Democracy and the Constitution
In the excerpt from "21 Debated", the authors discuss their opinions on why the Constitution is such a vital part of our political system. They offer suggestions on how our government could rekindle the passion for the democratic system that was so prevalent during the past century and a half. The authors also acknowledge the apathy displayed by today's citizens over the democratic process as well as reasons for the discontent. I will examine the articles and discuss their meaning. Although the Constitution is a nearly flawless document, the system that was spawned from its creation has issues that need addressing. "The Constitution is simply a set of rules about making rules." It is full of regulations and principles, such as the separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism. Overall, the Constitution is the outline of our government and political processes. It is unbelievable how little the Constitution has changed in over two hundred years withstanding all the political turmoil this country has been through. Jonathan Schnell and Sebastian Mallaby view the Constitution in two different views. Jonathan Schnell believes the Constitution yields too much power to Congress. Sim
Democracy is when ordinary people have a say in government issues and how they are conducted. Americans also think that democracy is good because the alternatives are worse. There are two types of democracy discussed in the book. They are direct democracy and representative democracy. Direct or participatory democracy works better on a small scale because a group from a community voluntarily comes together to vote in the well being of the community. In contrast, representative democracy works better on a large scale because then it is taken to the polls and representatives are elected to make decisions for the people. Direct democracy values participation by everyone, while representative democracy is as affective without all the participation from everyone. Sebastian Mallaby discusses how Americans are unified in everything except democracy. Your taught in school about the Declaration of Independence and you live by it, but while it was established for the people, or rather in the name of the people, it still ignores the problems of the everyday person. I think the part of the article that talks about idealism and cynicism is true. "It is precisely because of their idealistic expectations that Americans have fallen into cynicism. Because they are idealistic, Americans are constantly proposing ways of improving their political system. When these proposals fail, cynicism prevails (pg. 11)." I think that this is true because Americans have unrealistic requests and when these requests aren't fulfilled, there is distrust in the government. In the article, "The Future of Democracy," the author discusse
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1094
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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