Cece Cannata p6
Chapter 1 Outline: The Study of American Government
1. What is Political Power?
a) Power: someone who has power is able to influence the actions of another person and get them to act how they want
i) Power is even the simplest of things, like a school declining an applicant
b) Authority: is the right to use power
i) A president or senator have “formal authority” which means that their office, like a presidency, gives them the authority to make the decisions that they do
c) Legitimacy: what makes it okay to use power. A person has authority if their right to act is conferred by law or by a state/national constitution. Legitimacy makes those a “source of right”
i) The Constitution is a source of legitimate authority ii) Conflicts today
…show more content…
What is democracy?
a) 2 definitions
i) Like Aristotle’s thinking: “the rule of many.” Aka direct/participatory democracy. All/most people directly participate by holding office or creating policy ii) Representative democracy: most countries that are “democratic” are governed under a representative democracy
(1) There are people in charge who fight for votes
(2) also called the elitist theory of democracy
(3) although it takes time, interest, experts for people to agree on policy, you can get reasonable decision making
(4) participatory government can lead to bad decisions because people just follow what is popular at the time and what the popular opinion is
3. Is representative democracy best?
a) In the Constitution, representative democracy=republican form of government
b) In order to succeed, there has to be competition for leadership
i) Aka people have to run for office
c) The united states have many offices and get money from labor unions, industry, and private individuals
d) There is still some direct democracy so that people have a say, whether that be through people voting on specific policy issues or letting certain large communities govern themselves
e) The writers of Constitution favored
Summary of Chapter one American Government: Root, Context, and Culture chapter one, Consisted on the beginning of the United States government, How does the United States government compares to other forms of government around the world, states the meaning of democracy and the political process. Last but not least it consists of how attitudes about the functions of government have changed throughout the years. First of all, the first inhabitants of the United States were indigenous people who were around for about 30,000 years and were also not homogeneous. Although it's hard to tell how many indigenous people were around, there are estimates of about 100 million inhabitants however most indigenous people died because of diseases that European
Anthony Terribile English 105 4/20/18 A democracy is a form of government where the people elect their leader In America we have a government that is famous for its checks and balances For any decision we make as a nation it must go through Layer and layer of bureaucracy . It is only fitting that to be elected our president the highest public office one can be in our great nation that they must also go through checks and balances. The checks and balance in this case is the electoral college. The electoral college is a group of people selected from each state to.
James Madison, or better known as the “Father of the Constitution” helped put our nation to where we are today. Back in the late 1700’s Madison composed documents known as the Federalist Papers and in these documents, specifically Federalist paper 10 he describes to us and tries to define his thoughts on a “Republic” and a “Democracy”. Throughout this essay, a fair comparison will be given between both forms of government. Firstly, he states “a pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.” (Madison, Fed.
In America, we have a representative democracy, which means a form of government in which the will of majority is expressed through groups of individuals elected by the people to act as their representatives. In simpler terms, it means that the citizens vote or elect an individual to represent them in the government. Throughout the world, many countries “Claim,” to have a democratic government for example, “People’s Republic of China or Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea.” In reality, both of those countries have a government that is nowhere near democracy or republic, they have either an oligarchy or dictatorship which can best describe their nation’s government. Another form is a monarchy, how England was ruled for long time, but now is ran by a constitutional monarchy.
Government power where did it start? How did it come to be? Throughout history the United States government has changed dramatically. The biggest jump was the creation of the Constitution, which laid out the basic rules and regulations that our government was suppose to follow. A big contributor was James Madison, the man that everyone referred to as the “ Father of the Constitution.”
Democracy is neither an end nor a good in itself: as a form of governance that rests on consent, it allows people to pursue common goals and to improve their condition. Thus, as SCFAID puts it, democracy is
The term democracy is a contested concept with many classifications. A government made up of the people for the people is the easiest definition to focus on. A democracy needs have these key elements of a political system for choosing the
Question 1 The Framers chose to govern the newly founded country by a democracy or a republic. A democracy states, the majority is unlimited, in a democracy there is a lack in any legal safeguard of the rights of the individual and the minority. A republic states, the majority is limited, a republic is governed under a written constitution safeguarding the rights of the individual and the minority. The Framer's favored towards having a Republic because they knew that in a pure democracy the Majority’s power is unlimited.
A democracy is a system of government in which power is vested in the people, who rule either directly or through freely elected representatives. That is what the founding fathers strived for when they created the constitution. The system was set up to help prevent the abuse of power. President Donald Trump has put our government into question whether the United States is still a democracy. Many has said that Trump tends to have authoritarian tendencies.
Democracy refers to a governmental structure in which control is in the hands of the citizens. Democracy was developed in Greece at approximately 500 B.C.E. Many say it is the birthplace of democracy. According to our reading assignment from last week, “Athens was the first and perhaps the most radically pure form of democracy in history” (Brand, n.d., p. 28). In Athens, each year fifty councilors from each of the ten demos were chosen.
Government is an important part of any society in the modern world. Although many countries governments are corrupt, America prides itself on having a government rooted in democracy. An important part of a democracy is having equality, and equal representation for all people, and there are several groups of people being overlooked in America’s government. The US does not have equal representation for all groups of people. One of the main parts of US government is the House of Representatives, and the House is where the government’s lack of representation starts.
“Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy,” said Benito Mussolini. By the time one enters the third grade they become aware of concept of democracy. Specifically in America, one is taught that they live in a democratic society. When asking what is democracy, the answer is never truly defiente. The answers given may be; a society where everyone votes, or by dictionary definition “a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of the state; typically through elected representation.”
First of all, it is important to know the definition of democracy and its aspects. According to Peter Joyce (2005), the democratic government was initiated in the Greek city state of Athens in the fifth century B.C., so as a consequence, the word ‘democracy’ derived from two Greek words, demos (meaning ‘people’) and kratos (meaning ‘power’) , which means ‘government by the people’. Secondly, Giovanni Sartori (1997), a Political Science Researcher states that ‘democracy’ is an abbreviation that means Liberal Democracy. He distinguishes three aspects: democracy as a principle of legitimacy (power not derives
Power can be translated to the “ability to influence others” (Agunis, Pierce, & Simonsen, 1998, p. 456). Barack Obama has influenced millions in his lifetime by taking the power he desires to have, from being an attorney, moving up to Illinois State Senator, to becoming a US President for two terms. While he was a Senator in 2004 he was invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention. In his Keynote Address, he expressed different bases of power as he spoke. The bases of power, as explained by Agunis, Pierce, and Simonsen, are reward, coercive, legitimate, referent, and expert.
A democracy is a system of government that gives the people the power to govern. This can either be done directly, where citizens actively participate in the decision making of the country, or indirectly through elected representatives. The purpose of the democratic process is to protect the interests of all citizens of a country. In order to do so, every citizen in the country needs a medium through which to express his political opinion to defend his interests. This is the role of political parties.