Thucydides does not directly support the argument of the “classical model of politics” but his views of Political Realism sort of allude to it. If a government’s main motivation is just for power and it does not care at all about how ethical it is, there is a good chance it will end up becoming corrupt, as the “classical model of politics” suggests. Plato, in The Republic, argues that all of the political systems (democracy, monarchy, oligarchy, and timarchy) are inherently corrupt, and that the state should be governed by an elite class of educated philosophical-rulers, who would be trained from birth and selected on the basis of skill, as Plato describes: “those who have the greatest skill in watching over the community.” Plato also advocates, in The Republic, the abolishment of private property and the family among the ruling classes. This has caused many people to say that he was a communist, but many political scholars disregard this view, saying that the text implies that this will only extend to the ruling classes, and that ordinary citizens “will have enough private property to make the regulation of wealth and poverty a concern.” Essentially, Plato’s view goes along with the “classical model of politics” I mentioned above. He believes there are a number of different forms of government and he says that they are all inherently corrupt, which implies that, as mentioned above, each form
It would be a mistake if you were to eliminate the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut from your text Literature Textbook. “Harrison Bergeron” is a valued story with underlying themes that are still relevant in today’s society. Vonnegut’s story notifies Americans of the dangers of creating a truly equivalent society in which its citizens must sacrifice their individuality and freedom to the government in order to create a place where all men are supposedly created equal. As we read the short story we discover that equality does not create the model most people would have anticipated but instead it forms a society of mindless humans who are handicapped and harmed by the government all in the name of balance. The endless search for equality in “Harrison Bergeron” is established in today’s society as we pursue for different ways to balance and create equalness between individuals, races, and genders but we learn that this balance comes at a price.
The institutionalization of political parties avoids despotism. In my opinion, and based off of Tocqueville’s book Democracy in America, successful democratic nations maintain their democracy through the balancing of powers in the government and institutions. It is important to maintain separate powers and avoid a single power source, otherwise nations transform from democratic to despotic. If these avoidance measures are taken, along with the acknowledgement of the downfall of excessive equality, it is possible for a democratic nation to be
Presidents always give a speech on how things will get better but in our economy I could only see it get worse. What I think gets people to vote for a president is the “myth” that comes out of their mouths which works on all people. When voting only the electoral votes are the ones that will we counted and if that president has a numerous electoral votes he will
He openly objected to the democracy that ran Athens during his adult life. It was not only Athenian democracy: Socrates objected to any form of government that did not conform to his ideal of a perfect republic led by philosophers. So in other words he will only accept a government that he approves of, and is made up of philosophers like him. If I was able to hand pick everyone in government let me just say that there would be a lot of politicians that would be out of a job. But I can not and neither could he because he lived in a democratic society just like me, and the masses get to choose the government, and not just one
U.S. Congress: Democracy or Plutocracy? In Democracy for the Few, Michael Parenti explains how Congress is intended to work and how it actually works. We’ve all, for the most part, been indoctrinated to believe Congress is this fair, democratically structured body created by founders as part of a system of checks and balances. Sound familiar? Contrary to this widely assumed understanding of Congress, Parenti argues Congress is actually undemocratic, representing the wealthy few and not the majority of Americans.
Society is everything constructive and good that people join together to accomplish. Government, on the other hand, is an institution whose sole purpose is to protect us from our own mistakes. Government has its origins in the evil of man and is therefore a necessary evil at best. The government's sole purpose is to protect life, liberty and property, but the people will prefer to be responsible for the creation of the laws that rule them. The British system is too complex and harmful, and that the monarchy is granted far too much power.
Though America is not in an economic growth, it is industrialized, and so it has citizens feeling relative deprivation, and plenty of intellectuals to fuel the dissent of the NSA revealings. Some citizens are frustrated that they do not have the privacy they believed they did, others point out that, for the most part concerning US citizens, their actions fall within current law. Some have quoted the US Declaration of Independence “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.” Within Crane Brinton's theory of the stages of a revolution, the US is showing the beginning signs of the first step: the old regime decays. There is no administration breakdown, but most are highly cynical of the government, officials admit that all processes are complicated, and intellectuals are bringing up more problems. The NSA break may bring about reforms for those that
With the way the government is set up the people who govern the country have to think about what is best for the average citizen. Due to this America is one of the only places on earth where a government should fear its citizens, although on a side note I think that all governments should fear their citizens. The laws were and still are made with the benefits of the average citizen in mind but the benefit the elite slightly more than the
Rough Raft Is the current two-party system we have in the United States the best system for distributing power? The US government, in recent years has proven just how ineffective both the democratic and republican parties have become at getting anything helpful or meaningful accomplished, even when the current situation demands it. But an even bigger problem facing voters is there are no alternatives. The two party system in the United States, combined with the electoral college, have created a system where voters are often forced to choose the best of two evils. The most important question here is what should be done about this problem in our current voting system?