Essays on Liberal Democracy

Introduction

Democracy is a type of government where the supreme power is vested in the population of the country or representatives elected from the population. The concept of liberalism is a political doctrine, which protects and enhances the individual freedom and considers it as the central political goal. Therefore, liberal democracy is a democratic government system where the individual freedom and are officially protected and recognized, and the rule of law limits the political power. Liberal democracy has been the greatest export of the United States of America to the world. But, due to several reasons, the United States is ...

Abstract

There are many economies that have developed at a significant pace, such as Japan, and many economies that are flagging behind these countries, such as India. Is this development hindered or encouraged by internal and/or external factors? The question remains as to why certain countries are developing faster than others needs to explored, which is what the first half of this essay will do. An analysis will be conducted into how the role of the state, stimuluses for modernisation, social structure and cultural factors play their part in either hindering or encouraging development in these countries. The interference of ...

U.S. Position in the Post-cold War ERA U.S. Position in the Post-cold War ERA

The post-cold war saw the rise and growth of the Western liberalism and capitalism. The fall of the great communist powers gave the opportunity for capitalism to thrive in the world. The era of cold war was a struggle for power, where international political economy the struggle for power and wealth was witnessed and is still present to date. The struggle for power is what creates chances for conflict in the world, “the changes in the distribution of power between states increase the chance of ...

The post-cold war saw the rise and growth of the Western liberalism and capitalism. The fall of the great communist powers gave the opportunity for capitalism to thrive in the world. The era of cold war was a struggle for power, where international political economy the struggle for power and wealth was witnessed and is still present to date. The struggle for power is what creates chances for conflict in the world, “the changes in the distribution of power between states increase the chance of conflict in the international system (Gilpin 1918).” The power shift from dominance by the ...

The research problem will be to investigate whether the patrimonial political systems of Singapore and South Korea are democracies that surpass their liberal Western analogues in terms of national growth and even democratization in some ways. It appears that, contrary to the popular misperception, democracy is not necessarily a lack of restraint and complete discretion or at least a range of freedom like the right to media. Sometimes, states like Singapore being low on resources and facing external threats decide on less liberal norms and behaviors bordering on authoritarianism in specific aspects. Regulated merit-based selection practices and disciplining norms ...

Francis Fukuyama wrote a very bold essay in the summer of 1988 where he stated that history had come to a stop, and the west had finally triumphed as the dominant civilization. As the world witnessed the fall of communism and a democratization wave that swept through many countries, especially in Latin America, it seemed to the author that liberal democracy had proven to be the highest form of human society. He declared that history, as a constant struggle between ideologies, had ended. This, of course, did not mean that nothing interesting was going to happen anymore. Fukuyama stated that it only meant ...

Business and Corruption

1. In what ways is corruption a problem for economic development, social well-being, and prosperity? Unlock the mechanics of corruption.

Empirical evidence shows that corruption causes inefficient allocation of public funds and resources; inefficiency of corrupt financial flows in terms of the country's economy; loss of taxes when tax authorities arrogate to themselves a part of taxes; lost time due to obstacles, reducing the efficiency of the state apparatus as a whole. It also results in bankruptcy of private entrepreneurs; reduced investment in production, the economic slowdown; lowering the quality of public services; inappropriate use of international aid into the developing ...

Question 1: What are Fukuyama’s main points in his “end of history” thesis? Does he truly think there is an actual “end” to history?

Fukuyama’s main point in his “end of history” argues that the existent aspect of liberal democracy coupled with the free market capitalism of the west and its way of life may indicate the end of the human socio-cultural evolution thus become the ultimate form of human authority. As such, Fukuyama believes that the contention and progression of human history that has been existent through the struggle of ideologies following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Cold War is no longer in existent because the world has embraced liberal democracy.

Fukuyama does not truly believe that ...

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution affords "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." Eventually, these words attempt to defend two essential freedom goods - the right to privacy and liberty from illogical assaults. An examination happens when a belief of discretion that people considers reasonable is trespassed by a legislative ...

