were guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment, they were not federally enforced. The struggle these African-Americans faced to have their rights federally enforced carried into the next century. Through non-violent protests, the civil rights movement of the 1950 and 1960’s led to most public facilities being segregated by race in the southern states....
What is democracy? Democracy a form of government in which the people freely elect representatives to govern them in a country, democracy guarantees free and fair elections, basic personal and political rights and independent court of law. There are two types of democracy, direct and indirect democracy. Direct democracy or pure democracy is where there is direct participate of the people; people make decisions for them instead of letting them representative make decision for them. Indirect democracy the decisions are made by the representative on behalf of the people that voted for them. All over the world people are having different views with regard to democracy and how it operates. “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried” ~ Winston Churchill, some have said democracy is the worst government form of government which I also think it’s! Due to the how it operates.
Democracy is robust, widely accepted and highly anticipated around the world. It is the triumphant form of government; dominantly used in Europe, North and South and America and becoming reformed and taking new roots in Africa and Asia. Although the term democracy is based on its Greek origin, demos kratos, meaning people rule, the term cannot be simply understood as such. Due to vast coverage, the adaptation of democracy has varied greatly, whether regionally, nationally, by state or through different branches of government. Perhaps this can be advantageous when the different categorizations listed above can use democracy to rule and suit themselves best, but other factors, such as globalization and neoliberalism, has caused the need for