Essays on Democracy In America

William Penn articulates that the church and the state should have a cordial, divine and collaborative relationship in order to help men pursue and live a Godly life. Using the Divine Law (jus natural), William postulates that the church is a facet of the society that is established by man as a God’s agent to help man control his passions and adhere to the divine laws, which are formulated and enacted by the state. In essence, the church and the state should support each and obey God’s provisions as envisioned in the divine laws. In other words, the State and the ...

Federalism as a system of government in the United States of America is one democratic governance. It ensures that power is vested in the people, as opposed to a central government and the political structure that come with it. Federalism has played a great role in the economic development of the Union. It is believed that it is in America that one would find the most stable democracy in the whole world. So below is a case study of three states with distinctive types of federal governments within them.

California State Government

California is among the few states that practice direct democracy in the United States ...

Before Alexis de Tocqueville wrote the book “Democracy in America,” the problem of “tyranny of the majority” had hit the American society in such a way that the majority enjoyed the sovereignty of the minority. It was until after the French revolution that most scholars such as John Stuart Mill and Tocqueville opted to devise mechanisms through which they would adopt in reducing and preventing the sustainability of the vice. This is because the minority groups from various religion and races had become slaves in such a way that they could not influence any problem solving or decision-making process in their ...

Public opinion is defined as a collection of an individual’s view on issues of public interest, and these opinions exercises influence over individual behavior, group behavior and the policies of the government. The term has been used in an increasing frequency since the French revolution and the rule of King Louis XVI.Public opinion consists of the people’s reactions to worded statements, views and questions under interview conditions (Warner 1939 p.377) Political scientists who study public opinion argues that there are two major types of opinions that the Americans have concerning public affairs and politics which are collective ...

Introduction

The passage from the Republic by Plato is prone to different interpretations. To gain full comprehension of the passage the reader is obliged to delve deep into the platonic debate between Socrates and Glaucon. The trajectory of the argument according to Plato, was that democracies are governments ran by fools. The principal argument in the discussion was that democracies elect courses of action without a coherent understanding of the matter they are handling. The overriding argument was that only those who are fully experienced in statecraft should be allowed to rule. ‘Socrates argued that the cobbler and the medical doctor ...

Surely, every nation believes to be unique. The concept of exceptionalism is difficult to measure. Talking about it, Ted Bromund indicated that it is not a question: Who has the best country? It is the issue of a special place of the country in the world, its culture, traditions and people (Bromund). It is difficult to find a balance in the dispute about the American exceptionalism due to numerous moral judgments existing in the world. ‘Is America exceptionally good or bad?’ remains a vital issue in global politics and inner life of America. The idea of the America's particular role in the ...

Alexis de Tocqueville is regarded amongst the first thinkers of the 19th century that challenged the existing historical account about the founding of America. The prevailing account claimed that Americans’ regime and politics were, as a result of a revolutionary war but ended with the ratification of the Constitution. During that account, Tocqueville had paid a visit to the United States in 1831. At the same time, the citizens celebrated the” founding fathers” since they believed they contributed towards the development of the Americans’ culture and way of life. To illustrate this point, Timothy Pitkin said, “a more intimate knowledge and recollection of ...

Chapter 1

NOTE 1 A The government is defined by different branches that form the government which are distinguished and identified by the power and freedom that each of them exercises. Power is defined by the one who rules while freedom is determined by how much control of the government is allowed in a particular form of government. There can be an authoritarian system of government whereby the power is exercised through violence. A totalitarian system of government is a system of government whereby the extent of violence is far beyond that exercised by the authoritarian government (11). The contrast of ...

Black Reconstruction by W.E.B. Du Bois This book by W.E.B. Du Bois was first published in 1935. It takes a deeper depth in examining Reconstruction of the south in the Civil War of America. It delves more on the economic front. The most significant argument in the text is basically that black and white workers were divided on racial grounds after the civil war (Du and Edward 12). This had an unfortunate result. The white class which had a lot of property took advantage of them since the laborers could not stand against them. This, according to DU Bois, was ...

Introduction

Tyranny of majority is a phrase used by Alexis de Tocqueville in the book Democracy in America. Tocqueville used this phrase to imply a situation where the majority uses their influence to victimize or oppress the minority. Tyranny of majority presents a scenario where if the majority influences all matters in the society then the rights of the individuals and the minority will be vulnerable. Tocqueville argues that, tyranny of majority is comparable to a modified form of dictatorship where the majority oppresses the minority. It is a dangerous system of democracy and should be discouraged to avoid manipulation and colonization of the minority ...

