Posts Tagged foundation
The Fallacy of American Democracy
What justification do we as Americans have for our belief that democracy is the end of the evolutionary cycle of government? We say it gives power to the people and that it’s the best system out there. Even if both those claims were true, should we cease? Given an unlimited number of options, can we say that we have somehow hit upon the absolute most perfect one and that we are practicing it in its most perfect form? I’ll humor the apologists and assume we should stop here if both these tenets are true.
Democracy gives power to the people.
Tags: american democracy, democracy, development, election, elections, foundation, government, political, right, scaleRelated posts
Analyzing Capitalism and Democracy
For a political science class, I was asked to investigate the relationship between democracy and capitalism; the quality of democracy is heavily influenced by capitalism, but to what extent? In “Democracy for the Few”, Michael Parenti discusses the relationship between “want” and “wealth” in a capitalist society. To Parenti, “want” is concerned with genuine human needs, while “wealth” is merely the concern of profiteers, and capitalism allows the subordination of “want” to “wealth”. He explains how a capitalist society creates an endless cycle in which the rich continue to vigorously prosper, while average citizens (the majority of people) are exploited, underpaid, or otherwise neglected. “The top 1 percent [of Americans] own between 40 and 50 percent of the nation’s total wealth” (Parenti 8). Parenti argues that capitalism allows for the undermining of labor’s value since the ultimate goal is profit.
Furthermore, he is troubled by the nature of the “free market” and the careless greed exhibited by large corporations; instead of concerning themselves with human need, corporations focus only on their profit. “When asked what they were doing about the widespread hunger in the United States, one food manufacturer responded with refreshing candor: If we saw evidence of profitability, we might look into this’” (Parenti 15).Parenti criticizes capitalism (and the inevitable “wealth vs. want” issue it produces) in a democratic country because, while democracy promises equality and fairness, the very nature of capitalism spoils and corrupts democracy’s efforts. Since the incredibly wealthy have managed to grow their roots so deep in financial security, any economic crisisin which the bulk of a country becomes vulnerablewill further add to the power of these tyrant corporations. “For the big capitalists, economic downturns are not unmitigated gloom. Smaller competitors are weeded out, unions are weakened and often broken, a reserve supply of unemployed workers helps to further depress wages, and profits rise faster than wages” (Parenti 12). Capitalism affords a grotesquely unequal distribution of money, and the majority of people afflicted with joblessness, homelessness, and/or starvation are simply products of its insufficiency.
Tags: business, capitalism, democracy, democracy for the few, design, economic, economy, election, elections, employment, foundation, george bush, government, michael moore, moore, parenti, political, quality, right, rights, scienceRelated posts
On Democracy and Liberalism
Many people suggest that as democracy spreads around the globe, we will see an emergence of liberal societies. The popular media and the White House make this assertion when suggesting that as democracy spreads through the Muslim world, peaceful and liberal governments will emerge in place of belligerent and oppressive tyrants.
To be honest, I believed it all myself until recently. But, as they say, hindsight is 20/20, and so a confluence of recent events have allowed me to see why this is not so. In addition, I’d like to take the opportunity to make the distinction between democracy and liberalism.
Tags: course, democracy, election, elections, foundation, freedom, government, international, islam, learning, liberal, liberalism, middle east, muslim, peace, research, scholarship, school, speech, study, writingRelated posts