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Democracy In Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone

1756 Words8 Pages

Democracy can simultaneously be seen as one of humanity’s finest creations, and also a natural result of the individual’s innate right to equality. As a political system that is shaped by the desires and opinions of the population, the actions and effects of its implementation become a tangible part of the lives of each and every member within the system’s jurisdiction. It is unique in that, when properly executed, the wishes of a collective population directly influence the direction of a governing body. Such responsibility, therefore, must not be taken for granted and it is thus the obligation of every citizen to partake in and engage with their democracy in at least some way. The democratic political system, and the significant change it …show more content…

The result of this decline in civic engagement produced an overall dissatisfaction with the operations of the country and, consequently, citizen’s everyday lives. The fact that the democratic system so directly affects us as individuals means that discontent with it directly corresponds with unhappiness in regard to nearly everything else in our lives. Putnam claims that “the health of…democracy requires citizens to perform our public duties,” as well as “that the health of our public institutions depends… on widespread participation in private voluntary groups – those networks of civic engagement that embody social capital” (336). If a democratic society feels displeased with their current situation the only way to remedy is by doing something about it. This right is a privilege that few are granted, but it is also a responsibility that dictates every facet of one’s life. By being active politically and communally, every individual possess the power to create the positive change they wish to see in their

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Through the concept of social capital, Putnam states that civic engagements increase social trust which then translates into successful political outcomes (292). Therefore, without civil society, democracy

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Benito Mussolini once said, “Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy.” Democracy may have a veneer of “power from the peoples”, but in reality, democracy is used by the pauci electi to control the hoi polloi. Governmental

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Thus, it is better to improve the social determinants of a community as a whole instead of one person in that community bettering themselves. Working together to fix the aspects of said society that are negatively affecting an area along with everyone doing what they can to add to the improvement of life

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James Madison was no stranger to opposition. In publishing an essay referred to today as Federalist Essay No. 10, Madison participated in a persuasive attempt to ratify the Constitution, a document he drafted and for which he is credited as its “Father”. Along with John Jay, who would become the United States’ first Supreme Court Chief Justice, and Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, Madison articulated the necessity of the Constitution as a remedy for the extant ills of an infant nation recently freed from the grasp of a distant monarchical rule. This young nation faltered under the first endeavor of organized government, the Articles of Confederation. The Articles were designed during a period of emerging independence

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Scholars from all over the Western world have analyzed and discussed the impact of democracy has had for the citizens of the United States, for over 200 years. Each new period throughout American history, has brought a new concept of being an individual in a democratic society. One flaw scholars from the late nineteenth century saw with democracy was that the majority ruled and if an individual part of the minority their voices were not heard, even if the minority was just and the majority unjust. Thus the democracy most Americans are proud to have is primarily individualistic and can be deemed corrupt because of the focus of majority rule, which might not be the wisest decision. Alexis de Tocqueville was a French writer who wrote several essays on his visit to the United States.

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While USA is considered by many an example of democracy, and becaon of freedom, its history is littered with examples of discrimination of various groups. Native American Indians, African Americans, Women, Italians, Jews, Irish, Asians, were all discriminated at some point in time in USA. It is undobtedly an achievement of democracy that those shameful episodes are mostly behind us. I would like to talk about individual freedoms by looking at several examples of discrimination and how that discrimination was overcome. When talking about democracy, and bieng a part of a society, there is probably nothing more fundamental than the right to vote.

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In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville provides an analysis and critique of American civic life. During his travels across the country, he discovered how different America was from Europe, particularly France. While the majority of Europe consisted of aristocratic countries with hundreds of years of history, America was a young democratic country. Most notably, he observed that America was growing in equality. The growing equality becomes a presupposition of individualism and isolation, but despite this inevitable growth of equality, individualism and isolation can be minimized.

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The United States currently faces a severe problem with one of their governmental processes. In the democratic system of the United States, politicians are elected by voting from the citizens, in most cases. The problem the United States is facing is that people are no longer voting in elections for officials. This problem is discussed in the article, “In praise of low voter turnout”, written by Charles Krauthammer. The main idea behind this article is that voters are no longer interested in politics, as they were in previous generations.

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First of all what is important to define is what means “Participatory democracy”. Participatory democracy has emerged as a catchphrase for more genuine, popular or progressive forms of democratisation. Aragonès and Sànchez-Pàgez define it as a process of collective decision-making where citizens have the power to decide on policy proposals and politicians assume the role of policy implementation (Aragones & Sanchez Pages, 2008). Participatory democracy provides opportunities to overcome the shortcomings of representative democracy by combining it with elements of direct democracy.

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This essay will clarify the reasons of why we need a government and why direct democracy is not a suitable political structure for the current American society. Government is necessary to be established within a society or a community. First and foremost, it can keep up order, which means inhabitants will not frequently suffer inexorable violence and the conduct of breaching ethics. As an illustration, because of the absence of government in the earliest group of British colonists, nobody would punish the people who dared to eat their relatives and colleagues in order to deal with starvation (McGill 2009).

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If people have no place to voice their will or take part in deciding their own destiny, the community might grow disinterested and passive in their relationship with their government. Mill believes this is problematic for society because history, as he sees it, has shown that more democratic societies have more ‘energetic, and ‘developed’ societies as well as more ‘go ahead characters’ not seen in more totalitarian societies. Yet, this criticism might fail to cover a deeper problem of disinterest; it might lead to a level of moral deficiency as well. Mill fears that a loss of ability and activity, leads to a society losing its sense of communal responsibility and social justice. In their aloofness, people might be less inclined to believe that they have any responsibility to society since society has ceased to have any rights or purpose under absolute authority.

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Democracy is a system of government in which the power to govern is vested on the citizens. This power is exercised either directly wherein citizens reach a consensus to implement policies, or indirectly through the election of representatives who will act on behalf of the citizen's interest (Janda, Berry, Goldman, and Hula, 2012). In such states that have adapted democratic government, political participation is the hallmark of citizens' right and ability to exercise their power. The definition of political participation, as with all concepts of social sciences, is subject to debate since most social science concepts are subject to the changing norms of society and government. Thus, this paper defines political participation as a social phenomenon that takes on different forms which is used by citizens to influence government policies and politics.

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Democracy has long been considered by the modern society as one of the universal values and it has been used as a legitimate decision making method. According to Habermas in Three Normative Models of Democracy (Habermas, 1994), democracy is the institutionalization of the public use of reason jointly exercised by autonomous citizens. Deliberation needs to be freed of power imbalances in order to reach normative consensus based on rationality and equal participation. It is claimed that the goal of deliberate democracy is to achieve a just social order whereas a just social order is the social order which each individual and institution is constrained from committing unjust acts. This essay will argue that, in fact deliberate democracy is not a necessary condition for a just social order.

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Some people express a desire to participate more fully in their communities, but the demands of day-to-day life get in the way. We as one of citizen in this country, thinks that a lot of people are holding down two jobs and both people work in the family and are too tired trying to survive a day at a time. The focus group members compared an idealized past where civic participation was common and visible, to the present, where it is nearly impossible to fit participation into an over-crowded schedule. We believe that participation from the public limited by lack of education, informally family and community and formally in school.

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Many people believe that the election plays the most important role in democracy. Because a free and fair election holds the government responsible and forces it to behave on voter's interest. However, some scholars find evidence that election itself is not enough to hold politicians responsible if the institutions are not shaping incentives in a correct way. In other words, the role of the election on democracy, whether it helps to serve the interest of the public or specific groups, depends on other political institutions. I

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