ipl-logo

Implications Of Bernie Sanders Speech On Democratic Socialism

1896 Words8 Pages

In this essay, I will review the implications of Bernie Sanders' speech on Democratic Socialism, and how it relates to the ideas of James Madison, Fredrick Hayek, McClosky/Zallers, and Sidney Verba. By examining their different views of government, markets, and the role of marginalized groups, this essay will argue that not only does Bernie Sanders' speech demand the need for giving these groups more say in the government but seemingly divergent thinkers who may not advocate for a similar level of government intervention advise that a just society will look out for the minority. Through this analysis, it will become clear that Sanders' view of government, while described as radical, echoes what Madison posits in Federalist NO.10 papers. This …show more content…

Bernie believes that supporting marginalized groups and giving them more opportunities to implement change in the government is especially important. He believes with our current system people with the most wealth and power have had greater say in the government. This quote portrays Bernie Sanders' opinion towards supporting a more diverse system. “They are the entities with unlimited wealth who surround our nation’s capital with thousands of well-paid lobbyists, who to a significant degree write the laws that we live under.” This has been a problem for our society because the elites have been able to shape society to their needs and in ways that benefit the wealthy. In change, we would be able to give more power to marginalized groups and in doing so it would create a more balanced government and create more diverse and equal opportunities. As we can see from Sanders' quote regarding the entities with unlimited wealth who ‘write the laws we live under’ and Madison's Federalist No. 10, we can see how these two politicians share a similar view on the danger of democracy being corrupted by special interests. James Madison’s main point in Federalist NO.10 is that he believes in a large republic with representative democracy. His theory is that by voting for wiser and better representatives the current constitutional system can achieve this “The federal constitution forms a happy combination in this respect; the great and aggregate interest being referred to the national, the local and particular to the state legislatures”. (Federalist, 1787, 52) What Madison did not foresee was the increase in income and inequality and the influences of wealthy individuals who have the free time and money to make their voices louder as we see later in the “Big Tilt” by Sidney Verba. When you are consumed with trying to put food on the table

Show More
Related
243 Words | 1 Pages

Perhaps the most famous Federalist paper, Federalist 10, starts off by saying that one of the biggest arguments that favors the Constitution is that it creates a government suited to minimize the harm caused by factions. Faction, in this case, is defined as a group of people whether a minority or majority based on class, race, and profession that all share a common interest. It was inevitable that factions would occur and perhaps the defining characteristic was the unequal distribution of property. This would ultimately lead the poor without property to become the majority in a “tyranny of the masses.” Madison believed that there were two solutions in preventing majority factions, 1) Remover the causes, and 2) Control the effects.

Read More
501 Words | 3 Pages

Madison’s essay reflects the fear many had of a tyrannical government and the desire to ensure that the country didn’t revert back to that which it had just escaped from. He notes the necessity to prevent any one faction or group from gaining too much power and oppressing those in the minority. The separation of powers was set in place to ensure that this could not happen. Even if one group decides they want something, the other two have the equal authority to prevent it should it not represent the country as a whole.

Read More
1378 Words | 6 Pages

The Federalist saw no reason that agents ought to be exactly similar to those they spoke to. They federalists saw the immense points of interest of agent government over direct majority rules system was exactly the likelihood that the general population wold pick as their delegates having capacity, experience, and ability better than their own. Madison had a solid conviction that delegates must be "the individuals who forces the most shrewdness to perceive, and the most ideals to seek after, the benefit of all of the general public." " In the event that men were heavenly attendants, no administration would be important.

Read More
343 Words | 2 Pages

James Madison’s Federalist 10 was written amid criticisms that a republican form of government had never been successful on a large scale. Madison’s argument was that a well-constructed union could control factions. He argued that in order to control factions from their causes, we would need to either give up liberty or free thought. Since we cannot infringe upon these two natural rights, we must move on to controlling the effects. A republic, Madison argues, would be able to do this because the people choose the representatives, and they choose representatives who they feel best represent their opinions.

Read More
295 Words | 2 Pages

James Madison's assertion, "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition," was a crucial development in the making of the American government. This quote shows that Madison knew that Americans had a strong ambition, which meant that these Americans' citizenship would be powerful. These men lived in America when the U.S. Constitution had an instructable will to be involved with the government based on their freedom from Great Britain, so these men would have a large percentage in popular participation and would take advantage of their citizenship. Therefore in this idea, Madison knew that with these men being ambitious, the government also had to be ambitious. After this idea, he knew that not just one person could run the government but

Read More
177 Words | 1 Pages

After reading The Federalist Papers #10, 48, and 51 I believe that James Madison saw human nature as being selfish and self-centered, "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition" (319). Madison continues on to explicate on his previous thought, "It may be a reflection of human nature that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government" (319). The devices that he talks about are the checks and balances that Madison declares that the government needs. The government needs the checks and balances because Madison believes that trusting one man to govern everything just feeds the selfishness inside the chosen man, "If men were angels, no government would be necessary" (319).

