Democracy In America Essay, Research Paper

Dinah White

Political Science 354

American Political Thought

Mid-Term Examination # 2

I am told that some of you think I support uncritically America s experiment in democratic authorities and society. Tonight I want to put the record heterosexual, non merely have I criticized some facets of American Democracy but besides I have put pen to paper on failings of these facets in my volumes, Democracy in America. At the root of these failings is the inability of democratic peoples to do well-reasoned, cold-eyed picks. This failing is due for the most portion to the inclination of democratic peoples to be swayed more by caprices and passions than by ground. The consequences of the people s capricious nature are apparent in several countries: the election of authorities functionaries, the inefficient usage of money, and the deficiency of accomplishment in carry oning foreign personal businesss, fright of bulk dictatorship, and inequality of the races.

First, in taking authorities functionaries, democracies have a dual job: the people tend to take ill because their passion for equality makes them dislike those who are superior, and those who have the capacity to govern make non desire the place it is unstable and has few wagess. The agencies of antagonizing this job is, for the most portion, good mores, formed particularly by good instruction in virtuousness and the experience of local autonomies.

Second, democracies tend to blow a batch of money because the people, governed more by urge than by ground, embark on a broad scope of undertakings and research every possible invention, most of which are impractical and many of which are ne’er even finished because people tyre of an thought when it ceases to go a freshness. The hapless, being in the bulk, are the 1s who can hold the largest influence on Torahs. As a consequence, revenue enhancements tend to be high because the hapless are exempt from them and have the greatest benefit from authorities services.

Third, Conducting foreign personal businesss good requires forbearance, ground, and fortitude, but in democracies people feel more strongly than they ground ; and if present ailments are great, it is to be feared that they will bury the greater immoralities that possibly expect them in instance of licking. On a personal degree, the citizens tend have small capacity for sustained selflessness, a necessary demand for winning a war.

Furthermore, I am particularly troubled by the inclination of democracies to yield to the dictatorship of the bulk, a tyranny no less existent and no less awful than an bossy dictatorship. In the United States, where the rule of the sovereignty of the people reigns supreme, the force of the bulk is overmastering. The regulation of the bulk in America is populating cogent evidence that bulk & # 8217 ; s power I

s good out of proportion with its wisdom and justness. In Democracy in America, I argue that faith corrects many of the outstanding defects of democracy individuality, philistinism, deficiency of stableness, and the inclination to misapply or undervalue autonomy while the separation of church and province helps faith to keep and even increase its influence in society.

Finally, racism reflects every facet of American society. For in the United States, the European, the Negro and Indian coexist anxiously, with the Europeans ruling the other races tyrannically. The state of affairs of the Negroes has led them to a province of entry and demoralisation, while the Indians have remained independent but their civilisation has split up and has accordingly degenerated. The Indian folks are bit by bit vanishing from America as a consequence of force per unit area from the white adult male and invasion on their land by colonists. The Indian race seems doomed to die because they do non desire to absorb themselves and is non strong plenty to forestall the European & # 8217 ; s coup d’etat. The Indians are every bit intelligent, but merely hold a different societal province and manner of life incompatible with European civilisation.

But, it is the presence of inkinesss that is the greatest danger endangering the United States. Abolishing bondage will be highly hard because they will non be able to intermix easy with the remainder of the population. Even in countries where legal barriers are coming down, biass seem immoveable. Slavery was abolished in the North merely because it was non profitable at that place. Even if they wanted to, the Southerners would hold trouble get rid ofing bondage because they are afraid of the high proportion of inkinesss in the South. The lone possibility for the hereafter is that inkinesss and Whites must wholly mix or wholly separate. The first possibility seems about impossible. To work out the job the Southerners need either to liberate the slaves and accept them as equal members of society or to maintain them in bondage every bit long as possible. In the terminal the inkinesss will either be freed or seize freedom themselves, but the effects for the Whites do non look promising.

So tonight I have set the record heterosexual, my support of America s experiment in democratic authorities and society is non without unfavorable judgment. But, we French can larn from America s obvious dangers skulking in their democratic inclination to follow the passions instead than ground, the election of authorities functionaries, their inefficient usage of money, and their deficiency of accomplishment in carry oning foreign personal businesss, fright of bulk dictatorship, and inequality of the races. America may be fortunate to hold clip to repair its errors because there is no immediate danger endangering it. Yet this inability to see the truth may be a job hurts their society internally in the long tally.