... mandate, Nigeria's constitution requires that the winning presidential candidate obtain both an overall majority of votes and at least 25% of the ballot cast votes in at least two third of the states. So, based on Dahl's theory of polyarchy, the selection of president in Nigeria is definitely done in a very inclusive and competitive way where the presidential candidate really needs to be ... candidates as only one with the majority support can only make it to power. Other than the president, several small parties and minority groups in Nigeria are also represented in the legislature. In...

• Word Count: 2103
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Graduate

... Given this new phenomena, a vast number of new research is conducted on these countries to determine what the reasons are for different outcomes of democratization. This paper provides a comparative analysis of the democratic performance of three countries- Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland- of the post-communist region of Central Eastern Europe, to lay the ground for ... further research into why their performance scores where it does on our scale. By defining democratization in the first section, ... focusing on the two variables- inclusion and governmental accountability- a co...

• Word Count: 2022
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Graduate

... the world claim to function democratically, calling themselves democracies, often skewing the literal meaning behind the word, "rule by the many," by the people. In the United States of America, we define democracy as a government in which the people hold the supreme power through elections, the right to speak out, demonstrate, petition, or run for public office. We are free to ... , both political and religious, however, many feel that our democracy is under attack by the nations battling political parties. Politics and politicians in America are the backbone of democracy; we cannot effi...

• Word Count: 653
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Graduate

... sure that people's viewpoints are represented via factional groups that then transmit that viewpoint to the representatives in Congress and Senators. This gives a notion of the significance attained by bureaucratic interest factions in that seldom is a critical component of legislation advanced by Congress unaccompanied by consent from the organizational agency that was involved with the execution. Brandeis ... University's well known professor, Peter Woll, states that, "[Madison's] view that the natural diversity of interests would prevent particular groups from dominating politics...

• Word Count: 1119
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Graduate

... thus adequately governed by the people's will rather than a mechanized imposed one. Although these sources speak of entirely different aspects of society, they unite under the critical ideal of collectivist (ownership and control of the means of production and distribution by the people collectively) rule. It is crucial for anarchism in practice to be compatible with anarchist theory and embody the proper balance between the values ... people can be secured. To achieve success, hunger for power and wealth must be eliminated from the societal spectrum of capability. Education and freedom...

• Word Count: 1276
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Graduate

... Article 33, which contains four rules, concerning the citizen's participation right to governance. The first one indicates that citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan have the right to participate in the government of the state's affairs directly and through their representatives, to address personally as well as to direct individual and collective appeals ... peasants, authoritarian mass consciousness. The objective prerequisites for democracy establishment are created in the process of rapid economic development and growth of the population's well-being, changes in socio-class structu...

• Word Count: 1572
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Graduate

... side to Japanese democracy – the elected legislature. Party politics had, after a two-decade struggle, finally become a weight in government, but not without compromise. The lower, elected house of the Diet was given less power than that of the House of Peers, to which membership was hereditary or gifted by imperial will, and this upper house managed to block initiatives from the ... was passed almost simultaneously alongside the infamous Peace Preservation Law, an unforgiving attack on dissenting activity that will be considered later on in this essay. What can be seen as a driving fo...

• Word Count: 2458
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: Graduate

... he gives to 'democracy' and 'liberty' and attention to how they are connected is necessary for the sake of an accurate use of the concepts in this particular context. The concept of 'democracy' as used by Tocqueville in "Democracy in America", according to Stephen Holmes, is regarded bilaterally, and alternates from being a "social arrangement" & ... but contribute to the 'energy' and richness of society. In "Democracy in America", Tocqueville, Richter notices, developed an argument about the advantages of a genuine political life in a free government in which he speci...

• Word Count: 2076
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Graduate

... the world that Democracy had risen above both communist and socialist ideals in the hearts and minds of Italians. The results of this election showed the people of Italy choose to install a democratic form of government in 1948, but how much of a choice did the people of Italy actually have in this "free- election? Did the citizens of Italy truly believe that a democratic government would serve them best, or did ... matters even more dismal for the communists was the fact that Italian Premier Alcide de Gasperi was wrought with stress over how desperate Italy was in need of financial aid...