Read More
1934 Words | 8 Pages

Madison rhapsodizes at length about the dangers of factionalism under majority rule; he claims that “popular government [...] enables [the majority] to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest, both the public good and the rights of other citizens”, thus insinuating that popular rule in a system where “the causes of factionalism cannot be prevented” will ultimately devastate both the working class’s public good and the elite class’s private right (10). This fear mongering over majority rule acts as a ringing endorsement of the alternative: minority, or elite, political dominance. To ease the minds of his readers, Madison then declares that the working class of the new republic will be too spread out and otherwise divided to oppose the just government established by the upper class–or, in his words, lower classes will be “rendered, by their number and local situation, unable to concert and carry into effect schemes of oppression” against the elite (10). In this way, Madison promotes upper class rule as a means to protect American liberty, believing that the people at large were unfit to establish this protection themselves–and that they had neither the intelligence nor the unity to carry out their corrupt schemes under properly conducted elite

Read More
790 Words | 4 Pages

He calls this list of remedies a “constitutional, cheap, easy, and sure method of conveying necessary knowledge among the Many” (Manning, p. 159). Described on this list are a list of demands that allow the Many to obtain knowledge of everything needed to succeed in a democracy including the difference of ideas, principles of democracy, laws, elections and new laws, political candidates and national debates both in government and among his peers. He then proceeds to propose the idea of a “Society of the Many” or laborers to help bring this idea into fruition. The goal of this establishment is to teach and inform those without much knowledge of democracy about how the republican system works and how their vote can influence their daily

Read More
424 Words | 2 Pages

1787 was a time of change for government, and everyone had an opinion for how things should be ran. When James Madison wrote the Federalist Papers, Number 10 was about parties in government, or as he called them, “factions”. Madison says that an advantage of a “well constructed Union” would be the ability to “break and control the violence of faction”, yet he goes on to say that you cannot remove factions without removing liberty, and that will never happen. He said the only option was to try and control faction’s effects. In paragraph 8, he says that “the most powerful faction must be expected to prevail”; in other words, the most popular party with the majority of people and influence is expected to prevail over the minority party.

Read More
719 Words | 3 Pages

Madison brings up that it isn’t possible to divide power absolutely equally and “In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates.” (2). And so, the legislative branch will be divided even more to try and combat the unbalance of power. Madison thought this system was a good method because he believed that it was part of human nature to have conflicting ideas and wants, and so each branch could keep the others in line and therefor no one power is above the others. Furthermore, Madison believes a bigger government with multiple branches is better because then it becomes difficult for one

Read More
177 Words | 1 Pages

Democratic-socialist, Bernie Sanders, has no desire to seize control of the business sector and transfer the means of production to the people or the state -- rather, he wants to employ policies that require everyone to play by the same set of rules,

Read More
648 Words | 3 Pages

Bernie sanders was born on September 8th 1941 in New York City, New York, the now outspoken politician grew up in Brooklyn with one older brother. He began high school and also began his college education in Brooklyn, however, after only one year he transferred to the University of Chicago where his outspokenness began to thrive. He was an active member of the civil rights movement, “and served as an organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.” Originally Sanders started off his political career as the mayor of burlington vermont, building slowly but surely making a name for himself in the process. He is a self declared “Democratic Socialist” and thus far his ways of handling politics have been beneficial to his campaigns, he does not criticize based on political party he criticizes others based on whether he thinks their objectives are beneficial to those who are directly and indirectly affected.

Read More
562 Words | 3 Pages

In the case of taxation, the more powerful of the two parties would have the opportunity to impose higher taxes on the minority, thus, saving themselves money. Madison firmly believed that the constitution had the ability to solve the problems created by factions. Madison envisioned a large republic that would make it difficult for corrupt candidates to get elected. Madison expressed this by stating, In the next place, as each representative will be chosen by a greater number of citizens in the large than in the small republic, it will be more difficult for unworthy candidates to practice with success the vicious arts by which elections are too often carried; and the suffrages of the people being more free, will be more likely to centre in men who possess the most attractive merit and the most diffusive and established characters.

Read More
1957 Words | 8 Pages

“Democracy is the road to socialism,” from the famous words of German Philosopher Karl Marx. In today’s day and age, there is an incredible shift to a more social, liberal agenda within American politics, to which embracing social reforms such as gender equality, feminism, same-sex marriage and so on is taking shape. As well as political shifts to more socialistic views in both restrictions on free trade and controlling big business monopolies in order to give more equality to workers and the less fortunate in both economics, and the political realm. This is the America of today and many are questioning the America of tomorrow. Many social scientists believe American society, economics and even politics is shifting toward socialistic

Read More
624 Words | 3 Pages

He has taken many courageous and politically precarious stands on matters facing the nation such as same-sex marriage, gun control, racial tensions, civil rights, and big time pharmaceutical companies collectively, many times going against what was mainstream and generally accepted in politics at times. In 2012, Sen. Sanders did the last thing billionaires and corrupt politicians wanted: He called them out by name, letting the American people know who was "buying out" democracy (Easley). Bernie also voices his beliefs with the population, powerfully influencing people to do what is best for the nation, despite what is popular among politicians, as seen in this

Read More

More about Implications Of Bernie Sanders Speech On Democratic Socialism

Related Topics

Open Document