...Term paper - Besides summary, the discussion part should further involve a comparison of social thinkers. Read and discuss more original and/or secondary readings. Give your own views, and try to conduct a dialogue with the existing views. In this thesis, I will give a summary of the works by Alexis de Tocqueville and Karl Marx, a discussion on their ideas as well as a comparison of the two thinkers. Alexis de Tocqueville is an aristocrat thinker From France that provides the most famous and influential views on democracy. In his work “Democracy in America”, he regards America as a land of liberty and democracy due to reasons like mores, geographical and historical advantages, but also provides a foresight on the future of democracy in America, and the threats to democracy and possible dangers of democracy. He believes the puritans were the one that contributed the most to American democracy, since they were all middle-class men with no salient differences when they first settled down in America. Also, they brought religion and political liberty to Amercia. Marx and Tocqueville holds different views on human nature. For Marx, he reflected on what it means to be truly human. Since he thinks that all species-beings are communal beings, he disaprroves things like religion, wage-labour and other forms of alienation that bring us far away from our communal nature and we must overcome them. For tocqueville, he emphazied a lot on dignity and liberty and he thinks that we are all...
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...faction has been the unequal distribution of property. Those who have property versus those who don’t, have ever had different interest in society. He saw direct democracy as a danger to individual rights and addressed for a representative democracy to protect individual liberty from majority rule. In federalist No 10 Madison discusses to guard against factions, or groups of citizens, how the passion and interest of one group could mean a danger to the government. In article No 51 the purpose is for four aspects: Layered representation which is the people that are elected directly or indirectly to represent other people, Separation of powers are the three branches that make, and enforce the law; judicial, executive, and legislative branches, Checks and balancing is the ability of each branch to check the powers of the others so the power is balance in all three branches, and Federalism which is the existence of two governments, state and federal and both governments have dominance over different policies and functions. According to Madison article No 51 is, “to form a more correct judgment of the principles and structure of the government planned by the constitutional convention”. I think Madison did not want the citizens to have power to decide, the fear of their decisions made him create a representative democracy for the people. The lasting significance of the political...
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...Edexcel A2 Political Ideologies 1 Liberalism A Short-answer questions 1 Distinguish between economic liberalism and social liberalism. • Economic liberalism means both classical liberalism and neo-liberal economic theory. • Its core idea is the notion of the self-regulating market, based on Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ and the belief that the market tends towards long-term equilibrium. • Individuals are seen as rational, self-interested and largely self-sufficient; and market competition ensures choice and consumer responsiveness as well as efficiency and growth. • In line with the principle of laissez-faire, the state should leave the economy alone because state intervention is likely to have more economic disadvantages than advantages. • Economic liberalism is associated with negative freedom. • Social liberalism, by contrast, is modern liberalism, also sometimes known as welfare liberalism, associated with the belief that an unregulated market economy results in an unequal and unfair distribution of wealth. • The state, therefore, has important social responsibilities, especially in safeguarding individuals from the social evils that can cripple their existence: poverty, disease, unemployment etc. • Social liberalism is thus linked to a qualified form of welfarism: the desire to help people to help themselves, thus still reflecting a general liberal preference for self-reliance. • Social liberalism is associated with positive freedom...
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...is replete with political, economic, and cultural danger. Discuss through the use of valid, real-life examples A regional economic integration, is when a certain number of nations, agree to reduce or eliminate economic barriers (and in certain levels of integration non-economic barriers as well), in order to create an adequate atmosphere between them for the flow of goods, services and factors of production. There are 5 levels of economic integration and the bigger the level is, the bigger the danger is. The EU is the biggest economic integration in the world because they have created an economic and monetary Union. After World War II, Europe was devastated in economic, political, moral and cultural terms. That’s why a certain number of countries decided to sign an agreement of “non-war” between them. Further on, the European Economic Community was created and more countries were joining it. This was the beginning of the biggest political and economic integration in the world, signed in 1957 (known as treaty of Rome). Then border barriers were removed and in 1993, the European Union was formally established. The objective of the European Union is to create an economic and political union between the members, to create a single market with common policies and a common government, which lead them to a regional economic integration. This integration has shown some profits and some dangers too. We’re going to focus on the dangers that a regional economic integration brings with...
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...Public Education and Democracy The American system of education has not been performing to its expectations in the United States. Education was essential because it enlightened people about their rights. The United States was a democratic country, and therefore, people had to be informed about their rights. This forced leaders like Thomas Jefferson to push for public education for all Americans (Dewey 2). People had to be educated about the democracy and their rights so that they could choose leaders wisely. Education is an essential part of life because it enlightens people about how to choose leader wisely, This paper explains the importance of public education and democracy in the United States. Early American leaders saw the danger of...
