First Source Synthesis Essay

The first source is a political cartoon dealing with the viability and success of modern liberal western democracy. The cartoon presents the perspective that such a democracy is ineffective and is crippled largely by apathy. In a democracy, good government is a dependent on good citizenship — which means citizens who will make informed decisions and participate in democratic processes. The cartoon suggests that American citizens cannot even be bothered to vote one of their most basic responsibilities as citizens. The cartoon also depicts one of the public workers who is helping with the ballots reading the paper with a headline about the process of creating democracy in Iraq. Her question, “So Has Iraq achieved American-style democracy?” calls …show more content…
The third Source presents the perspective that democracy requires a higher level of participation and interest from its citizens if it is to be an effective form of government. In this respect, Source One presents a very similar perspective to the third source — they both agree that after time, It is easy to take the benefits of democracy for granted. All three sources also deal with the importance of the principles of liberalism in society. The First Source suggest that principles like individual Rights and Freedoms and rule of law must be first taken away from them to be truly valued and Society (or they must be fought for). The Second Source suggests that these principles are unimportant and should be given up to a ruling Elite that will place greater importance on security. It also suggests that rule of law should not apply in society. The third source, similar to the first, shows that the longer time goes by, the more citizens take their principles of liberalism for granted. All these sources are in agreement that as they are in Western countries today, liberal democracies are not as effective as they could