ipl-logo

American Democracy In Peril Summary

894 Words4 Pages

The United States is described as the "greatest democracy" in the world, but when one looks at where the American governments stands on press freedom, campaign finance and recent propaganda, some will suggest that America is more like an oligarchy. In the book “American Democracy in Peril” by William E Hudson, the author makes a significant point in regarding to Chapter 6 “The Privileged Position in Business” he believes to be the central assumption of the Pluralist description of American politics and that one can indeed identify a dominant group in our politics: business (Hudson,2013 pg.223). “Hudson point outs the people who control the large business corporations dominate our political processes and largely control the public policy outcomes” …show more content…

227). Hudson argues that the pluralist theory is wrong and that pluralist group theorists would make people believe, the groups’ representativeness instead, it is the extent to which they represent one societal interest: business (Hudson,2013 pg. 227). There are many interest groups but the majority of them are participating in lobbying for business. An example of this would be ,200 largest American corporations have worked effectively to promote the business-friendly policies of tax cuts, reduced business regulations, globalization and put to barriers to the union Hudson,2013 pg. …show more content…

He sets out four ways in which it is a threat. . First the range of political interests in society and not equally represented. Business always persuade people to overlook business’s privileged position by equating that position with the preservation of democracy (Hudson,2013 pg 243). In addition, people associated with non-business related interest group are overlooked because business has money and therefore more power to persuade politicians. “Second, business molds public opinion to keep any challenge to its privileged position of the political agenda” (Hudson,2013 pg 244). It promotes silence on significant issues of political-economic organization that might raise questions in people’s minds about the influence of money on American Democracy. Such as issues as how much corporation should have, the roles of labor unions, healthcare, and education funding are deemed too radical to serious discussion in newspapers, television, and schools. Corporations ensure journalists who inquire too deeply into politics and raise questions about business position in society will not see their stories to the masses and that journalist’s job is to keep corporation happy but reporting issues that are irrelevant. Third, business power undermines the development of aspect of democracy. Fourth, “business power is a threat to democracy because of a new divergence between the economic interests of business

Show More
Related
764 Words | 4 Pages

The American Democracy Now textbook explains about the different 9 chapters, such as The Constitution, Federalism, Civil Liberties, Public Opinion, Interest Groups, Political, and etc. Within each of the 9 chapters it describes a brief history of America and how it help mold and shaped the way we live, and the way we think from a different perspective of a person opinion. Throughout the years, technology has influenced different ways people and government communicates and organizes their political campaigns such as television, computers, cell phones, and news services. Technology has challenged people to give them opportunities to respond to make a deep impact in the future of the nation.

Read More
1365 Words | 6 Pages

William Hudson's book American Democracy in Peril, has given several challenges facing democracy in American. Hudson's seventh challenge to America's democracy is the national security state. Starts the chapter off talking about Ronald Reagan's administration and their involvement in Central America. He talks about two important people that were involved in it such as CIA director William Casey who created the contra to prevent the Saninistas from supplying the rebels in El Salvador. Hudson also talks the Oliver North and John Poindexter and the Iran-contra and how they with the support of Casey created a hidden government inside the government that used government resources to achieve their own political agenda (Hudson).

Read More
837 Words | 4 Pages

Corporate Domination in Political Culture: An Analysis of “Dividing Citizens United: The Case v. The Controversy” by Lawrence H. Tribe Corporations have become an influential source of political financing as a result of the controversial 2010 Supreme Court ruling, which stated that corporations are protected under the First Amendment to spend unlimited sums of money in support of campaign advertisements, so long as they are not directly connected with any political candidate (Murray Digby Marziani 1). In Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, by allowing corporations to use general treasury funds for unlimited political advocacy, the Court overturned several financial precedents, in addition to allowing for-profit corporations to conduct financial affairs in secret through the use of independent expenditures (Groonwald 1). The Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court ruling represents an unjust and unpatriotic view of American politics, which has led to severe corruption through the use of electioneering communications, secret money, and independent expenditures.

Read More
1103 Words | 5 Pages

In order to fully support his claim that in order to restore democracy, the American public must once again unite and become politically active, Reich uses cause and effect analysis throughout much of his blog. After describing how wonderful things were when much of the American public was united and involved politically, whether it be through organizations or unions, Reich begins to explain how and why things began to go wrong. Reich states that because many people began to spend more time working, many organizations began to lose members; thus, resulting in less power for the people and more power for the corporations. Because corporations now had more power, Reich states that that's when the greed and corruption began to take place, which ultimately led to ignoring the needs of the American people and focusing more on the money. The use of cause and effect is quite effective in this case because it not only allows the reader to see how the U.S. got to where it is now, but it also reveals how to get back to when democracy actually meant something.

Read More
917 Words | 4 Pages

In the United States’ history during the 1930’s and 1940’s, the federal government worked hard to respond and find solutions for the citizens amid the Great Depression that had risen. That period caused mass unemployment, many struggled financially, and many worried if they would even have enough food to provide for themselves and their families for just the next meal. These federal responses to aid during these hard times changed the role of the government and left a legacy that still influences us today. Most notably of these changes by the government are the impact of growth, power, and the welfare system. The growth of the government during this time was quite exceptional.

