us a legitimate democracy
In any system which claims to be democratic, a question of itslegitimacy remains. A truly democratic political system has certaincharacteristics which prove its legitimacy with their existence. Oneessential characteristic of a legitimate democracy is that it allowspeople to freely make choices without government intervention. Anothernecessary characteristic which legitimates government is that every vote must count equally: one vote for every person. For this equality to occur, all people must be subject to the same laws, have equal civil rights, and be allowed to freely express their ideas. Minority rights are also crucial in a legitimate democracy. No matter how unpopular their views, all people should enjoy the freedoms of speech, press and assembly. Public policy should be made publicly, not secretly, and regularly scheduled elections should be held. Since "legitimacy" may be defined as "the feeling or opinion the people have that government is based upon morally defensible principles and that they should therefore obey it," then there must necessarily be a connection between what the people want and what the government is
There is a"non-political myth" that the only thing that Judges do is apply rulesneutrally. The President is the chief diplomat, negotiator of treaties, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. At all levels of the political system,. Although in theory the American system calls for one vote per person, the low rate of turnout results in the upper and middle classes ultimately choosing candidates for the entire nation. Because voting is class-biased, it may not be classified as a completely legitimate process. Bureaucracies violate the requirementof a legitimate democracy that public policy must be made publicly, not secretly. In the majority party (the party which controls Congress), the person who has served the longest has the most power. there is no national discipline to force citizens into identifying with a political party, partisan identification tends to be an informal psychological commitment to a party. For example, "a candidate who gets 40 percent of the vote, as long as he gets more votes than any other candidate, can be elected-even though sixty percent of the voters voted against him"(Lind, 314). Class is determined by income and education, and differing levels of these two factors can help explain why class bias occurs. This informality allows people to be apathetic Print | Prev | Nextif they wish, willingly giving up their input into the political process. EnglewoodCliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1995.
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Acceptance Essays