Alexis de Tocqueville, the author of the famous book “Democracy in America”, criticized the ability of the majority to oppress the minority by silent disapproval. However, it cannot be said that Tocqueville meant deprivation of freedom of thought under his claim. What he basically meant is that majority generated common values for the whole nation on a basis of representation in the political institutions and the minority, which values differ from majority’s, is under a pressure of public opinion. This does not mean that minority cannot have its values, but it means that minority will find it difficult to practice ...

Democracy in a nutshell

Democracy, coming from the Greek word demokratia, literally means “rule of the people”. While there are no official book definitions of what democracy means, there are certain characteristics that constantly appear in articles, definition and academic papers written about it. For one, democracy is accepted to be a form of government where the majority rules. This means that for some to be the ruler of his or her state, he or she must be elected by the people of said state . Furthermore, democracy also entitles that there is active participation of the people in both political and civil life. ...

Introduction

Alexis de Tocqueville and Robert Michel’s remain some of the renowned and proficient scholars who contributed in the development of sociology. They published and wrote numerous sociological materials in pursuit of addressing social constructs and challenges that faced humanity. Their social background, education, and career are some of the pertinent factors that played an integral role in shaping ideas, thoughts and argument brought forth by these scholars. The paper compares and contrast Alexis de Tocqueville and Robert Michel’s and their contribution in sociology discipline.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis Charles Henri de Tocqueville was a renowned French historian, policy maker, and political ...

Role of the America citizen in democracy

This paper aims at examining the role of the American citizens in democracy. However, before the author explores what roles the American citizens play in ensuring that democracy prevails in the country, it is prudent that we look at what is democracy. Actually, democracy has myriad of meanings especially to the citizens of America. For instance, it may mean the natural rights, liberty and even the equality of dealing with people in the country. However, despite of this solemn definition of democracy, it has always been on record that at times it may be extremely difficult for the government ...

Introduction

Since it gained independence the year 1776, the United States of America has grown to become one of the most powerful and developed countries in the world. The extent of America’s power can be measured by its great military and financial power that that only few countries can boast to possess. In terms of the country’s advanced level of development, the country has shown impressive levels of technological, governance and democratic advancement. However, this paper will seek to discuss on whether America’s level of democracy has been develop to its full potential or if there are a ...

The American nation is highly famed and acknowledged around the world for being one of the nations in which democracy is highly practiced. Based on the definition given by Abraham Lincoln, one of the founding fathers of the nation, democracy is defined as a government of the people, by the people, for the people. This implies that the people are central to any form of government. The rights of the people are respected and carefully looked into. Furthermore, the government has gone on to try and influence the entire world to accept the democratic forms of government. This is done ...

Alexis de Tocqueville had seen the various attempts his country of France had failed in putting in place a democratic government. He thus became curious and wanted to study the existent prosperous, democratic governments of the time and know their operations. The results of his studies made him conclude that although the move towards democracy had gained much ground in America, it was a global trend that would slowly become a permanent phenomenon that could not be interfered with. This is what Craiutu and Jennings concluded as being the motivation for his tour to America. Gustave de Beaumont and Alexis de ...

Themes. One of the biggest catchphrases of the 21st century is globalisation. Corporations use it in their mission statements, governments in their press releases and nearly every major event reported in the media that does not involve violence makes a reference to the term. Thomas Friedman, in his book, The World is Flat, throws light on this complicated term from various parts of the world through the perspectives of people that outsource their skills to America and other countries, through corporations and institutions that have evolved in wholly new ways, through economies that have taken leaps towards the ideal of ‘ ...

Introduction

In a democracy citizens take for granted many things that legitimate democratic institutions make possible such as the right to vote, being able to check out a federal law book from the library, or being able to run for city council. Discussions about legitimacy in coffee shops or over kitchen tables are mostly about laws or some politician’s social behavior.

The legitimization of coercive power of democratic institutions may be thought of as an academic philosophical concept but its importance in practical, everyday governing cannot be ignored. Democratic institutions are actors in the justification and legitimization of coercive power because ...