Us : Oligarchy Or Republic?

Robert Michels believed that any political system eventually evolves into an oligarchy. He called this the iron law of oligarchy. According to this school of thought, modern democracies should be considered as oligarchies. Unfortunately, Oligarchy Governments really hide under the name of democratic. As an example, a number of former Soviet states, including Ukraine. Officially, we live in a democratic state, but we all know who is at the helm of state power. Ukraine is called a democratic state, which governed by a few oligarchic clans.

The United States is no longer the democracy it stands for. Democracy stands for a government controlled by the majority of the population. The United States is no longer controlled by the majority. America is controlled by the powerful corporations and rich elite. The combination of an uninformed, disinterested public, a flawed election process, and an economy controlled by 1% of the population have all led to the formation of the American Oligarchy.

While congress is split into the two houses, the executive branch rests almost solely on the President. The President is created in Article II Section 1, “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years [...] together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term.” The President is the head of the Government, sometimes called, “Leader of the Free World.” However, the Founders were sure to not create a King out of the President. The word President was taken from the Latin word, Praesident, which means “To Sit Before” and the English word Preside meaning “Be in the position of authority in a meeting or gathering.” The President was created preside over the government, not to control it, as the founders wanted the most power to lie within the states, and more directly, their people. The President has the power to Veto bills, as well as the power of appointment, however when they veto a bill it gets sent back to congress, and when they appoint judges they have to be approved by the senate. The the Executive branch has nearly all of its’ powers centralized in the President, however the President's powers are almost all nearly checked by the other

Is the United States of America run by the few chosen elites who dominate the policymaking? Or do you believe that you have a say over your countries lawmaking and policymaking decisions? Some might believe so and argue that we do and that we live in a democracy controlled country which allows all citizens to take part of all laws passed and have a say on what goes on in this country. Others, however, might argue that this country is run by the so-called few elites, who have control over all decisions and laws that get passed throughout the country. I, however, disagree with this claim. I believe that the people have control over policymaking in this republic democracy country, and the people’s voices are heard and not ignored when it comes

In the 1700s when the United States had detached itself from British rule it was then seen as a plutocracy. The U.S established as a democracy; a government of the people and by the people. However, this establishment was in favor of the rich, educated, and powerful and anyone who was categorized or known as elites and it has remained in favor of these people ever since. Yes we can say we have witnessed variations and seen a semi-democratic rise in the past two centuries, but we have remained a plutocracy hidden behind the word that people use to cover its true identity, democracy. Those like the framers, the public opinion role, interest groups, and money all portray our hidden plutocracy.

The legislative branch is also the “only part of the government that can make new laws or change existing laws.”("white house"). A society is formed and controlled by rules and regulations, those who make these rules and regulations basically control society. The president does have the power to veto any law he doesn’t approve of, but if Congress is in accord with the Senate they can “override his veto with two thirds vote of each chamber.”("white house") ounce again subordinating the president . When the legislative branch has both houses in coalition with each other the executive branch really has no power over the legislative branch.

( see Williams .P. Meyers; America: Republic or Democracy) Americans are generally made to believe that, they the people hold the utmost power to their nation. However , it would be safe to a reasonable extent that America is nowhere near being a democratic nation. Note that the only reason why America is said to be a democracy is simply because it allows its citizens the right to elect those who will represent them both at the state and district level.

David Leip from US Election Atlas claims that Congress holds more power than any other branch for several reasons. His arguments are founded on a central theme – that our system of checks and balances reveal that the final check is always held by Congress (Leip, D). A simple analysis of this would be the fact that while the President may veto a bill, Congress may override the veto (Leip, D). Similarly, the Supreme Court may deem a law unconstitutional but ultimately, Congress may change the Court’s ruling and prevent judicial review (Leip, D). Lastly, Congress may remove a President, but the President cannot remove a member of Congress (Leip, D). By these standards, Congress is clearly the most influential. During the Taking Sides issue that