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...The works “Preventive War and Democratic Politics”, “Democratization and the Danger of War”, “Terrorism, the Use of Force, and International Law After 11 September”, and “Failed States: Fixing a Broken World” all describe and aim to formulate the motivations for modern wars between two states. By using historical precedents, each author makes assertions about war theory, leaving the reader with a framework to analyze conflicts occurring in the world today. While each entry makes a unique assumption, the content of arguments invariably overlaps. In my response I will examine each piece and the questions I was left with after contemplating the implications of their respective theories. In “Preventive War and Democratic Politics”, Levy first distinguishes preemptive wars from preventive wars, claiming that the former involves an immediate threat to a state’s safety while the latter is determined by the presence of a non-immediate threat—often an adversary “crossing a particular threshold of military power, leading to a stop-level power shift” (Levy, 7). He goes on to discuss that since the advent of nuclear military developments, the majority of wars have been preventive. This argument is logical because as the stakes are raised, states have the responsibility to their constituents to mitigate threats; citizens are much more willing to tolerate smaller skirmishes than risk the threat of an over-militarization of another state with different social and political values, beliefs...
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...Elbe Vargas HIST 2340 November 1, 2011 Iraqis journey to Democracy The Iraqi government was the last government to try to build a democratic government. Mostly known for its ruling dictator Suddam Hussein, it is known for having a tyrant type of government rooted in Islamic religious practices. But with the help of the United States, and other countries, Iraqis will create a new era: the era of democracy. It all started on January 30, 2005 when an Iraq election promoted and built democracy. The world was speechless by the results of the significant amount of numbers to vote for Iraq’s Transitional National Assembly. The Iraqi government took a huge risk by publically announcing that voting was a human right in practicing Democracy. The United States played a huge role in helping Iraq promote and build democracy, with the final goal of ending dictatorship. For the past twenty five years the U.S. has provided crucial support for democracy as well as a basic principle of the U.S. foreign policy. Not only has America helped Iraq turn away from dictatorship, but it has also helped other countries such as Philippines, Nicaragua, Indonesia, and Ukraine toward democracy. The U.S. has grown to have the label of “leadership” stamped on them when it comes to helping other countries towards Democracy. Today electoral democracies now exist in 120 out of 192 countries that are about 63 percent of the world’s population! (Soudriette, 2005) One author however disagrees with the outcome...
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...for immediate consumption are considered to be the main reason while democracy may hinders the growth. In opposite, there is a third argument – autonomy of dictatorship. Dictators do not have to handle with pressures made by different interest groups, however there is no reason why dictator would like to maximize total output, not his own. In the further part of this essay, these problems are discussed more deeply. There is not under discussion among the economists that property rights are one of the most important factors which influence on the growth. However, there is no clear prove that democracy project them. The strong state can protect property from private intruding but at the very same time it is a potential threat itself. If we consider countries like the USA or the United Kingdom – the most developed democracies in the world, of course we may conclude that their elected democratic governments, no matter if from left or right party, are not a danger for property rights. However, in such countries the respect for property rights is obvious and it has almost no influence on the growth anymore. The different situation is in developing countries, for examples in Africa. In these “fresh” democracies, indeed, reforms considering property rights may stimiulate growth. Unfortunately we have a lot of examples when countries despite turning into democracy did not do sufficient effort in reforming law, which would make private...
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...social uprising on a previously unseen scale. This is a fact that is changing the whole idea of government as the power which rules or ‘controls’ the world’s population. This power of unity and human spirit that erupted from the ground up is the greatest danger to controlling powers and the fundamental fear of tyrants: the idea of people ruling themselves. The fire that consumed and continues to burn throughout the Middle East should be recognized as one of the most significant awakenings of human unity and strength in history. Governance, once a topic of major philosophical consideration has now degraded so much as to exclude any trace of real discussion. Deliberately entrenched ideas of dictatorship and democracy situated as if they were in opposition to each other rather than highlighting the reality that both systems are simply a method of maintaining control, one through the use physical power the other through the illusion of choice. In reality a definite democracy in its real sense meaning direct democracy free of powerful external influences and with the provision of a free educated populous does not exist anywhere today. Instead the West is saturated with prolific supporters of a representative democracy and lauded as the bastion of the ´Free World´. This system, in reality, does not stand up to scrutiny as it should be obvious to an observer that firstly big business, military and financial institutions have a huge vested interest in maintaining the type...