• Word Count: 2795
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: Graduate

... a significant force for Australia as it progresses into a dynamic twenty-first Century where globalisation will dominate sociological existence. Indeed, the onset of such globalisation is already reflected in Australia's labour markets and consequent policies, which demonstrate an undeniable reliance on the international trade market. As such, it would be justifiable ... a state of domestic harmony. Contrastingly, the shift towards a multicultural policy advocated a tolerance of ethnic groups by all Australians, which, although appearing democratically legitimate, implicitly encouraged ...

• Word Count: 2017
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

... daily transactions from business correspondence, overseas purchases and online banking. As the internet becomes an increasingly integral component to everyday life, the question of implementing online voting has been widely discussed and debated as demonstrated in articles "Why Internet voting is bad for democracy" by Froma Harrop and "Internet Voting can Reform Democracy" by Nobuo Ikeda. These articles ... need to be made easier through internet voting, but he believes that "internet voting is the worst possible choice for democracy." In addition to voter apathy as one of the main prob...

• Word Count: 806
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Graduate

... the "Singapore government's tight grip over civil society is stifling its growth"" (Tan, 2014). The attempts by the Singapore government to control civil society by suppressing the people's freedom of expression have been highlighted in many news reports, such as, when outspoken academic Cherian George, who has called for more press freedom, was denied tenure at Nanyang Technological University, and when letters ... apologize and remove remarks that allegedly defamed government officials or the courts (Shah, 2013). The foreign media played up the fact that Singapore fell 14 places t...

• Word Count: 817
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

... political parties. Historian John Wheeler-Bennet suggests the democracy was undermined at the start because of the stab in the back legend. The Dolchstosselegende was a key reason for the doubtfulness in democracy and thus the failure of the Weimar Republic. Another key reason for the eventual downfall of the democratic republic was its failure to bring about fundamental socio-economic-judicial change. ... one group more than another. Historian Michael Burleigh stated "The threat from the extreme left had been neutralised, albeit in a fashion that soured relations between Social Democra...

• Word Count: 1029
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Graduate

... decisions that it is entitled to by the federalism principle. A paradoxical tension arises that nature can only regulate by violating one of the principles, democratic or federalist. So, unfairly, democracy is undermined in the name of efficient government, primarily because of the Electoral College, which embodies the American precedent that federalist comes before democracy when it should be the other way around. ... people should be what chooses their leaders, and that federalism should be a tool to help that, is what makes the Electoral College not only inaccurate in reflecting the p...

• Word Count: 1088
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Graduate

... establishment. Democracy is essential to address India's developmental challenges in view of its diversity and need for responsive government. While criticisms of casteism, communalism, criminalization of politics and corruption are warranted, they represent an incomplete process of deepening of democracy rather than failure of democracy itself. An understanding of strengths and limitations of Indian democracy requires a contextualization of its origins, which gave it distinctive characteristics. These resulted from a western democratic ... political system based on universal adult suff...

• Word Count: 797
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Graduate

... army on the right road to democratization, or is it risking what some call "restoration" of the authoritarian regime in a new form? The internal affairs in Egypt, after the 25th of January uprising, have been in a state of political and social turmoil. Almost nothing has remained constant in Egypt for the past three years; positions have changed, alliances have changed, and the Egyptian people's ... that time was also triggered by their refusal to surrender power to a civilian government for almost two years. When the time of the first presidential elections in Egypt after the revolution...

• Word Count: 1377
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Graduate

... it is unfair to claim that liberal democracy is being weakened just because liberal democracies have shifted their views slightly to the right in terms of what kind of equality they offer to their citizens. A shift in some of the values that liberal democracy represents does not mean it is being contradicted by capitalism, quite the contrary, this signals that the ... the two ideologies. They neglect, however, to acknowledge that the relationship between the two is also symbiotic in that these ideologies are co-dependent. The individual freedoms and rule of law that a liberal democracy ...