Introduction

With the tremendous industrial revolution, liberalization and communalism has emerged to be key issues of concern in the political, economical and social arena. Liberalization ideology is viewed as practical strategy for a free society from any interferences and restrictions. It has promulgated a great yard stick for the progress of the capitalism as it provided justifications for the trend. Contrary communism ideology is a political stand that calls for all human welfare equality in the society. It suggests mass development of all the stakeholders of a social background. In this protocol, all the political, social and economic status is shared unlike in liberalization ...

Correlation of Discrimination and Treatment in the USA

Introduction Numerous events have occurred in the past that have led to the discrimination and marginalization of various populations of the world. Religion, education, war and other socio-cultural aspects of society have led to the development of perceptions and stereotypes against various world communities. The world over, for example, developed a negative attitude towards the Muslim community after the numerous terrorist attacks that had been plotted and accomplished in the name of the Islam religion. Every society in the world has developed a specific stereotype towards a specific individual, community or other social and cultural aspects of life, and this has ...

Introduction

In most discussions in International Affairs, it is common for analysts to blame the cause of war on “bad” and “aggressive” states. These are typically, nations that are either totalitarian in outlook or ruled by a dictator who declares war without much sensitivity to the implications of the war on the broader group of stakeholders. Therefore, the central theme of preventing wars in the world is to create a family of nations that are democratic and this is seen by many as the only way of preventing all out wars and promoting peace in these countries. This is to create a set ...

Post War History

In the excerpt, Fukuyama highlights the position of the West and its domination on global matters. It was during the war times when the dominion and liberal ideas and concepts of the West clouded the cultures and the operational module of the global stage. In principle, the ideas of the West triumphed over other cultures in the world. For example, the evolution of political processes of the societies of the world all followed the liberal blueprints as set by the West and in the long term there was the emergence and likelihood of the formation of a liberal democracy characterised ...

- Acknowledgements This paper acknowledges the efforts made by all the participants who took part in the research, compiling and eventual write-up of the final draft. My research assistant, the instructor and all other classmates had a role to play in this report. Without them, it would not have been finalized in time. - Introduction This paper will discuss three types of democracies in relation to their applicability to a low income country. A low income country is characterized by poor economic development, infringement of workers’ rights and extreme levels of poverty. The first democracy that the paper ...

Home schooling can be defined as education of children under parental supervision. This mode of shooling which was once a fringe phenomenon has changed to become a mainstream in the Unites States. It is legal in all states and has been broadly considered as one of the most rapidly improving division of K-12 schooling. Factually, education matters in the United States are delegated by states and the U.S constitution does not elaborate on education matters. In this regard, every State has its own provision for regulating homeschooling. Correspondingly, this mélange regulatory environment is a clear indication of trend across the United ...

Represents the End of History

In his article titled “The End of History”, the author, Francis Fukuyama (UAF, 2013, p.1) seeks to prove that the liberal democracy that Western Nations advocate for sounds the death knell for sound and divergent political ideology that forms the world history. Subsequently, Fukayama (UAF, 2013, p.2) argues that the net effect of the advent of the Western liberalism ideology will result in the “end of history”. Tharoor (2012) describes Fukuyama as a “distinguished political philosopher and intellectual”. In his argument, Fukayama (p.2) seeks to cement the fact that Western ideology has seen systematic acceptance and success in many ...

Introduction

Democracy and its real meaning has generated a number of debates especially in the field of political science. According to minimalist definition, democracy is considered to be a system whereby the rulers are chosen through a competitive election, and in a broader perspective it includes a number of dimensions like freedom, participation as well as the accountability in terms of leaders. These broader perspectives of democracy have, in a number of cases considered to be liberal democracy. Liberal democracy is characterized by a political system which has a sole responsibility of protecting individual as well as a number of liberties while providing a guarantee to both the horizontal as ...

Introduction

The word democracy has had many interpretations through history. It is known as a western political system which allows people to elect their rulers in a periodic basis, and it seems to be a term under which most modern governments would like to be associated with but not many are willing to fully comply with its conditions. Democracy is said to be able to bring prosperity and peace, but the fact that most countries in the world now provide some form of popular elections does not seem to have stopped violence between many of them, principally some Middle East countries like Israel ...

