The State And State Sovereignty

Unlike the national government, state governments encourage and support religious activities’ that inculcates virtue in the citizens (Bryner, Public Virtue and the Roots of American Government, 1987). Hence, in a small republic (state), there is a higher probability of finding true natural aristocrats with wisdom, talents and virtue to be representatives of the state. Being virtuous and wise, the representatives practice self-restraint to act in their own self-interest. For instance, corruption causes the funds to be diverted away from establishing a better society through the upgrading of facilities, provision of education and healthcare services. Furthermore, representatives in a small republic are a clear reflection of the citizens’ interests (Lim, 2014). Elections are held every few years to select the best representatives for the state. During the period of campaigning, the candidates have direct contact with the citizens through to organization of rallies and walkabouts where they interact with the electorate and understand their concerns. Hence, the electorate has an idea of whether the potential representatives are truly virtuous. Since these representatives are highly talented, they will also have the knowledge to implement appropriate laws and policies to manage the concerns of the

Plato believed that a Philosopher should be the people who rule, if not then the kings who are ruling should be educated as Philosopher. Throughout their life philosophers gain as much knowledge, wisdom and the truth. Philosopher won't cause anyone harm, because they are above all the worldly pleasures, and greed. In the previous readings, Plato divided a human soul into categories, and he believes that a philosopher would dominate in all of those categories.

As Plato pointed out in The Republic, the government should be ruled by the most wise, intelligent, non-corrupt and individual in the city who does not want to rule, thus being the philosopher. The "philosopher king" idea on paper works well because it portraits the philosopher as a robotic figure who has no heart and does whatever that's good for the city. In real life, humans no matter how unbendable they are, they will still be changed by the original sins like lust and greed. Even Plato admitted with the allegory of the Ring of Gyges, which no matter how legitimate an individual is, as soon as he get his hands onto power he start to sin. In The Republic, the Ring of Gyges is described as a ring that gives invisibility power then the man goes out and does whatever he wants and is unnoticed. In reality, even when a philosopher is given a king's power, his sins would make him unfit for Plato' model.

Federalist No.51, “the power surrendered by the people” would be “divided between two distinct governments” creating a balance of power that would enable the “different governments to control each other.” -James Madison

In order to correct “factious spirits that have tainted our public administrations”(Madison, 72), the government must control the effects of factions. He argues, “as each representative will be chosen by a greater number of citizens in the large than in the small republic, it will be more difficult for unworthy candidates to practice with success... will be more likely to centre in men who possess the most attractive merit and the most diffusive and established characters (Madison, 77).” With this statement by creating an extended republic with more representatives, the tyranny of a majority could be avoided with the addition of more qualified, democratically-elected representatives. As a result, Madison felt that creating an extended republic with more representatives with more people voting would quell the effects of

The article “The Fourth Branch of Government”, Thomas Helgerman discusses how direct democracy plays an important role in state governments. He presents the information in the form of an essay in which he explains his argument and analysis as a student of math and economics as well as a member a parliamentary debate team. The essay will review Helgerman’s analysis and arguments of direct democracy and how it leads to irresponsible legislation that is not subject to inspection of the US political process. In the article, Helgerman explains how direct democracy came to be used in state government and used the state of California as an example.

I think the Sovereignty Commission kept this file because it was their job to respond to negative attention on segregation and to respond to media outlets so that they could show a more positive view of the situation. They wanted to keep racist going, and protect segregation. The article was showing how whites were being racist towards African Americans but the Sovereignty Commission job was to show how they weren’t being racist. The article was about racist but the Sovereignty Commission presented it in a different way. They job was to make it look better than it was. They saw these newspaper articles as a thread and it gave them a red flag of what to do. They found articles on racist and they had to respond to the problem and make it sound

The Constitution is one of the most important, if not the most important, documents in the history of the United States. It is the basis for the freedom, peace and safety of all Americans. Gordon S. Wood takes a unique approach to looking at the Constitution based on its composition in his excerpt “The American Science of Politics”. According to political writings from 1776-1788, based on its innovative structure, Americans truly believed that in constructing the constitution, they created the single most outstanding form of government in the history of politics due to the scientific way of formulating a political system based on concrete paradigms and principles which are representation, popular sovereignty, and parceling of power.

