Public goods are a commodity or service that cannot be excluded to anyone. This is most commonly provided by the government, but in some cases can be provided by a private individual or an organization. This means that you can’t exclude those who don’t pay their taxes from using public roads, even though they didn’t technically pay for it The same concept applies to public schools, people who don’t pay their taxes or foreigners who come here illegally still have access to these public schools. Another characteristic of a public good is shared consumption or non-rivalry, this means that if one person uses a public good it doesn’t ruin it for other people. The collective action problem is when people who act independently cause a much worse outcome than they would if they came together to fix the problem. An example that comes to mind is voting. Let’s say you’re an individual who thinks that it doesn’t matter if you vote or not. You think this because you play such a small role in the decision or you don’t have the time, that you tell yourself that your vote won’t matter, but, it does. Whoever wins that election and provides the promise they campaigned for; you will reap the benefits even though you didn’t provide any to contribution to their success. If many people think like this, we end up with a lot of missing potential ballots that could’ve changed the decision. That is why it is important for everyone vote and practice democracy. This is called the free rider problem and is essentially when someone gains a benefit from a public good or service without them contributing.
Democracy
In short democracy is the rule of the people. Democracy is a system of government in which the citizens exercise their power directly or vote for representatives that express their ideology. There are many types of democracy in the world, but the United States is under two types of democracy. The first is representative democracy otherwise known as indirect democracy. This is where the people choose and vote for candidates that represent them, their ideas, and interest. This type of democracy is the most common type because it has many pros to it. Representative democracy gives people a voice and allows their opinions to be heard. With this it prevents a certain group to have more power over another since the people gets to decide the majority vote. Another form of democracy is direct democracy, here people directly get to vote for the policy they want without having to elect a representative to express their ideas. This give citizens a lot of power in the decision making. As a citizen of the United States, there is this responsibility placed on you, that responsibility is to make sure that your opinions are said, and your voice is heard. Even though there are many people of difference race, skin color, ethnicity, religion, beliefs, and backgrounds, you are one and that one can make a difference. That is why democracy to me is very important because you play a role that ultimately affects the final decision.
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A perfect example of representative democracy is the election of president and the election of Congress. Citizens that are registered to vote in the United States go to any polling place to cast their vote for president. Whoever gets the most votes get to be elected for president for 4 years and after that the cycle repeats itself. The same goes for electing your representatives, but instead these are called midterm elections.
Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
Civil liberties are essentially limitations placed on the government that prevent the government from interfering with your personal freedom. These limitations are not easily violated and are some of the basis of the Bill of Rights. There are four overreaching liberties, each designed to protect one's personal freedom. The first is freedom of religion, this allows citizens to follow any religion they believe in and prevents the government from favoring one religion or another, basically the government can’t make let's say Hinduism the official religion of the United States. Included is the free exercise clause and according to Hancock (2019, Civil Liberties) “focuses on the notion that individuals in the United States have the freedom to decide what beliefs they have about spirituality and the freedom to exercise the actions that carry out such beliefs.” The second is freedom of speech and this means you have the right to express any of your opinions without the interference of the government, but that doesn’t mean you are safe from everyone else. This means you don’t have the absolute right to say whatever you want, wherever you want, to whomever you want. The third is right to privacy and this is a compilation of many things such as marriage, abortion, family, personal data, and even contraception's. When these rights are denied it violates equal protection and the government must follow the strict scrutiny standard, basically must follow this law unless it is necessary and serves a compelling interest. Lastly there is right of the accused and according to the sixth amendment “ In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.”
Civil rights are a list of rights that give a citizen freedom. This includes political freedom, social freedom, and equality. Civil rights are guarantees equal citizenship and protected from all kinds of discrimination. Civil rights closely ties into the 14th amendment because it grants all people born in the United States to be guaranteed equal protection of the laws. A very good example of civil rights is the Brown vs Board of education case. The supreme court established a law that prevented the racial segregation of public schools. It didn’t matter if these schools were equally good, you can’t separate children based on their race.
Civil liberties protect the individual while civil rights protect the discrimination against groups of people. Together these two are very important because they protect the people from the government and anything else that prevents them from having freedom.
Pluralism
Pluralism in government is when groups of people share political power and accepts other ideas, culture, ethnicities, etc. Pluralism is all about acceptance an no one group has more power than the other and is shared equally. A pluralist is someone who believes that a group of sharing powers can work together. These people according to Strolovitch (2019, Groups and the Democratic Exercise of Power) “believe that power in America is diffuse, that power structures are easily permeable, and they are open to all takers.” This ideology was first introduced by Alexis de Tocqueville a political scientist that analyzed democracy in America and the political/social system. He “viewed political associations as a boon to American democracy and as essential guards against majority tyranny, marveling that Americans of all ages, of all stations in life, and all types of dispositions are forever forming associations.” (Strolovitch, 2019 Groups and the Democratic Exercise of Power) Basically stating that groups are helpful in American democracy because they prevent tyranny or complete control of one group. Pluralism is also a form of democracy as it displays the opinions and ideas of a group. This is where interest groups come to play. Interest groups are groups of people that have similar ideas, interest, and all share a common goal. This goal is to influence policy makers and make policy related appeals.