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...calamities, and common strife. Democracy allows individuals talk what they have in their minds and shape their kids' prospects. When many people from various locations in the world are ready to face risks, it proves that they endure an appeal. Democracy in the third world countries has experienced the same issues as those in the rich world. Democracy is a good thing for every country but it seems to be losing what it was initially supposed to do. Third world countries have focused on short term spending as opposed to long haul investment, which is opposed to what democracy supports. For example, Brazil permits its laborers to resign at the age of fifty-three, however, has done little to make a current air transport system. India pays a lot to customer gatherings, yet puts too little in investment (Hirst, 2000). Political frameworks have been caught by vested parties and undermined by those who are against democracy. Before the occurrence of financial crisis, there was a huge conviction that democracy was not just ethically better than authoritarian types of government, but on the other hand were better situated to manage monetary and money related turmoil. The latest monetary crisis, however, has raised doubt about this suspicion, particularly as some dictator states, for example, China have clearly weathered the storm as compared to its counter parts; Europe and the US. Most business analysts and political researchers still concur that liberal democracy is in reality a superior...
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...perspective what they believe in. With Mocking Jay, identity is worth all the risks and dangers, all in attempt to return justice to the country. In the film Mocking Jay, the citizens of the...
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...The quest to build a society where peace, unity and justice are its pillars, devoid of acrimony and rancor, as well as hospitable environment that has learnt to care for its citizenry has posed challenges to Nations across the globe. Nigeria is a democratic country in West Africa, with a population of over 140 million people (2006 census). Since Nigeria was officially declared an independent state and gained freedom from their British colonial masters on 1st October 1960, three major ethnic and religious groups has remained unified despite the challenges of civil war that lasted for three years (1967 – 1970), ethnic and religious crisis, that has ravaged the nation since independence till date and recently; terrorism and post electoral violence – the later having gained ground since 1999 when Nigerian transited to democratic governance. It is a truism that no nation on earth can achieve the dreams of her founding fathers if characterized by electoral violence, crisis and terrorism. Terrorism is a devastating trend that our contemporary world has had to grapple with in recent times. In this contest, it is defined as the premeditated use of violence by an individual or group to cause fear, destruction or death, especially against unarmed targets, properties or infrastructure within a state, with the intentions to compel those in authority to respond to the demands and expectations of individuals or group behind such violent act. The devastating effects of terrorism have been...
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...Modern Democracy: An Online Chaos? In Cass Sunstein’s book Rupublic.com 2.0, he discusses advances in modern technologies and communications and the affect each have on our democratic society. Sunstein makes reasonable arguments supporting both the positive influences on our nation of these steps forward as well as the detrimental issues they have caused. Though Sunstein does recognize that the modern media is a blessing for society as a whole, he makes the argument that one must be careful with it if the United States wishes to maintain a fair democratic form of government. Cass Sunstein is not wrong to be concerned with the power and changes that the advances in technology, especially the Internet, have caused. However, Sunstein has an overly radical view of what must be done, an unrealistic view of the true good, and how that good outweighs the cons brought by this new digital world. The discussion begins with a firm statement of Sunstein’s concerns about the negative affects of the Internet on the liberal democracy intended by America’s Founding Fathers. His principle concerns are the momentous increase in the availability of personalized filtering and the decrease in general-interest intermediaries such as national newspapers and news networks. Both of these concerns are plausible ones, for they truly have changed the way democracy functions and the way that ideas flow in the United States. Filtering today is different than it used to be in the past...
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...the stability of the party. Failure to reach a consensus may cause revolts amongst back-bencher's, rendering party whips redundant. This can seriously danger the electoral prospects of the party, as publicly divided parties causes the electorate to lose confidence. Referendums therefore provide a democratic form of dispute resolution. A good example of this being exercised in practice is the 1975 referendum over the UK's membership to the European Union. This prevented the collapse of Harold Wilson's Labour Government. Secondly, referendums are used when Government is confronted with extremely controversial political issues. Governments use referendums in these circumstances because deciding the issue themselves may sometimes lead to serious public discontent, once again jeopardising the public popularity and electoral prospects of the party. Membership to the EU is an example of such an issue. An even more obvious example is the Good Friday Agreement referendum. Thirdly, referendums are used to further democracy, and in particular, direct democracy. Political parties in modern, liberal-minded countries all have democracy as a central theme of their electoral manifesto. The 1997 Labour Party manifesto is a key example, as it explicitly expressed a commitment towards referendums. In Abraham Lincoln's definition of democracy, government 'by and with the people' was a core element. Referendums are viewed as a way of enforcing a government 'by and with the people', as it allows...
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...In 1893 Frederick Jackson Turner published his own essay entitled, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”. The first presentation of this paper was at a convocation of the American Historical Association during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. With in this paper Turner brings up topics he felt would help the American Frontier however, there are two main topics that stand out: individualism will promote democracy, shaping of american character using inventions and adaptations. In Frederick Jacksons thesis he states that an advocacy of a democracy was being introduced in Westward America as well as Europe due to individualism. The Europeans were in lands that Americans were trying to settle in therefore...
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