The legislative body, our Congress, is responsible for making laws that benefit the people. The four kinds of representations include: symbolic representation, policy representation, allocated representation and casework all of which are set to insure that the American citizens are being protected from a tyrannical government. Checks and balances demonstrate that each body of government is able to “check” or ensure that each branch is supplied equal power. Therefore congress can regulate and “check” the executive branch. We learn how a bill can become vetoed or signed when it is passed to the president and then to both houses of Congress who must gain a full two-third majority vote to override a presidential veto. Political parties that vote on laws are passed based on the most dominant party in each house. This is because of the concept that majority rules, the party with the most seats in the house of congress will get the most votes. In chapter eight we discuss that presidents want to retire their presidential duties leaving a great legacy, but often times they do make promises that they cannot keep not because they do not want to make everyone happy but because politics gets in the way and not all things and everyone in politics can not be

In the United States today, our nations government is considered to be a democracy and that is what it has been for many years. Throughout the years, America has been turning into somewhat of an oligarchy. The literal definition of oligarchy is a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution. This means that the country is almost being run by a small group of people that are at the top of our nations wealth. Robert F. Kennedy, an American author and attorney once said, “We are now in a free fall toward old-fashioned oligarchy; noxious, thieving, and tyrannical . . . with a system increasingly tilted toward enriching

Officially the United States is a Federal Republic, “a form of government made up of a federal state with a constitution and self-governing subunits.” (“Federal Republic”) Although American politics have changed throughout the ages, the government we have today is nothing like the one the founding fathers had created. As new laws were created, and amendments made and removed from the constitution, the United States at present cannot be constrained into only one classification of government. I propose that the form of government operative in the United States is Corporatocracy, which is “Corporatocracy is a form of government where a corporation is controlling all of society. This could also be a group of corporations, multiple companies or

“Shortly after the signing of the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin was approached by a woman in the streets. The woman asked Franklin ‘Mr. Franklin, what form of government have you equipped us?’ Mr. Franklin replied ‘A Republic madam, if you can keep it.’ ” ("Fair game", 2011.) Since that moment, America has grown to become one of the world’s most powerful and united civilizations. This surge to power and unity occurred due in large part to the revolutionary idea of citizens electing a nation’s leaders. While the modern United States electoral system has changed the way governments operate; this system too has changed and adapted. These changes have allowed people from all walks of life to engage in the electoral process and leave their mark

The government in the United States supposedly revolves around American ideals such as equality and diversity; however, this is simply not the case as perpetuated by class inequalities. The meaning of democracy has been skewed in the United States to represent something entirely different than it did in 1776. Today, American democracy behaves more like an aristocracy, where the upper class exercises power within the government and state, influencing discourse and therefore the laws and resources in our country, which are purportedly “for the people”. Democracy is presumed to provide everyone with equal political power, but the government in today’s America, although seemingly following this ideal model, does not. Instead, the elite upper class has a monopoly over the political influence and are the sole benefactors from public policies due to their influence over the policy making process. The upper class has an overall benefit from class inequality, as it greatly impacts American ‘democracy’ through the significant power gained through money and status, leadership roles that impact government, and the influence in the policymaking process that creates upper class advantages.

The American founding fathers gave us an aristocratic Republic and warned us against democracy. The American people did not heed their warning and opted for democracy and now we have oppressive laws, regulations, taxes and maximal surveillance, unjust foreign wars and every evil Plato and the founders warned us about. I believe that our government is not a true democracy, reason being there are government official that speaks on the people behalf that I feel does not have the American people best interest at heart. We do not elect our president directly because we have universal voting rights, but the popular vote does not determine the presidency, the electoral vote does. A government should exist for the benefit of all citizens and all social

In our society today, most citizens refer to the United States as a democracy instead of a republic. This issue lies within the education of politics around the country, and while some may believe these terms are interchangeable, they are in fact different. To first understand our complicated system, we must first understand where the boundaries are to this argument. The idea of a democracy and a republic falls between a scale of governance that stretches from a “monarchy” on one end to “anarchy” on the other. At one end of the spectrum, a monarchy is the unitary rule by one main entity as where anarchy can be described as the rule by none (“Anarchy vs Monarchy”) . Between these two polars is where the governments of a republic and a democracy fall, and the debate over which is superior.