Democratization Of Democracy And Autocracy In The United States

There is no doubt that the United States of America is a democracy, but how democratic are some of the components of our system of government? For example, the Electoral College is used when selecting the president of The United States, but the founders developed the Electoral College based on a theory of how it should work with no practical, real-world example of how it realistically works. Based on the three core principles of democracy which are popular sovereignty, political equality, and political freedom, the Electoral College falls short when assessed using these democratic values.

In his book Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville highlights the importance of religion within America, stating how the Christian religion, specifically the Protestant vein, had a great influence over the hearts of American men and women. This influence can be seen through the Second Great Awakening, which galvanized many social and literary reforms within American society, including transcendentalism, the temperance movement, the education reform movement, abolitionist movement, prison reform movement, and the women’s rights movement. Although these reform movements, incited by new, heightened religious growth, changed the political and social climate of America during 1825 and 1855, they more greatly impacted America by spurring the

Democracy in America, by Alexis de Tocqueville includes Tocqueville’s observations on what American society and culture was like during the 1830’s. Throughout his analysis of America, he draws many outlandish and interesting conclusions regarding what life was like during this time period. For example, in Chapter 18, Tocqueville remarks that citizens in democratic societies are independent, which makes them weak and subsequently uninfluential in society. He goes on to say that in order to combat this, associations must be established to combat individualism and to circulate new thoughts and ideas. All in all, Tocqueville’s claim is certainly valid, but only up to a certain point because there were a select few of individuals that were able to make an influence on society without the help from any associations.

The democratization of American society that started in 1820s has led to a significant change of relations between government and people. These changes include growing equality of opportunities for white men and possibility for people to influence political processes taking place in the US. While people gained new rights and chances to start another life, government was, on the one hand, set under the growing pressure of society, and on the other hand, could be constructed by people.

Democracy, as most people think of it today, did not exist during the first few decades of U.S. history.

How democratic is the US? This is a question not many people ask themselves, most people living in the United States believe that they have a very democratic country since it is what they hear everyone says about it. Nonetheless, to those who have learned about United States of America the reality can be different, some might say there is nothing democratic at all about America. The questions to ask are “what is democracy? How democratic is the US? Do we meet the standards of democratic theory?

Between 1900 and 1970, a series of laws and Constitutional amendments strengthened American democracy through the expansion of voting rights.  At the beginning of the twentieth century, the vote was largely restricted to white males over the age of 21.  Seventy years later, women, African-Americans, and college-age youth enjoyed unprecedented access to the ballot.  These monumental gains came through hard struggle and organized social movements.  Interestingly, the causes that initially animated these movements did not focus on voting.  The early twentieth century women’s suffrage movement came on the heels of heightened women’s activism in the area of Progressive reform.  Later in the century a Civil Rights movement focused on desegregation and an anti-war crusade prompted their primary proponents to turn their attention to voting rights.  These three cases demonstrate that the expansion of American democracy in the twentieth century was driven by a

"United States can be seen as the first liberal democracy. The United States Constitution, adopted in 1788, provided for an elected government and protected civil rights and liberties. On the American frontier, democracy became a way of life, with widespread social, economic and political equality. The system gradually evolved, from Jeffersonian Democracy or the First Party System to Jacksonian Democracy or the Second Party System and later to the Third Party System. In Reconstruction after the Civil War (late 1860s) the newly freed slaves became citizens, and they were given the vote as well." (Web, 1)

Democracy has become the most widespread political form of government during the past decade, after the fall of all its alternatives. During the second part of the 20th century, the 3 main enemies of democracy, namely communism, fascism and Nazism, lost most of their power and influence. However, democracy is still only to be found in less than half of this world's countries. China with a fifth of the total population "had never experienced a democratic government" and Russia still doesn't have a well established democracy. By adopting a democratic perspective, 3 types of governments emerge, non-democratic, new democracies, and old democracies, and all have a different challenge to overcome: either to become democratic, to "consolidate"

"United States can be seen as the first liberal democracy. The United States Constitution, adopted in 1788, provided for an elected government and protected civil rights and liberties. On the American frontier, democracy became a way of life, with widespread social, economic and political equality. The system gradually evolved, from Jeffersonian Democracy or the First Party System to Jacksonian Democracy or the Second Party System and later to the Third Party System. In Reconstruction after the Civil War (late 1860s) the newly freed slaves became citizens, and they were given the vote as well." (Web, 1)

In America, our government is a democracy, but its not this way in all countries. In places like China, there government is a communist, very different from our own. There are many other governments, including Absolute Monarchy, Dictatorship, and Totalitarianism. These can all be put into one government name, Authoritarianism which is very different from our own.

Does people with criminal records should have the right to vote? My answer is NO. However, with the development of industrial society and modern technology, the continuous improvement of the degree of rationalization, democratization becomes a non-stop inverse trend. In developed countries democratization process, they always emerge situation repeatedly, along with the democratization of instability and recession. How to achieve democratization, and how to grasp the path of democratization, have became an unavoidable problem. Take a look at the process of democratization of the United States, we found that the democratization of experience that can help our political development. The most important aspect of democratization that electoral rights of citizens, the paper intends to investigate American citizens the right to vote of the development process. Evolution of American citizens the right to vote, can be divided into three stages: the strict restrictions on colonial suffrage, universal suffrage established in the 19th century period, extension of the suffrage of the 20th century.

Democracy is a unique type of government, and the purpose of this essay is to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses that a democratic government provides. I will detail that many components of this type of society are both strengths and weakness as each component has beneficial aspects as well as unavoidable pitfalls.

We live in this country for the land, and the for the free as Americans we rely on many attributes in this world in order for us to live our lives. Our government has supplied us with many great things for us to be proud of. Our government is “the institutions and processes though which public policies are made for society.” (Edwards, Wattenberg, and Lineberry, p. 7). With all these institutions which includes the President, Congress, the courts and all the federal administrative agencies. These are the institutions that make up public policies for us, and to shape the way we live as Americans. The way this system has been operating through all the years has been

In the modern world, most of the countries have democratic government, which means that decisions are made by the people, who rule and govern the state. However, there is not a single state that practices perfect democracy due to different reasons. Governments are too big, which makes it very complex for every citizen to have a voice in decisions. Or, governments are claimed to be democratic, but in practice they can be close to authoritarian or even totalitarian regimes where one person has a power to make and enforce laws. Political power is not allocated evenly among all members of society, so, in this or that way, governments tend to fall in the hands of the few, whom we can call the elite or the power elite.