пятница, 1 ноября 2013 г.

Problem Task on Majoritarian vs Pluralist Democracy

League of Women Voters "Charting the Health of American Democracy" The League of Women Voters, founded in 1920 as an outgrowth of the suffragist movement, is one of the nation's premier political education and advocacy groups. The League is non-partisan and neither supports nor opposes candidates for office at any level of government.
  1. Go to the League's home page, located at http://www.lwv.org/, and find the online version of The 2012-2014 edition of the guide to the League's public policy positions http://www.lwv.org/content/impact-issues-online-edition ,
  2. read it
  3. and answer the question:  Does the League appear to be focusing its attention and efforts on concerns about the state of majoritarian or pluralist democracy in the U.S.?
Useful sources:
 http://www.lwv.org/content/impact-issues-online-edition
The Challenge of Democracy - chapters 1,5
M. Parenti's - chapter 3, 11

4 комментария:

  1. To my mind, the League of Women voters appears to be focusing its attention and efforts on concerns about the state of majoritarian democracy in the US. According to the article the League wants as many citizens as possible to vote. It is mentioned in the text of the article that the members of the League need to “encourage all citizens to vote”, and the importance of general elections is very typical of majoritarian model of democracy. The League is also concerned about town meetings, on which the opinion of the majority plays a key role. It also shows us that the League is focusing its attention on the majoritarian democracy. The League claims that healthy democracy is “a place where people join together to address common concerns”. We can logically assume that the opinion of the majority is to be considered most important, when many people are involved. And this is another example proving my point of view. These are the reasons I believe the League concerns much about the state of majoritarian democracy in the United States of America.

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  2. In my opinion, the League appears to be focusing its attention and efforts on concerns about the state of majoritarian democracy in the U.S. It can be proved by a range of their convictions and positions on discussed issues listed in their guide “Impact on issues”.
    First of all, the majoritarian democracy can be characterized as the rule of the majority, but not of groups of interests, therefore, the majoritarian democracy “is a population of knowledgeable voters who willingly go to the polls to vote on issues and to select candidates who they believe will best represent them”. If a person looks at the statement of the League in the section Public Policy Positions under the title Election Process, it can be seen that the organization stands for “the election of the President and Vice-President by direct-popular-vote” as opposed to the existing indirect one.
    Moreover, the League’s aim is to expand participation and give a voice to all Americans. It does not concentrate on the interests of a particular group of population.
    If we take the pluralistic model of democracy into account, the organization adhering such a system deals with a limited number of issues, for example gun control or promoting the rights of a religious group. To the contrary, the League touches upon a range of questions, including natural resources, international relations, and social policy.
    Furthermore, it strives to promote public understanding and participation in decision making which are the crucial elements of the majoritarian model (i.e. knowledgeable voters).

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  3. From my point of view, I think that the League of Women appears to be focusing its attention and efforts on concerns about the state of majoritarian democracy in the U.S. This can be confirmed by a number of documents published on the official website of the League.
    As we can see, the primary task of the League is “to encourage the active and informed participation of citizens in government and to increase understanding of major public policy issues”. Besides, we can mark that the League of women believes that not interested group of people, but all people are the main driving force of politics in the modern democratic society. The members of the League are sure that active participation of all citizens in the elections of the President and Vice-president by direct-popular-vote is the main factor of developed society. That's why they try to protect the citizen's right to vote. For successful and fair elections it's necessary to provide voters with sufficient information about candidates because in particular, citizens of the state can influence on the actions and decisions of the government. So, I can conclude that according to the publications of the League of Women, active participation of all citizens, fair elections of the President and Vice-President and protective right of voting are the main features of the majoritarian democracy which the League supports.

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  4. From my point of view, the League of Women appears to be focusing its attention and efforts on concerns about the state of majoritarian democracy in the U.S.
    As we know, the main principles of the majoritarian model assume “a population of knowledgeable voters who willingly go to the polls to vote on issues and to select candidates who they believe will best represent them”. In addition, the majoritarian policy relies on “the stability of public opinion and the desire of many people to become more involved in politics”. Today it can be observed that such American model of democracy is depending more and more on these factors. It’s caused by that Americans aren’t enough informed about candidates, procedures of election, and voter turnout is low. All of these issues make the members of the League anxious. To improve the matter the League carries the following policy.
    First of all, its members protect the right of voting of all citizens and try to expand the active and informed participation of people and “to increase understanding of major public policy issues” because citizens are considered as the driving force that can influence public opinion, political decisions and actions. As to election process at all levels of government the League supports apportionment of electors based substantially on population. Besides, from one of their statements the election of the President and Vice President by direct-popular vote is very significant not only for the organization, but also for all citizens. And, to be fair and transparent elections is obviously “to provide voters with sufficient information about candidates”.
    To sum up, I’d like to say that the existing problems in the state of the American majoritarian system give concerns to the League of Women,as it effects on developing the democratic society

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