Pressure groups activity in the UK presents a major threat to democracy. Evaluate the arguments in favour of this view (25 marks) Pressure groups aim to influence government policy without seeking election itself. The actions of pressure groups challenge and influence democracy as well as being beneficial to democracy in the UK as pressure groups challenge policies and put pressure on the government to change them. On the other hand pressure groups only represent a minority of people’s views and aren’t considered a major threat to democracy. Robert Dahl and Charles Lindbolm suggest a pluralist view of democracy suggesting that pressure groups are beneficial to democracy.
Is Congress a watchdog or lapdog? Personally, I believe that Congress is a watchdog, whether it is a united or a divided government. However, many people may disagree with this because they may believe that whether or not the Congress is a watchdog or lapdog depends on the government being divided or united. The reason for this is: if it is a united government, Congress will not want to embarrass the President by constantly putting him into account. However, this is not true because the Congress is both an independent and co-equal branch of Government.
I would definitely say that Comedy Central's Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report are part of the "media" that affects people’s opinion. These television shows are a way to provide comedic relief to the issues our economy faces; however, these shows still have an impact of how the viewer will understand an issue at hand. It is very difficult for anyone to be completely unbiased and with constantly hearing other people’s opinion through the media. We cannot make a decision of how “we” feel about the topic. Thus, democracy and a fair voting group become tainted.
Education, training, and incentives provide a basis for developing an environment to promote teams and teamwork (Taplin, Foster, & Shortell 2013). Education and training programs that emphasize collaborative care and team building are essential. Also, organizational leaders need to highly value this training and the concept of interprofessional collaborations. This can partly be accomplished during the hiring process by stressing team and teamwork values to prospective hires (Taplin, Foster, & Shortell 2013). Continuing training and coaching as collaborations work can provide encouragement during the process.
Select ONE contemporary political movement, identify one or more symbols that are associated with it and describe the struggle that it wages over these symbols: Symbols help organize ideas, values, and experiences. But, one must be careful with the symbols because they often have unexpected meaning. Symbols play very important in politics. There are two sides of symbolic politics: the politics of symbols and the symbolic aspects of politics. The politics of symbols refers to the creation, elaboration, and the use of symbols for political purposes.
The main benefit of the filibuster is that it can provide a useful check on the majority party by extending the debate and force them to find the common ground with some on the other side. It is an effective way to promote more moderate policies rather than bad partisan law. In other words, the policies aligned with the majority party will not be enacted. Furthermore, the filibuster can stop the majority party from being extreme ideological. Consequently, we can keep the partisanship under control if used
Writers and speakers will attempt to promote such an image to increase their credibility and influence. Also refers to how some arguments appeal to our sense of morality and justice, often in conjunction with pathos. • Pathos: The ability of an argument to touch our emotions. Pathos appears frequently in rousing political speeches and can appeal to any combination of emotions, from envy to greed, love to hate. • Logos: The appeal of an argument to our rational, logical side.
I personally say that strength is not given but earned by what you do to get others to approve your intensions. In other words, strengths and weakness depends on a personal capacity to influence the conduct of those in government. Power seems to be based on how influential or persuasive one can be. However, I also think that no matter how much the President tries to get what he wants during his term, the President will never be the most powerful man in the country. He is always sharing his power due to the checks and balances system.
Handing over the responsibility of making and amending laws to politically inept i.e. the general public is generally not advised. It is misguided to assume that all people are rational enough to choose the decision that is best for them. Most people tend to vote on issues based on their emotional response to them, charismatic campaigns and the opinion of the masses. The results of the referendum will therefore not be based on individual opinion and defeats the whole point of having
However, many populist parties represent a real threat to democracy. Even if at first impact populist movements embody the values of democracy, as they address the most disadvantaged and the most affected population by the economic crisis and the immigration; in fact, it is not. Populist parties exploit social and economic problems to gain people’s trust and to obtain a seat in the government; they achieve it by relying on people’s sensitivity and invoking the national values in which the real people identifies. In my opinion, populist parties represent a threat to democracy as they do not depict the problems as they are. Instead, they rely on the injustices and accuse the EU of being the source which causes the adoption of austere policies damaging the large part of the population while favouring elite groups.