Democracy Index

Truth plays a clear and also abstract role in our world. The way each of us views the world fluctuates from person to person. In any society there are separate, overlapping interest groups which have truths which are relative to those groups. In government and politics, we have to find an objective measure of truth in order to determine what is best for society as a whole. While this process is harder to execute than to describe, it is nonetheless essential for governing bodies to adhere to it…

Political parties have dominated the political landscape ever since George Washington left the Presidency of the United States. They have had many names over the centuries, from Federalists and Antifederalists to Democrats and Republicans, the two major parties of today. But what is a political party? Consider a school board. One part of the community seeks to get a new sports stadium built for the district. The other wants renovations to occur for their theater. When the seats on the board are…

The National Mall and Tiananmen Square represent the political ideologies of the respective regimes, as well as act as the symbolic centers of political power in their countries. This part will illustrate how the institution of each government and the political culture of each country are indicated by the formal and spatial language of the two sites. First, to understand the development of these spaces, one must understand the American and Chinese political regimes. In politics, a régime is the…

I feel the this election is particularly stressful due to the increasing split between parties, and this year most notably, the divisions occurring within both parties. There are many republicans, including those who are well renowned, refusing to support their presidential candidate for the first time in their lives, compared to the shameless support and passion towards Trump that other republicans express. On the democratic side there is a clear sense of anger amongst the many Bernie Sanders…

President to date that was not a member of a political party. It is important for members of Congress, which is comprised of the Senate and the House of Representatives, to know the views of voters. Political parties are a central feature of any democracy and they are the means by which citizens come together to campaign for public office, express their interests and needs, and…

Bridges, Amy and Kouser argues that progressives behaved as strategic politicians by supporting direct democracy when they were hindered at achieving their goals in the legislature and were confident that the voters who would be empowered by initiatives agreed with progressive policies. The American people value their initiatives—they have never permitted a state to repeal their initiative power. Long before the Amendment is eventually adopted, the people can enact state-level testing and…

The history of the lottery began some fifty plus years ago where before then it was banned in every state in America. After state governments decided it was partly their responsibility to protect citizens from the dangers of gambling, they found it to be their duty to govern the lottery. New Hampshire established the first state lottery in 1964, it then soon spread throughout the northeast. All the states between Maryland and Maine had a lottery, by 1978. Lotteries went west in the 1980s,…

Through the whole book Equality wants Individualism. Independence is very important you could not do anything without independence. For example, if you didn't have independence you could not use the word I. You would not even have a name, imagine a world where no one had independence. Everyone was the same no one had a name, a world where there was only we and they and no you. What would that be like? Could you imagine a world like this? A world like this would be so empty. Imagine a world…

Societies must have a reverence for history and change cannot be ushered in radically and swiftly, but rather slowly over time to preserve traditions and functional institutions. Burke is a critic of the French Revolution. Burke states, “A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors” (33). Men do not have the right to dismantle institutions that have been in place…

these countries. Who could disagree that the people of the Middle East deserve democracy? The question is, Was the middle east more peaceful before the americans invaded it? What are we willing to spend in soldiers lives? Is all the ruin and terror caused worth it in the end? Is the use of military force or covert action justified to promote democracy? Is America truly trying to help Iraq? Are Arabs prepared for democracy? Is it terrorism that has joined together the freedom of strangers and the…