Democracy Benchmark Analysis

The word democracy has two major meanings: a government by the people who are the majority, and also it can refer to a government in which the ultimate power is given to the people who directly or indirectly exercises it via a system of representation and usually involves free and fair elections. Democracy refers to a government created through elected representatives. Democracy in the society favors equal rights and believes in the freedom of speech as well as the view of the minority groups in the society. Democracy is based on the principles of the rule of majority and rights of individuals. A democratic society is where all government levels are made accessible to the people (Jensen & Romanowski 30).

Americans should not be required to vote, the amount of votes will go up. But since they are not aware of who they are voting for would cause chaos. If they have a problem and want to have their say in the elections they should be able to without be required to with an influence of something. They would still need more ways to higher the voting percentage. But they could do that with several ads convincing them so they have the mindset of voting. Now the odds of the least liked candidate to be voted in to win is fifty fifty.

Several countries have mandatory voting for its citizens. Is it something the United States should pursue? Mandatory voting would definitely increase the percentage of votes cast. It would make voting a duty and no longer a right. With most people who vote straight party this would be an advantage to the party who has appeased the most voters as they would come in and cast the quickest vote by straight line voting. It could be possible that knowing you had to vote, one may take more interest in learning more about candidates or constitutional amendments that are on the ballots. However, I am in favor of the opposing view. I think it is a right and privilege and should not be forced upon a person. If you force people to do something they don’t want to do then the you will reap the results. You will have uniformed voters become the majority and making decisions for the country. The politicians base will no longer be the main concern as they now will have to make a push for the politically uneducated voter which will be more about what they can give them than policy issues. This also makes what the

Popular sovereignty means that the people obtain the power of their government. Without the people,

Popular sovereignty is the idea that the people are sovereign and it is the leader of the countries responsibility to reflect the people’s interests. Jon R. Bond and Kevin B. Smith defined popular sovereignty in their book Analyzing American Democracy by

Democracy stresses the equality of all individuals and insists that all men are created equal. Democracy does not persist on an equality of condition for all people or argue that all persons have a right to an equal share of worldly goods. Rather, its concept of equality insists that all are entitled to equality of opportunity and equality before the law. The democratic concept of equality holds that no person should be held back for any such arbitrary reasons as those based on race, color, religion, or gender. This concept of equality holds that each person must be free to develop himself or herself as fully as he or she can or cares to and that each person should be treated as the equal of all other persons by the law. We have come

Popular sovereignty is the idea of power and government coming from people and not just the officials of the government.

Democracy, as we know it, can be described by four important values. These four values are Personal Liberty, Individualism, Equality, and Opportunity (Text Pg. 25-26). Personal liberty is the freedom of individuals to determine their destinies. The citizen will determine his future, not the state (Text Pg. 25). Individualism is the belief in that everyone is equal in their right to being treated equitably (Text Pg. 25-26). The rights of the many do not outweigh the rights of the few. Equality is the right in which people are treated equally and given the same opportunities as anyone else is given (Text Pg. 26). Opportunity is the chance for everyone to have the chance to further themselves (Text Pg. 26-27). People have the right to their fair chance at succeeding in life, without discrimination.

Equality is one of the focal terms that emphasizes democracy. A crucial instance that reiterates equality is the separation of powers. The constitution entrenches the three powers in which the government would carry out. A French philosopher Charles de Montesquieu speculated the separation of powers. Individual freedom was highly accentuated and the best way to carry that out was justifying the governing system. Giving full power to one person was to be completely avoided. Distributing the power would create a well functioning government. This power would be distributed to the three branches that include executive, legislative and judicial. The executive branch was intended to execute laws, or present them. The legislative branch would make the actual laws, and lastly the judicial branch would interpret or decipher the laws being made and executed. Soon after these branches were created, the system of Checks and Balances were enforced and

According to the Struggle for Democracy you need to exhibit all three guidelines of democracy, (popular sovereignty, political equality, and political liberty), to become democratic. It states that in popular sovereignty the supreme source of government authority and policies they make are the people, and that political equality is the concept that every person has equal weight in the management of public business. It also specifies that political liberty is the right of the people to practice the range of basic freedom, for instants the freedom of speech, association, and conscience, without the governments meddling.

Next. The popular sovereignty is the idea that people are the source of authority and power in the government.’’ He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing with manly firmness his invasion on the right of the people. He has refused for a long time after such dissolution to cause others to elected’’.

One of the main benefits of mandatory voting is that the government ensures every citizen will pay more attention to the candidates and in election date, they will have a solid number of votes. These will not leave room for errors and many conspiracies like we seen in this past election with President Trump and Hillary Clinton. On the contrary, mandatory voting will not do any good if individuals will go out and vote

Democracy is a form of government where all eligible citizens are meant to participate equally. Democracy is founded on four key elements; protection of citizen rights, laws that apply to all people, the involvement of the people in both social and political life, and a system by choosing government officials by equal elections. As more people focused on equality and the importance of the individual, democracy started to appear in the Ancient World. Despite the fact that democracy in the Ancient World is not like it is today, the Judeo-Christian tradition, Athens, and the Roman Republic helped to influence modern democracy. To begin with, the Judeo-Christian era greatly influenced the ideas of democracy.

Winston Churchill once remarked that “democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried”. In agreement with his statement, this paper will examine the problems of democratic governments using specific examples, and compare it to the failure of fascist governments in Nazi Germany and Italy and communist governments in the Soviet Union and China.

Aristotle states his theory as democracy as a deviant constitution; Rousseau’s democracy refers to a social contract between the people and their rulers, James Cairns and Alan Sears explain democracy as disrupting everyday reality and developing new practices of popular power, and lastly Ranciere, Ranciere describes democracy as, “the reality of the power of the people that can never coincide with the form of a State.” These four political theorists all agree, democracy would not exist without the people. Through Aristotle, Rousseau, James Cairns and Alan Sears, and Ranciere I will explain what democracy is and the values and virtues essential to democracy as a form of government and as a practice.