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The Pros And Cons Of American Democracy

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American Democracy has always been founded on the principle of separation of powers. It has been the hallmark of the Constitution, which created the strongest example of “the celebrated [Montesquieu’s]” original theory of tripartite governance in The Spirit of Natural Laws. While political leaders may be hungry for unlimited power to abuse the innocent, they are structurally hindered and combated by those willing to serve justice in other branches of government. This simple notion was a radical design in 1787, when a French monarch ruled absolutely in the midst of oncoming rebellion and the King George III ignored the pleas of his subjects in the Americas. The United States Constitution is deliberately inefficient with the doctrine of separation of powers in order to preserve justice and security for its citizens …show more content…

Additionally, President Obama told the Republican Congress that he would use his veto power if they decided to repeal the Affordable Care Act. As a Democrat, President Obama has a different agenda than a Republican Congress. An idea that he believes is prominent to the prosperity of the country cannot be repealed with the simple majority, who are presumably voting along party lines. This doesn’t mean, however, that the President is all powerful; if his healthcare initiative was truly catastrophic, a two-thirds vote in each house would have overridden the veto. In fact, the judiciary has found more than 100 acts of Congress unconstitutional. The power of the judiciary to determine the constitutionality of a law was not initially in the Constitution.

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In Federalist No. 78, Alexander Hamilton lays out his vision for the Supreme Court of the United States. In this essay, Hamilton explains that the court should function as a “bulwark against majoritarian excesses” (O’Brien 181). His intension was for the court to protect the rights of the minority of the people against the tyranny of the majority. Hamilton makes the assurance that the court will use separation of powers as a “check” on Congress in order to protect against popular will (O’Brien 22). To accomplish this, the court had to function as an independent body in order to “safeguard” against the will of the majority and “occasional ill humors in the society” (O’Brien 349).

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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.

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628 Words | 3 Pages

When a men rule over other men, that can be dangerous and even deadly. The government must control the governed and control itself (Madison 1). A nation’s administration must depend on people for its direction, but there are some reservations that must be maintained. Two views are presented about why the federal system of America should follow a constitution. The first is that usurpations are protected with the division and distinctions in governmental departments (Madison 2).

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James Madison directly explains the purpose of dividing the powers among the three branches to protect against tyranny, “...the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that they may be a check on the other...” By separating the powers and creating a system of checks and balances to guard against tyranny, the framers of the United States constitution directly aimed to protect the constitutional rights and liberties of individual citizens and the future of the nation. Just as the creators of the constitution sought to protect the citizens of the United States against tyranny with the separation of powers and checks and balances, the framers of the constitution also protected the rights of states with larger and smaller populations. To protect the rights of larger states and smaller states, the framers created a bicameral legislature system with the house of representatives and the senate. The members of the house of representatives are determined based on each states population, while the senate has 2 members per state, allowing for both large and small states to have equal

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“The accumulation of all powers..in the same hands, whether of one or many (is) the very definition of tyranny.” (James Madison, Federalist Paper #47, 1788) ( Background Essay) This quote explains the reasoning for one of the framers, (B) Separation of Powers. The framers of the constitution were created to prevent tyranny and create a stronger government that would hold the nation together. Tyranny ultimately means harsh, absolute power in the hands of one individual-- like a king or dictator. The constitution guarded against tyranny in 4 ways: (A)Federalism, (B)Separation of Powers, (C)Checks & Balances, and (D)Small State-Large State.

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Through the fundamental ideals of the founding fathers the United States government has been sculpted into a variation of a democracy influenced by Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton. These men each provided concepts and qualities of their respective government that are directly reflected in the constitution and the bill of rights. Although, conflicting principals can be identified through each individual’s interpretation of a democracy, there is no doubt Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton structured our government into what it is today. Madison described a democracy in which wealth needed to be equally distributed among the people in order to function.

