Is the US a Legitimate Democracy
The U.S. - a Legitimate Democracy ? In any system which claims to be democratic, a question of its legitimacy remains. A truly democratic political system has certain characteristics which prove its legitimacy with their existence. One essential characteristic of a legitimate democracy is that it allows people to freely make choices without government intervention. Another necessary characteristics which legitimates government is that every vote must count equally: one vote for every person. For this equality to occur, all people must be subject to the same laws, have equal civil rights, and be allowed to freely express their ideas. Minority rights are also crucial in a legitimate democracy . No matter how unpopular their views, all people should enjoy the freedoms of speech, press and assembly. Public policy should be made publicly, not secretly, and regularly scheduled elections should be held. Since "legitimacy" may be defined as "the feeling or opinion the people have that government is based upon morally defensible principles and that they should therefore obey it," then there must necessarily be a connection between what the people want and what the government is doing if legitimacy is to occur.
Consequently, those people who do not become organized into interest groups are likely to be underrepresented financially. This leads to further inequality and, therfore, greater illegitimacy in the democratic system. The method in which we elect the President is fairly legitimate. The electoral college consists of represenitives who we elect, who then elect the President. Because this fills the requirement of reguerly scheduled elections, it is a legitimate process. The President is extremely powerful in foreign policy making, so powerful that people now speak of the "Imperial Presidency," implying that the pesident runs foreign policy as an emperor. The President is the chief diplomat, negotiator of treaties, and comander-in-chief of the armed forces. However, Presidential power in domestic affairs is limited. Therefore, though the President is very powerful in certain areas, the term "Imperial Presidency" is not applicable in all areas. Political parties in America are weak due to anti-party, anti-organization, and anti-politics cultural prejudices of the Classical Liberals. Because in the U.S. there is no national discipline to force citizens into identifying with a political party, partisan identification tends to
Some common words found in the essay are:
Legitimate Democracy, Classical Liberals, Court Justices, Imperial Presidency, scheduled elections, legitimate democracy, imperial presidency, political system, regularly scheduled elections, income education, vote person, foreign policy, allows people, people tend, people government,
Approximate Word count = 840
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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