New Deal Liberalism in twentieth century American history

Introduction: In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in the midst of economic depression, was designated as the President of America. He made remarkable success in the elections while receiving 472 out of 531 votes with Electoral College. He inflicted the most awful defeat since 1912 upon his rival from the Republican Party. The reason behind this was the passionate support from general population to his proposal of New Deal. It was a vastly experimental program of lawmaking reforms with no exact ideology and was intended at stimulating economic recovery. After starting his practices as president, he acted quickly to deal ...

The Republicans and the Democrats have distinctively different philosophies on a wide range of issues. The Republicans tend to be more conservative on virtually all subjects as opposed to the Democrats who take liberal positions. As such, a conservative Republican position denotes one that is conservative in its approach. On the other hand, the liberal democratic position leans to the left and is not conservative. In order to shed some light on these diametric positions, this paper shall conduct an overview of the various philosophies that inform the two schools of thought. Next, this paper shall apply the models of Jacques ...

Introduction

Political science as a discipline has a number of concepts; equality, government, freedom, nature of good life, politics, power, force, authority, structure, system, constitution, democracy, balance of power, separation of power and legitimacy just to name but a few. In my essay I will discuss three concepts; government, democracy and the constitution.

Government

The above refers to the structures or institutions that are responsible primarily for making public policy for an entire nation or society. According to Harold Lasswell it’s a system that determines who gets what, when and how. David Easton defines government as an authority that allocates resources. Karl Deutsch argues ...

Introduction

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was promulgated in 1982 and it brought with it several fundamental developments in the legal system of Canada especially in the Supreme Court. Hon. Justice Frank Lacobucci makes the case that the Charter has led to increased protection of fundamental rights as well as promoting national cohesion. To this end, he examines a few of the cases determined before the enactment of the Charter and after, with a view of demonstrating the developments that the Charter has enabled. Nonetheless, it cannot be said that the Charter has been a magic wand in the improved preservation ...

Vladimir Lenin’s theory of imperialism builds on the theory of capitalism as advanced by Karl Marx. He in fact considers imperialism as the premier stage of capitalism (Lenin, 88). In essence, his theory begins from where the theory of capitalism ends. In simple terms, the theory of capitalism comprises of the private ownership and control of goods and the means of producing the goods within a state. The controllers or owners, referred to as the bourgeois, utilize these factors to accumulate profits. Lenin argues that over time, the bourgeois amass a lot of profits, creating an inequality between production ...

Criminal justice systems in Japan

Over the past two decades, the Japanese legal system has been pictured as one of the slowest and ineffective criminal justice systems in all around the world. The system is known to discourage personal cases suing the government or massive commercial enterprises. The system is affected by outdated traditions where criminal cases are perceived as embarrassing. Therefore, most cases are handled traditionally through such methods as negotiations and cases only proceed to court if the parties were unable to reach an agreement. This method is referred to as the comparative justice system. The intent of this thesis is to ...

Executive Summary

The Muslim society in the West and in America is quite small as compared to other groups of people. These groups often live under the close observation of the society which in a way sees them as potential trouble makers. Their religious orientation and the culture often make them sidelined since they cannot easily merge with the others. This essay seeks to explain how this social ice can be broken, thereby incorporating the Muslims fully into the society.

Introduction

In the current times, development in science and technology has seen to the improvement of many aspects of life. Transport and communication ...

Summary of text

In Eberle and Cuneo's "Religion and Political Theory," the authors seek to explore the role of religion in an increasingly liberal democratic, secular political world. At the same time, religion seems to be increasing in scope and influence in the political spectrum, with religious pluralism instead of strict atheism driving political decisions. The relationship between three distinct groups in the political world is explored - the standard view of politics, the liberal perspective, and the advocates of a philosophy known as New Traditionalism.

In the standard view of politics, religion drives many political decisions. According to political theorists, "religious reasons ...

Introduction

Mexico—in full referred to as the United Mexican States—is a federal government found in North America. In the Western Hemisphere, it is the fifth largest covering a total area of approximately 2 million square miles. The country is rich in natural resources such as petroleum and natural gas making it the fifteenth economy in the world in terms of performance. However, efforts to modernise and develop its economy have been hit by the country’s rugged terrain, limited farm land, series of economic crises, and rapid populations. The nation’s capital, Mexico City, is one of the largest cities ...