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The Framers of the United States Constitution intended for the idea of separation of powers to be a conceptual idea that kept one single branch of government from becoming tyrannical. This “idea” may have become misconstrued since the Framers first drafted the United State’s Constitution in 1787. For example, immigration has become an increasingly growing issue within the United States justice system. Consequently, the branches are having a power struggle over the authority of what laws are going to be made, how they are going to be enforced, and how they are interpreted. Article one, Section eight, Clause four of the United State’s Constitution gives Congress control over all immigration matters.

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Separation of Powers is a complicated and nuanced idea and system, that even the courts have struggled to understand and agree on; I believe that Justice Burger and Justice Scalia summarised Separation of Powers amazingly in their opinions. In INS v. Chadha Justice Burger wrote, “With all the obvious flaws of delay, untidiness, and potential for abuse, we have not yet found a better way to preserve freedom than by making the exercise of power subject to the carefully crafted restraints spelled out in the Constitution.” In Morrison v. Olsen Scalia wrote, “While the separation of powers may prevent us from righting every wrong, it does so in order to ensure that we do not lose liberty.” Both of these statements are why we should continue to make

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This concern was evident in the many checks and balances and the separation of powers in our federal government. Madison makes the separation of powers evident in Federalist Paper 48 because he states “power properly belonging to one of the departments ought not to be directly and completely administered by either of the other departments” (Hamilton et al. 305). This idea portatins to each of the branches having their own general duties with the Executive branch enforcing the laws, the legislative branch writing the laws, and the judicial branch interpreting the laws. Madison also demonstrates why the government needs checks on its power in Federalist Paper 51 because the government needs to be able to control the people but also it has to control itself since we are not governed by angels (Hamilton et al. 319). These ways to control the government are evident in Article 1, Section 3 as the “Senate shall have the sole power to try all Impeachments” and in Article 1, Section 7 which gives the President the power to veto bills (Hamilton et al. 546).

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This has produced measurable consequences like a disproportionate flow of federal funds and resources to under populated states. By allocating an equal number of votes between small and large states, the Constitution has allowed for an undemocratic distribution of resources. Moreover, because of the loose constraints placed on the presidential veto, some ague that an era of ‘imperial presidency’ is looming over us. Though this view is a bit extreme, it does stress the likely dangers that might arise if the president goes unchecked and is allowed to consolidate legislative and executive power into one branch. In practice, the use of checks and balances in legislation has diminished, and it might just be the case that the founders’ system of checks and balance is on the brink of

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539 Words | 3 Pages

The Constitution is the greatest document to teach “the question of how free and equal citizens check and channel power both to protect themselves from domination by one another and to secure their mutual protection from external forces that might seek their domination” (Allen 9). To do this, the Constitution created the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances so that each branch of government does not have domination over the other. Each branch of government has a specific area of responsibility and was made to not have too much power over the others, to keep an unbiased system of

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Alexis de Tocqueville penned Democracy in America after he spent month America in the 1831, where he witnessed a new democratic system. He found it’s concepts to have unique strengths and weaknesses that he believed could be the inspiration for the new government of post-revolution France. The concepts of limiting individualism, encouraging positive associations, and moderating the tyranny of the majority that Tocqueville observed during his trip in America helped maintain the new democratic republic built after the revolution. As soon as America became free from British rule, their groundwork for their new government helped cement them as a true democracy since it contended with individualism. Tocqueville noticed that after a successful

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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.

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Many individuals have a misleading conception of what democracy may be. Democracy is defined as a political system run by the people in which the supreme power is given to the people and decisions are made by them and their elected government officials through election. They vote for their government officials through a process called elections. Elections are a way that people privately and publically vote for who they believe should be a government official. Everyone is treated equally and have equal rights to power.

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In Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville, it talks about democracy in America and its strengths and weaknesses. Having seen the failed attempts at democratic government in his home country of France, Tocqueville wanted to study a stable and prosperous democracy to gain insights into how it worked. His studies led him to conclude that the movement toward democracy and equality of conditions‹ was a universal phenomenon and a permanent historical tendency that could not be stopped. Since this democratic trend was inevitable, Tocqueville wanted to analyze it in order to determine its strengths and dangers so that governments could be formed to reinforce democracy 's strengths while counteracting its weaknesses. Even though Democracy in America

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