Question A
American people, or Americans, are defined as natives, or citizens form the (U.S) United States of America. This country serves as home to people originating from various national origins. In the end, Americans are not equated to their nationality based on aspects of their ethnicity, but rather, with their citizenship. Having to exclude the Native American population, all Americans as well as their ancestors were evidently immigrating within the resent centuries. Irrespective of the multi-ethnic composition, the culture contained a commonality with respect to most Americans referring to it as the mainstream American culture. The Western culture is basically derived across the traditions of Western and Northern European immigrants. This also involves all influences for African-American culture. The westward expansion was later integrated to the Creoles and Cajuns in Louisiana together with the Hispanos across the Southwest. This brought evidently close contact with an overall culture for Mexico. The large-scale immigration across the 19th and 20th centuries from Eastern and Southern Europe brought in a whole range of elements. The immigration from Asia, Latin America, and Africa also involved a considerable impact (Bartleby.com, 1865). The cultural melting pot and pluralistic democracy calls described the manner in which generations for most Americans were celebrated and later exchanged based on their distinctive cultural characteristics. The American Revolution also popularized this democracy principle through the development of institutions to ease the management of popular will.
Question B
Irrespective of the ideas of rights as well as liberty existing in the same form for a considerable amount of human history, the values propagated by the founding documents with respect to human dignity set pace for the modern human rights conception. For the ancient world, traditional societies will also necessarily be based on the same form of elaborate systems in terms of duties. The founding documents point at conceptions of political legitimacy, justice, and human flourishing which sought the realization of flourishing human dignity, or well-being of human rights. These practices and institutions relate to the alternatives over the different human rights formulations. This modern human rights sense can be traced all the way to Renaissance Europe as well as the Protestant Reformation coupled with the eradication of the religious conservatives and feudal authoritarianism which dominated the middle Ages (National Archives & Records Administration, 1863). The human rights are mostly understood to be inalienable fundamental rights to the degree which people are inherently entitled because they are human beings. The Human rights and dignity values are therefore conceived to be universal (applicable everywhere) as well as egalitarian (similar for all people). Such rights exist in the form of natural rights or legal rights within local, international, national, and regional laws (Center for Civic Education, 2006). The human rights doctrine across international practice and international law requires that global and regional institutions involve policies of states which are the activities for non-governmental organizations and are the cornerstone of public policy in the world.
Question C
In my opinion, the founding documents are focused on the philosophy of human rights seeks to fully establish the underlying fundamentals of the lead concept for human rights. This is achieved through critically looking at the content and justification. The approaches will essentially include a notion in which the individuals within a given society seek to embrace rules across legitimate authority within the exchange for economic and security advantage for social contracts (National Archives & Records Administration, 1863). These theories dominating the contemporary human rights discussion will necessarily be based on the interest theory as well as the will theory. Some of the ancient Western philosophies for human rights are based on the fact that they form critical products derived from natural law and stem from the different philosophical as well as religious grounds. Subsequent theories maintain that human rights are essential codification of moral behavior that is based on human social products by the process of social and biological evolution. This means that the principal function for human rights is based on having to protect as well as promote various essential human interests even as they seek to establish the overall validity of the human rights on the basis of unique human capacities for freedom. The theoretical approaches that are advanced towards explaining the human rights are turning to be critical parts of the social expectations (Center for Civic Education, 2006). Human rights are described through sociological patterns of the rule setting especially with respect to the sociological theory of law.
Question D
Across history, the democratically-established governments continue standing as the most essential ways of promoting and protecting the common good. Government agencies within all forms of levels as they function at extensive potential avail the most prudent ways of making decisions which in turn influence the public with ascertained fairness, public participation, transparency, and accountability. The governments also work towards serving the common good through the creation of public structures including highways, postal service, and the water systems. Such structures and systems solicited from Social Security into the community colleges will in turn ensure that the society accrues maximum benefits due to the fact that true prosperity is grounded on collective success. However, even though government bears the responsibility of handling the most critical advances within society, there is very little in terms of concept for government’s roles in focusing on the repeated attacks of American politics for the latter half across the 20th century (Bartleby.com, 1865). The moment anti-government politicians take office they normally make void criticisms of government with respect to come true through defunding and dismantling the critical services (Center for Civic Education, 2006). The mid-20th century saw the development of the governments through third party components which was a reflection of the bipartisan designs through which reformers grew the overall Federal government while still avoiding any of the perceived perils regarding the enlargement of official bureaucracy.
Question E
The relationship of the government to its citizens as well as democracy forms a significant consideration for the sustainability of any rule. Further, the government needs to fully define common good to an extent which the Constitution would require it. This is because it forms a clear meaning for its Preamble for which it is Constitutional requirement for the broad basis indeed. The government system established through such documentation creates order towards the establishment of justice and insuring domestic tranquility (National Archives & Records Administration, 1863). This also provides for the common defense through the promotion of general welfare as well as securing blessings of liberty. For this reason, for purposes of fulfilling such a mandate, the government needs to define and further pursue common good for its citizens while applying the same fundamentals to justice, general welfare, domestic tranquility, and liberty (Center for Civic Education, 2006). More work becomes necessary towards regaining full trust for the government’s ability in securing positive forces. The reforms in this case are needed towards improving accountability, banishing corruption and ensuring that public services are availed in ways that give taxpayers and voters the best bargain for common good.
References
Bartleby.com (1865) President Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. Retrieved on August 29, 2013 from http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres32.html
Center for Civic Education (2006) RES PUBLICA: An International Framework for Education in Democracy
National Archives & Records Administration. (1863)The Emancipation Proclamation. Retrieved on August 29, 2013 from http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_procla mation/