Read More
1076 Words | 5 Pages

Big corporations and businesses have been thriving in America since the late nineteenth century. The definition of the term “Big business” is “an economic group consisting of large profit-making corporations especially with regard to their influence on social or political policy”(“Big Business”). Some big corporations include the steel companies, the oil companies, and the railroad industry. Some modern-day businesses include Apple and Android, and oil companies today.

Read More
386 Words | 2 Pages

Democracy is the foundation of the American government, and its application creates the opportunity of social class intermingling. Albeit in the form of social interaction or working one’s way up the chain of command. The labor standoff between the Homestead workers and management became the tipping point for manners in American democracy. This tipping point resulted in violent altercations, assassination attempts, and ultimately broken spirits. The Homestead strike in the 19th century not only exemplifies how democracy instigated class blending, but also diminished morality.

Read More
851 Words | 4 Pages

Correspondingly to the rising corruption in government, President Theodore Roosevelt gave a speech addressing the issue of rising corruption and what the government has done to end said corruption (Doc. 2). President Roosevelt informs the audience that the government has put regulations on business corporations as a solution to alarming monopolies and political machines (Doc. 2). When analyzing President Theodore Roosevelt’s speech at Rhode Island, it is evident that the purpose is to convince the audience that the government is trying to protect the citizens from big businesses by placing regulations. Furthermore, when inspecting the voting system, Americans spotted flaws that made the system not as just as it was perceived. It is unmistakable that voting is corrupt because many citizens suffer through the pressure of being subconsciously forced to vote for their alderman (Doc.1).

Read More
1109 Words | 5 Pages

One important component in which the upper class rule America is the electoral process. Loose campaign finance regulation, including controversial Supreme Court decisions such as Citizens United v. US and Buckley v. Valeo is a primary cause of the wealthy ruling politics. These two decisions asserted that corporations are not limited in their spending on political candidates. Essentially, the US Supreme Court enabled corporate leaders to buy influence - SuperPAC heads and wealthy businessmen were welcomed to join forces and pour as much money as possible into candidates’ campaigns. The net effect: America’s wealthiest individuals could exert an unmatchable influence on candidates and the electorate while pressing an agenda favoring the upper class.

Read More
1121 Words | 5 Pages

In a capitalist environment, at least where corporations have been concerned, the government should neither intervene or regulate the open market. In fact, the essence of the capitalist economic system is to create an environment where the free market would be able to dictate itself. Regardless of the system’s original intentions, there have been cases globally and throughout time where government intervention has been necessary — cases where the general public itself has been affected negatively by corporate abuse of the market. For instance, the United States’ public-corporate relationship throughout the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Throughout this period, which was known as the Progressive Era, industrial America

Read More
1003 Words | 5 Pages

While some Americans blame the government for it being undemocratic, the elected officials have provided us with evidence that America is undemocratic. An ideal democracy is how the government puts the people’s interest before the businesses interest. In Lindblom’s story “The Market as Prison”, it introduces a mechanism called the automatic punishing recoil mechanism (APRM). This provides businesses to have a privileged position in society.

Read More
176 Words | 1 Pages

A pluralistic society can correspondingly become a ‘special-interest’ society (Carroll & Buchholtz 2015, p. 9). As the notion of pluralism continues to be practised, the appearance of large quantities of special-interest groups within this society is common and expected, with each focused on following up their own agenda. Growing the specialisation and representation of interest groups such as employees, consumers, investors, communities, the environment, the government and business itself, is a reflection of how society has changed. However, the leading common interest associations such as the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry still exist. These special-interest groups have continued to grow in number as well as at a faster pace,

Read More
1448 Words | 6 Pages

In 1831 French sociologist and political theorist Alexis De Tocqueville and a lawyer he befriended named Gustave de Beaumont, spent nine months traveling around America studying its prisons and came back with a full report on the cultural, political and psychological life in America. While Beaumont wrote about the penitentiary system, Tocqueville focused more in the cultural and political life in America. He wrote two essays and published them in a book called Democracy in America. He discussed the possible threats to democracy and the possible dangers of democracy. He believed that religion and equality were the greatest ideas and they were the most advanced in the United States and that's why democracy worked so well in America.

Read More
1052 Words | 5 Pages

For the past century, voter turnout in American presidential elections has significantly declined, likely due to the fact that Americans do not believe their single votes are important. In light of more recent elections, political donations from corporations, identified or anonymous, have infringed upon traditional, American democracy. Although corporate donations to political campaigns have little effect on the public compared to the newly pivotal role of social media, these donations are founded upon a ruling that is classist, undemocratic, and corrupt, leading to unprincipled politics. This ruling is Citizens United, passed January 21, 2010.

Read More
581 Words | 3 Pages

The United States of America is not truly a democracy. America’s government is all over the place and pretty much a mixture of everything, it never has been just democracy. The characteristics of a democracy are where the majority wins but that never really happens. For example the president election majority does not elect the president. The United States of America is not a democracy for many reasons; Rule by law, we are more a republic than a democracy, and the founders of a nation didn 't want a democracy.

Read More

More about American Democracy In Peril Summary

Related Topics

Open Document