... other democracies in the world. On the other hand, despite China's three decades of economic reform and global trends of democratization, the political regime of China remains stubbornly authoritarian. China's historical legacy of over 2,000 years of centralized authoritarian rule has buttressed the current regime. In spite of China's economic liberalization, its Communist party-state retains the essential organization structure that the ... rejecting Marx's idea, their decision to retain a closed political structure is very much in accord with Lenin's vision of the communist part-state...

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

... societies around 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 ... that deems war necessary, especially today. Our text explains: "A meaningful definition of democracy must include the following ideas: recognition of the dignity of every individual; equal protection und...

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

... that its participation is purely voluntary and 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 ... liberty. Structures must be anarchical in organization in order to fulfill the ideals presented by anarchism as a theory. Therefore, the organization of anarchy must be a horizont...

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

... to be indispensable and above all necessary to the society two hundred years ago, when the ten amendments comprising the Bill of Rights were adopted into the Constitution, the bases of which were the ideas and previous experiences of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. One hundred fifty years after this is recognized as a clearly valid initiative, certain individuals ... argue that speech must be restricted - or protected in politically correct terms - because certain expressions can create a hostile environment for minority groups. Political correctness requires from society equal publ...

• Word Count: 1308
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• 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 of demand were sent by the government to bloggers and online media commentators to apologize and remove remarks that allegedly defamed government officials or the courts...

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

... , stop with the implication that capitalism can lead to corruption. He also acknowledges that originally liberal democracies have come to accept a specific type of political equality known as the equality of opportunity. Yet, in recent years this type of equality seems to be giving way largely due to the fact that in most liberal democracies welfare liberalism is giving way to neo-liberalism ... and thus equality of opportunity is now giving way to equality of right. For Branco, this movement towards overall inequality is due to the low ... world's leading nations have accepted that ca...

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

... 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 suffrage being formally established in a developing nation, which has made the former its own over the 68 years of ... operation. In 1947, universal suffrage became a vehicle for empowerment in an Indian society still traditional and feudal in nature. Traditional hierarchies of caste exis...

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

... lobbyists and elected officials is clouded. We have a murky system where money changes hands and decisions are made. Because of the lack of transparency, people tend to believe that corruption exists and that no one in the political system is working for the good of the people" (Hesse). With so much campaign contributions coming from interest groups, legislators are forced to vote for ... invade their turf and alter established policies that have been worked out by years of private negotiations among the "insiders" (Johnson). This display of the elite dominating policy making with the u...

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

... we must comply with the liberties and free speech of groups granted in our constitution. Rational political choice is exercised by individuals, but individuals are not political entities by themselves that possess the ability to influence government. Pluralism allows the actions of the government to be modular, and not follow one specific agenda too closely, unless agreed upon by the ... majority, following the Madisonian view of the separation of powers. Pluralism of our bureaucratic structure is reflected by public organizational groups as well as private groups that attain ... an opi...

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

... 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 problems of internet voting, Harrop touches upon the potential problems of internet voting such as coercion, identity theft, fraud and that voting should be a communal activity. Moreover, he states that although internet voting may ... democracy and the democratic process other than by potentially increasing voter turnout. Although exercising ones right to vote is fundamental to democracy, internet voting does not necessar...

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

... that, if anything, proved his incompetence even more, Morsi was forced to step down by the army and it was announced that the president of the Supreme Constitutional Court would assume power as per the constitution. From that point onward, and after two years of severe hatred to the army, the people started reconsidering it as their savior. Sisi started avoiding the mistakes ... not limited to, voting on a new constitution, as well as respective presidential and parliamentary elections. Through this brief yet inclusive account of the army's different roles and positions throughout the d...

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

... to recall that Colombia was able to achieve its transition to a final democracy after surpassing one of the most dramatic periods of its history, which was very notorious for its violent era popularly known as "La Violencia." After being governed by civilians for many years, Rojas Pinilla overthrew the government in the 1950's and lead Colombian politics with an autocratic ... entire society, but to benefit a small portion of it. Hence, the immense size and the extensive role of the Venezuelan State has been beneficial for powerful interest groups in the sense that they can have access ...

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

... towards constitutionalising democracy. Although, today all three countries are at similar stations of democratization, it is interesting to see some differences between their level success of citizenry inclusion and governmental accountability. Turning our focus to the Czech Republic, a lot of evidence is pointing towards a trend of weakened governmental accountability in the last years as some major corruption scandals took place in 2013. Nevertheless, corruption and ... it before Slovakia and the Czech Republic on the scale. Slovakia achieved its strongest performance of horizontal ac...

