Athenian democracy

Freedom and Security “Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.” This statement by Benjamin Franklin (1818), one of the founding fathers who drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, shows the sacred character of freedom which should not be altered for any reason. On the other hand, Rand Beers, the current Deputy Homeland Security Advisor of President Obama, thinks that the precondition to freedom is…

the way in which Plato’s Socrates defined four different types of unjust governments and the manners in which each form government tended to devolve into the next form. Freeman (2016), near the end of this lecture, after discussing the nature of democracy and tyranny extensively in both modern American and Ancient Greek contexts said something that seemed to resonate…

American democracy has been the most sought after breed of government in the world. Democracy is a means for the people to choose their leaders and to hold their leaders accountable for their policies and their conduct in office. The government is not necessarily the one governing the people. Instead, the government are the ones giving the power to the government. However, this type of system only works through a majority take all system. The winners are not always winners and the losers are not…

Few events loom as large within the consciousness of the United States as the American Revolution. It has been endless debated and mythologized from the moment of its occurrence. By the same token, here are few topics as studied as the American Revolution. This seminal event has been examined and deliberated by generations of historians to the point there are few historiographies as extensive as that of the American Revolution. This has led to endless biographies of the founding fathers,…

Many have concluded that the Electoral College should be taken away completely or just in some states. There have been cases where Electoral College has actually been bad for us, but there has also been equal amount of times were it worked in are favor. There have been a few cases where they try to abolish the Electoral College and even just remove it state wide. For example, in 2004 Colorado almost passed a bill that uses popular vote instead of the electoral votes. Another, case was in 2000…

The right to vote is a central part of any democracy, but most democratic countries have significant limits on who can and cannot vote. According to Professor Christopher Uggen, there are 5.6 million Americans of voting age who are disenfranchised by state laws that “restrict voting rights for those convicted of serious crimes.” In eleven US states even “ex-felons” who have served their sentence and parole are still prohibited from voting. In 1976, 1.2 million people living in America lost…

The difference between the French revolution, and previous revolutions, was that unlike previous revolutions (particularly those in Europe),it was one of the first modern revolutions to successfully overthrow a monarchy and establish a republic. It also led to the spread of new ideas across Europe and much of the Western world. Lasting from 1789 to 1799, the French revolution set about replacing and completely abolishing the previous monarchy, with a far more modern government, establishing a…

Permanence vs. Urgency: A Study of Changing Social Order Russell Kirk and Michael Oakeshott express a view on government that serves to value the present accept change as inevitable but potentially dangerous. Cornel West and Ta-Nehisi Coates place emphasis on a flawed society founded on white supremacy that must be altered immediately. However, what West and Coates fail to accomplish is express a means to bring change to society that doesn’t disrupt civil order. Henceforth, Kirk and Oakeshott…

In the assertion, Democracy In America, written by Alexis De Tocqueville, a French diplomat, political scientist, and historian, Tocqueville addresses that we, Americans, do have a political science well-formulated to modern democracy and democratic society, and thus, lacking the necessary tools to effectively understand and manage this new form of government. Tocqueville also suggests democracy and equality are not entirely ‘good things’ as they may leave long-lasting negative impacts in…

In the novel Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, society is based on the motto “Community, Identity and Stability” (1). It becomes clear throughout the novel that the World State is not as stable as its leaders believe. People are breaking the rules of monogamy and the leaders do not see that conditioning is not working. Lenina, John are practicing monogamy as well as the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning. People of the World State feel unfilled. Fanny Crowne, Bernard and Helmholtz all feel…