Therefore, democracy in most of the western countries takes place through a system of regular and competitive elections, universal suffrage and political equality. Classical liberals defended democracy on the basis that it was found on consent. John LOCKE developed a limited theory of protective democracy which argues that voting rights should be extended to the well educated, who could then defend their natural rights against government. According to Locke, if government can possess power through taxation, then citizen are fully entitled to protect themselves by controlling the tax-making body. The idea that franchise should be expanded to the illiterate and those who pay taxes was supported by James Mill.
In fact Conservatism has often been described as chameleon like, in that it changes its appearance according to the dominant political environment at a given time. In the 19th century, when liberalism was its main opponent, conservatism adopted an organic vision of society, seeing it as a living entity and expecting people to demonstrate a sense of responsibility towards each other. When socialism came to the forefront, conservative changed course and began to emphasise the virtues of free markets and individualism to combat collectivist ideas. Such an adaptable movement cannot be described as ideological in nature. It is common to view conservatives as two strands of government the ‘wets’ and the ‘dry’s’, wets are seen to be more collectivist and believe in a greater role of government, such as planning or intervention, whereas dry’s are more neo-liberal,
John Locke 1.) Seventeenth century philosopher whose writings on political theory had a profound influence on the American Constitution and the Declaration of Independence 2.) Two Treatise: Essay writing by Locke; People are sovereign; people have the ability to revoke the social contract; and to restrain the power of the executive or the legislature. 3.) His essay “Concerning Human Understanding” claims that people are born without ideas and all human knowledge is learned through experience.
When the Founding Fathers met at the Philadelphia convention in 1787, and wrote the constitution of the United States, they decided they wanted it to consist of 4 main points. A representative and accountable government, the separation of powers between 3 branches of government, a federal structure and a limited government. They wanted limited government, by which the government would do only what was essential, leaving the citizens’ rights and freedoms as untouched as possible. This framework of government was put in place by the Founding Fathers because of their fear of tyranny. They were influenced by the writings of the french political philosopher Montesquieu.
Compare and Contrast the Governmental Perspectives of Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Woodrow Wilson: The Differences and Similarities Angel Green PA 330: Public Administration March 09, 2014 Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Woodrow Wilson created an American constitutional government to limit the government’s power. The four fundamentally different intellectual traditions are Hamiltonian; where he seeks a government that is effective and promotes a top down government that favors a strong executive. Jeffersonian; where the tradition celebrates America’s agrarian roots, which promotes a bottom up government and requests a weak executive. Madisonian; where the tradition attempts to balance political power amongst opposing forces, and Wilsonian; prefers to focus on administrative power in hierarchically organized organizations. The result is the profound tension in a uniquely American form of Public Administration (Kettl 2002, 29).
Its ‘central pillars’ are the free market and the self - sufficient individual. On the other hand Neo-conservatism is a form of authoritarian conservatism that calls for a restoration of order, authority and discipline in society as well as encouraging Capitalism. In contrast, with Thatcherism, One Nation conservatism is based around several core features which include paternalism, pragmatism and consensus and you would think that the coalition would be bound to represent these values however Cameron said that the conservative party would defend Civil Liberties, in a similar vein to the Liberal Democrats. His would be a more liberal form of conservatism. I will explore whether the conservative party have adopted its One Nation policies in government or stayed with some Thatcherite policies.
Communism and democracy are two different political systems based on differing ideologies. Communism is a socioeconomic structure which is mainly based on the idea of the establishment of a society free of class and state. On the other hand democracy is a political system of governance which is either carried out directly by the people or by the representatives they elect. The main concerns of communism are equality and fairness on the basis of common ownership. Power is vested in a group of people, who may intervene or rather interfere in the public life of others.
In this respect, the main goal of liberalism is to promote a laissez-faire society and their main goal is preservation of human rights and freedoms. Secondly, liberalism aimed at ensuring that there is democracy in the society whereby the power of the monarchs and the other political class is limited. To achieve their goals, liberals enlightened members of the society about their rights and freedoms and in countries like France, Germany, and Italy liberals organized for revolutions that removed those leaders who were dictators in these countries. In addition to this, liberals championed for the rights of the minority in the society. A good example of a liberal government is the federal government of the United States of America (Jayapalan, 2009).
Presidential government is often associated with the theory of the separation of powers which was popular in the eighteenth century when the American constitution was framed. The American political system is therefore the model and prototype of presidential government The assembly remains an assembly only: parliamentary theory implies that the second phase of the constitutional develepmoent, in which the assembly and judiciary claim their own areas of jurisdiction alongside the executive, shall give way to a third in which assembly and government are fused into parliament. Presidential theory on the other hand requires the assembly to remain separate as in the second phase. some believe the rigid constitution has prevented the “natural” development of the American political system towards parliamentarism. congress remains an assembly only.
The Roman lawyer Cicero also utilised the concept of natural law. He reinforced Aristotle’s point on which natural law can be applied to all, “it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting… one eternal and unchangeable law will be valid for all nations and all times”. There are a number of key principles associated with natural law. Aquinas summed up God’s overall purpose for human life as to live, reproduce, learn, have an ordered society and worship God. These are referred to as the primary precepts.