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

... as, "Buddhist Socialism," (CIA Fact book). However, in 1975, with the rise of the communist left, Cambodia experienced an era that, although would only last a mere four years, forever changed the country. The Khmer rouge movement led by Pol Pot, also known as, "Brother Number One," (Cambodia Tribunal Monitor) accounted for an estimated 1.5-3 million deaths and was aimed at ... erasing all Cambodian history, prior to their rise to power. This meant that under the Khmer Rouge movement, the first year of the revolution equally meant ... , one must obtain a vote of confidence from the Natio...

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

... democratic republic was its failure to bring about fundamental socio-economic-judicial change. The political structure of Germany changed from an autocratic, authoritarian system to a democratic one. However, there was still people in positions of power in which were fundamentally opposed to democracy called conservative elites. The conservative elites owned and controlled media, industry, judicial system, police, army, religion and ... state. Noske, the defence minister, used this Para-military group to oppose rebel attempts to seize power. The governments support of the Friekorp and ...

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

... who either accept or reject such cultural variables. In addition, these collective attitudes contribute to the shaping of the government policies that regulate the welfare of all migrants and potential migrants. Consequently, if one considers that the fundamentals of democracy involve the "government of a country by its people" (Hutchinsons, 1994:308), it becomes clear that multiculturalism's influence on ... . Typifying a representative democratic system, the majority support for these measures meant that there was a genuine government attempt to enforce these proposals. In recent years ...

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

... the congressional gag rule that squelched debate on abolitionist petitions, while fending off the more extremist proslavery southerners. In all of this fighting, however, the Jacksonians also began to run afoul of their professions about white egalitarianism. Opposing antislavery was one thing; silencing the heretics with gag rules amounted to tampering with white people's equal rights. More important, Jacksonian proexpansionism ... held together. Led by men like Stephen A. Douglas, these mainstream compromisers held sway into the mid-1850s, but at the cost of constant appeasement of sout...

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

... status-quo, even if it is strategically ineffective, rather than to bear the costs and risks of transition to a true democracy model. However, we should admit that over the years of the political transformation of the Republic of Kazakhstan the degree of political participation of citizens through the institution of democratic elections has increased markedly. And generally, it is a gradual transition from mobilization to democratic participation ... , only 7.5% of candidates in local Maslikhats were young people under 30 years old, and only 1.5% of the elected deputies belonged to this ...

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

... officers from the disbanded divisions acting as instructors18. It still does not seem clear though just why the notion of liberalism (or at least the closest Japanese alternative) failed to burrow deep enough to survive to the end of the 1920's. One explanation, suggested by historians such as Tatsuo Arima, stresses that Japanese liberals failed to come to terms with ... the Asiatic continent.'30 Indeed, Japanese social values of obedience to authority and respect of hierarchy were so historically entrenched in mass consciousness that ideas of rights, autonomy and liberty simply did n...

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

... longer means the same thing to all people and cultures at all times. O'Neil, 2007 defines it as the exercise of political power through participation, competition and liberty. One popular definition is the one given by Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address as, government of the people, by the people and for the people. Democracy may be in two forms; direct or Ancient Athenian ... to a large extent, metics or resident aliens and slaves. Athenian democracy was limited to only male citizens of at least twenty years, for this reason the central event of the ancient Athenian democracy wh...

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

... that legitimacy is ultimately derived from the consent of the governed and therefore that both democratic and non-democratic regimes can be legitimate. At first sight it would appear to us that the regime under which we live is a legitimate one. Citizens can choose between different baskets of policies every five years and maintain long-term control of their governance. Yet a key question to ... ask when discussing the title of this essay is in whose eyes is the ruling regime legitimate? If it is in the eyes ... all regimes different from our own as illegitimate. Lipset's definition, ho...

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

... governmental 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. The ... a winning margin that looks like national decisiveness," meaning that no matter how close the directly measured voting polls indicate an election was, t...

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

... specific to modern democracies that Tocqueville analyzes in "Democracy in America", and as we will see, the one most powerful because of its means. Before being able to discuss why Tocqueville thinks the dominant authority of the majority is such a dangerous threat to democratic liberty and prior to highlighting what he deems as preventive measures and conditions that might ensure the ... left in the system, and the reason "America remains free" is that "in practical matters, Americans are self-reliant, uninclined to exert their power over one another to the limits of what is possible, ...

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

... war. The United States used this angle as their "trump card- to pressure de Gasperi into weeding out leftist opposition in his cabinet. The withholding of United States aid and the cancellation of one billion dollars worth of debt owed to the United States relied exclusively on the Italian Premier dissolving his communist cabinet members. The choice was obvious to de Gasperi and he ... -, the situation in France at the same time should be examined. The French, also heavily dependent on United States financial aid, ousted all of its communist ministers in a bold move to win American suppo...

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

... 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 of the weak by the strong. In addition to preventing one group from oppressing another, many other reasons existed for a strong national government including the fact that a strong national government would stand against foreign enemies, which ... standing army, that Congress would tax too heavily, and that the Supreme Court would overrule state courts, and they were in favor of adding many restrictions to the Constit...

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