... , at which point one can speak of a 'despotic' system, or what Tocqueville calls "tyranny of the majority". Such a system tends to oppress the exercise of freedom of thought and to inhibit social involvement, compromising liberty in the process. The authority of the majority, thus, is the threat we should be concentrating on in answering this question, for it ... of the majority becomes a threat – in the influence on the spread of information that keeps political life alive; the power of thought in shaping societies and organizing individuals: "It is in the examination of the exer...

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

... Japan's history. Education had been universalized, and social mobility seemed to be on the increase. The Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917 and the Rice Riots of 1918 energized radical thought, and there were movements calling for universal male suffrage1, the social, economic and political liberation of women, and the end of the existing social order entirely. Why then, by the ... 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 force in the progression of political thought in 1920's...

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

... War of 1812, government policy seemed to combine the worst of both old and new, favoring the kinds of centralized, broad constructionist, top-down forms of economic development that many thought would aid men of established means while deepening inequalities among whites. Numerous events during and after the misnamed Era of Good Feelings "among them the neo-Federalist rulings of ... tampering with white people's equal rights. More important, Jacksonian proexpansionism "what one friendly periodical, the Democratic Review, boosted as "manifest destiny" "only intensified sectional rifts. S...

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

Democracy as a form of government has been viewed through the prism of western liberal ideological thought. This has resulted in the critics of Indian democracy emphasizing the unique limitations on its operation and considering it India's weakness rather than strength. However such critiques ignore the democratic ... ...

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

... as internet voting will not change the problem of voter apathy, but rather may lead to citizens casting uninformed votes simply because it is easy to click a button without much thought required. In looking at the other side of the debate as demonstrated in Ikeda's article "Internet Voting can Reform Democracy" arguments are made in support of internet voting primarily focusing ... ...

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

... what seems to be best to the citizens and is therefore open to exploitation by the incumbent regime. Should citizens be influenced unduly by a regime which represses dissenting speech and thought (as with the North Korean example), then although the processes of aggregate democracy may be respected, the outcome would not be democratically legitimate. Misinformation could even happen in a largely free ... ...

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

... two other institutions-the executive branch and the electoral system of both countries, in order to discuss the practicality of his concept of polyarchy " in comparing political regimes. My initial thought after reading Dahl was that his theory of polyarchy gives a very clear definition of how a near perfect democracy should be and his strategies of Polyarchy " definitely helps to understand the ... ...

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

... as an additional $4 million was transferred to Italy for the more than 60,000 former Italian war prisoners who voluntarily fought for the allied cause during the war. If Italians thought they had it made after these infusions of American money, they must have been ecstatic when it was announced only six days prior to the election that Italy would receive ... ...

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

... a predisposition toward liberalism and does not take into account the largely conservative skeptical view of human nature; instead, it makes specific provisions that allow society, which is capable of rational thought, to engineer and maintain its own relationships. Some argue that the embarrassment that is political correctness, as it is now present in the United States, developed as a follow-up to ... ...

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