• Word Count: 1285
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

... responsible enough to take ardent strides toward liberalism and democracy have to be told how to communicate domestically. Freedom of expression, aside from being a fundamental right of the individual in accordance to the Bill of Rights, is an essential tool for combating racism and promoting equality the correct way. Those who propose that politically correct language is the solution ... accept cultural, racial, religious, gender and all other differences. For this reason, the existence of political correctness is an enemy to societal growth and the progression of acceptance of minorit...

• Word Count: 1308
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

... exist, a domineering majority would never be able to form and therefore, unpopular views would be heard and the minority would be protected. Additionally, a menagerie of wide-ranging opinions in a large republic would result in the government making much more moderate decisions for the public good as opposed to extreme and biased decisions. Madison described how within these majorities and minorities, ... Federalists argued quite the contrary and advocated that a strong national government was the absolute best way to protect the people and their natural rights by preventing oppression o...

• Word Count: 1689
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Graduate

... we not consider it legitimate? Largely it would not be considered so due to the application of our 'democratic standard' to countries where such political systems do not apply. Representative democracy, bound up with a strong legal system of rights, is helpful in preventing excesses of the state in terms of offences committed against the citizen and maintaining legitimacy that way. However, if such offences were ... law and the safety offered by its protections meaning that there is little need for exercise of the vote (but absolute need to maintain enfranchisement to keep a check o...

• Word Count: 2466
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: Graduate

... entire population. "Campaign contributions profoundly influence the legislative decisions of members of Congress, and thus contribute to the overrepresentation of special interests in Congress at the expense of the interests of unorganized citizens" (Smith 91). Contributors like Political Action Committees give billions of dollars every election in order to get candidates elected who will meet their interests groups ... wants. "GOP representative Randy 'Duke' Cunningham of California was found guilty of accepting $2.4 million in bribes from a defense contractor. Cunningham allegedl...

• Word Count: 1921
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Graduate

... that Western civilization has ever seen. They again added that the Athenian democracy was the first known democracy that developed in a small size city-state which provided its citizens with a sense of active engagement in public affairs. Ancient Greece recognized three types of people, citizens with women excluded to a large extent, metics or resident aliens and slaves. Athenian democracy was limited ... known as the Assembly or Ecclesia. The Assembly or Ecclesia, was a seemingly limited franchise which bore similarity to modern day democracies where only free citizens of a minimum age...

• Word Count: 2047
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate

... however, Jackson's personal business experiences had long since altered his opinions about speculation and paper money, leaving him eternally suspicious of the credit system in general and banks in particular. His career as an Indian fighter and conqueror of the British made him a popular hero, especially among land-hungry settlers. His enthusiasm for nationalist programs had diminished after 1815 ... abolitionist mail campaigns, enforcing the congressional gag rule that squelched debate on abolitionist petitions, while fending off the more extremist proslavery southerners. In all of thi...

• Word Count: 2407
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: Graduate

... general development. The reality is that it is not the country's fault, but the people who were in control of its wealth. This mismanagement of the country's wealth resulted in the decline of its political institutions, in economic inflation and in popular discontent. In addition, other reasons for the Venezuelan political problems are compounded by the elements that were critical to the ... dominant State economically sustained only by its oil revenues. Additionally, the party systems' crisis and decay were worsened by rigidities deeply rooted in the state structure. The collected and ...

• Word Count: 2250
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Graduate

... ultimately established and deeply rooted into the newly structured state bureaucracy due to two major reforms that took place in the 1990s. The first of which was the emergence of a free market regime, which allowed for privatization of industries and the sale of private property, including state assets, natural resources and common resources, such as water resources and forests (Hughes ... report published indicated that sex workers were beaten and sexually abused during police raids against human trafficking. This example further shows the lack of civil liberties that Cambodian nation...

• Word Count: 3095
• Approx Pages: 12
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Graduate