Shelby Steele’s article, The New Sovereignty, deals with Steele looking back at a talk that he gave at Midwestern University. He discusses his knowledge of his parent’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, his views on the movement and the way America functions, education, and how some of these things have influenced his life.

The way America as a whole handles integration and equality in society has been subject to some debate. It is not a debate of whether or not it is right or wrong, for that choice has already been made. In order for progress to occur, there needs to be equality. The debate lies in how equality and integration should be exercised effectively, so as to have our society be truly equal. Shelby Steel, in his article “The New Sovereignty”, does a successful attempt in explaining how current methods are not in favor of equality. A man of the civil rights movement, and a well-known commentator on race relations, Steele does a good job of illustrating to grievance groups that what is currently installed in the place of integration is in fact collective

Northern California now needs a electoral system because the state which once California is now Northern and Southern California. Setting up an electoral system means more than just determining how the people should be elected into positions within the government, it has to do with a broader scope. The way that the electoral system is set up encompasses the way that it deals with representation, and we learned through lecture that this term representation had to do with “how a person acts on behalf of another person or a group of people”. So in this scenario of setting up the system that voters are going to elect politicians to represent their values and problems, it is very important that the right system be used. To create this system we must answer 4 key elements of how the electoral system will be ran such as what type of representation the state will have, the voting method that will be used, and what we discuss first which is the number of member’s that we have per district.

After the colonists declared themselves free from the tyrannical rule of England, they set out to create a new nation free of the rule of a strong national government. State rights became an important feature in the new government, as most colonies identified themselves as citizens of their state or colony and not the nation as a whole. The Articles of Confederation brought the colonies together as a loose confederation with state powers being considerably more important than the power of the federal government.

Plato’s view of division of labour is divided into three types of peoples’ task in life which are workers as farmers, military type and guardians. Actually, the ruling task of Plato’s Republic is the guardian’s responsible who had achieved the greatest wisdom or knowledge of good. Due to that, Plato claims that “philosopher must become kings or those now who called kings must genuinely and adequately philosophise’’ (Nussbaum1998, p.18). However, people argue about the reasons that the philosopher should rule the city, while the philosophers prefer to gain knowledge instead of power, thus they don’t seek this authority. Therefore, the argument should alter to why the philosophers are the best ruler to govern people. Indeed, Plato states

Plato’s Philosopher King has spent many years in training, dedication and preparation for the singular goal of becoming a king. The Philosopher King has spent many a-years with the people of his kingdom. He lived with them and learned of them and their ways. This way he can better understand what is good for his people when he is ruling them. Melissa Lanek, writer of Encyclopædia Britannica, says about the Philosopher King, “Philosophers are both morally and intellectually suited to rule: morally because it is in their nature to love truth and learning so much that they are free from the greed and lust that tempts others to abuse power and intellectually because they alone can gain full knowledge of reality.” (Encyclopædia Britannica) In this way he is much more a representative rather than a

This concept is based on his belief that philosophers are the only holders of true knowledge. In Republic Plato uses Socrates in dialogue to state, “Once one has seen it (Forum of Good), however, one must conclude that it is the cause of all that is correct and beautiful in anything, that it produces both light and its source in the visible realm, and that in the intelligible realm it controls and provides truth and understanding, so that anyone who is to act sensibly in private or public must see it” (Plato 189). Plato uses Socrates to argue that the only people with true knowledge are those who have access to the Forum of Good. According to Plato, this Forum is the source of all other forums and all intelligence and knowledge so a political state must have access to the Forum in order to thrive. However, the only ones who have access to this forum are philosophers and for this reason he argues that the welfare of the state is dependent on the existence of philosophers. He furthers this argument by stating that as a result it is philosophers who are most fit to rule, thus introducing the concept of a philosopher king as the most fit form of political rule for the welfare of all. These principles, although they have been adapted to account for differences in beliefs, societies, and political structures, are still the basis of many current political