Part I
- Does federalism in America improve or weaken American democracy? What are the advantages and disadvantages of states having a strong rule in the American political system?
Federalism is a system through which power is shared between two or more government within the same geographical area and the same people. That is, they have different levels of government .In America; there is a federal kind of democracy. Although the government at the national level in the United States is federal, the states are unitary governments. Federalism strengthens the democracy amongst the citizens in America. The division of power enables the people to exert pressure on the sides of government whenever what they need is not delivered. This calls for accountability.
There are advantages and disadvantages accrued to states having a strong role in the political system. Among the advantages are, first, there is political democracy. That is, by evicting the national government from contentious issues, federalism fostered stability in government. Secondly, it encourages pluralism. A federal system of government expands the government on the different level and enables the leaders to have opportunity to serve with the government. Thirdly, it promotes separations of powers as well as preventing tyranny. This supports independent functioning of the state governments. Strong states are in a position to experiment policies. Then the other stats can learn from them.
However, there are disadvantages of having strong states within the political system. First, because the United States does not have common policies for particular, it actually acquires close to 51 policies. This leads to confusion. Secondly, the situation where there is overlapping of boundaries among national and state government, it becomes complicated for the policies to be implemented effectively and efficiently.
- Madisonian Democracy and Participatory Democracy are two different perspectives about what democracy means, and on the promise and perils of democratic governance. Write an essay in which you compare and contrast these two different conceptions of democracy in America.
Madisonian democracy is quite different from participatory democracy. Madisonian democracy is refers to the majority rule. That is, the rule and decisions are made with reference to the opinion of the majority. The minority remain marginalized. On the contrary, the participatory democracy, each member of a particular lot has substantial contribution decision making. This means that many people have access to the opportunities. The two indicated completely different democracies.
- There are many barriers to organizing collective action to achieve public goods, such as the Prisoner’s Dilemma and the Free-Rider Problem. How does understanding Collective Action Problems help explain the role of government and the nature of political conflict in the U.S.?
Collective Action Problems are activities that are aimed at improving the group’s conditions. Their activity is carried out by a representative. In the American political efforts to achieve democracy, there are threats such as illustrated in the Prisoner’s dilemma where each individual tends to differ with the other. Besides that, the presence of free-riders also disturbs the collective action of problems. The government has the responsibility to put into account people violating the democratic arena in America.
Part II
The civil rights movements’ majored in the social movements in United States of America. Their goal was to stop racial segregation and to enforce voting rights under the constitution. This indicated a weak status of democracy in the United States of America. With reference to the competing images, the elite theory, pluralist and also the hyper pluralist show different attempts to deal with power. Within the elite theory, there is the presence of the elite who have their objectives at the expense of the less capable. In that case therefore, the civil rights movement was provoked by similar policies like the one illustrated in the elite theory among others. This was against the aim of the silent protest within the civil rights movement.
The civil rights movement does not conquer with the Madisonian democracy. The Madisonian democracy is in support of majority democracy at the expense of the minority. This means that it does not cover-up the possible abuse that might be accrued to the minor group. Civil rights movements have some common relations with the three competing images. First is the power Elite where individuals have overall power and authority to make decisions. This particular group performs duties with reference to common interests. This violates the objective of the civil rights movement. Secondly, the pluralist image is the one that acts upon agreement. In this particular one, there is accountability unlike in the elite theory. Third is the hyper-pluralist. The power is dispersed to different terminals and minority rights are observed.
The American politics are said to have democracy. However, the kind of democracy is questionable. The most applicable image is the pluralist. According to the governance means, there is too much tolerance of minority rights since the constitution stipulates to. That is why the constitution creates accountability which is all as a result of the rule of law.