Plagiarism is a big part of democracy because it keeps elected officials responsive and makes sure that they address the promises they made. Stimulate political interest among members of the public mass by keeping citizens engaged and providing information about new policies. Ensure the accountability of the officeholders. Provide shortcuts about policy positions/issues. Allow a broader range of participants to become involved in politics. This last one is very important since democracy is all about the people and we need to get as many people involved with what's going on around them and especially in politics. (Strolovitch, 2019 Political Parties)
First Amendment
The first amendment was created in 1789 and ratified in 1791 by our founding fathers along with 12 other amendments but was later cut short to 10. These 10 amendments make up the Bill or Rights and guarantee certain rights to all its citizens living in the United States of America. According to the first amendment “freedoms concerning religion, expression, assembly, and the right to petition. It forbids Congress from both promoting one religion over others and restricting an individual’s religious practices. It guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak freely. It also guarantees the right of citizens to assemble peaceably and to petition their government.” Essentially people are free to practice whatever religion they choose, and that the government cannot have a set religion for everyone to follow. The first amendment also provides freedom of speech, allowing individuals to speak their mind and express their ideas. This can also include the freedom to peaceful protest.
Political Socialization
Political socialization happens early in life and affects the way you participate in democracy and shapes your political opinions and ideology about the government. There are many factors that contribute to your ideology like gender, ethnicity, media, peer groups, schools, religion, and even family. Studies show that men are more likely to vote for their republican candidate compared to women. Studies also show that black voters are more likely to vote for their democrat candidate. Every one of these opinions are formed because in some point in your life, race, gender, religion, schools, family, etc. played a role in that decision. If you came from an immigrant family your views on immigration can differ greatly compared to someone who was born in the United States and lived somewhere in the South. But that doesn’t mean where you come from or all the other factors exactly represent who you are.
Political socialization is important because it plays a big role in your political awareness. Since you are exposed to these ideas at a young age you form some knowledge about the things going on around you. Since democracy gives power to the people and gives them a voice, they should be more attentive and participate with the affairs going on. Having some kind of background with the subject can help you look over the decisions of the government and hopefully participate if it’s something you don’t agree with or if you do participate to push it out to others.
Essay Question
The Articles of Confederation was essentially our first constitution and was the base of what we have today. The AOC was written on November 15, 1777 and was written to establish the role of the American government after separating from Great Britain and claiming independence. The AOC set up a government that consisted of a one house body of delegates and each state (New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia) had only one vote. This was implemented to help diffuse the power instead of leaving one state with everything. These states would come together to make decisions on certain issues that affected all the states. Any decision affecting the states required nine out of the thirteen for it to be passed. This was very inefficient because not all states agreed on the same things and nothing would be done. Congress was also very limited to what it could do and could only declare war, conduct foreign affairs, and make treaties. All of these was essentially so America can go to war with England, but to go to war you would need a military and money to help fund the army. This leads to the first weakness with the Articles of Confederation. Usually the government can get these funds through taxation, but with the AOC they couldn’t. They needed each of the state's permission to do so. This leads back to the problem with one vote per state. Nothing was accomplished with this system as not everyone agreed with the same ideologies and opinions and therefore did not meet the required nine out of thirteen votes to be passed. On top of that both the national government and the individual states accumulated massive debt to pay for the war and their main source of incomes were tariffs, but since congress couldn’t pass them because of the indecisive states, each state had to get the revenue themselves. This created a very weak central government but was in a way designed to be like this because the fear of becoming a tyrannical government.
Shay’s rebellion was an example of how too much taxation causes problem within a state. During 1786 Daniel Shay a farmer, gathered up thousands of supporters to help protest the government for its economic injustices. Shay’s rebellion was one of the many things that showed why the Articles of Confederation wasn’t going to work out. Delegates came together to try and come up with a stronger national government and so on September 17,1787 was the birth of the Constitution of the United States was established to fix the shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation. Delegates made this in mind of preventing tyranny of the government and tyranny of the people. Therefore, they decided on electing a president every 4 years with the help of people and electoral colleges. Another problem they addressed was the population of each state. Smaller states feared that bigger states would out rule them and so the Great Compromised was created. This was two houses; one was the house of representatives which gave proportional representation for each state's population and a senate with two members of each state. To combat tyranny once again, the constitution created the separation of powers and federalism. This divided the government into three separate branches; judicial, legislative, and executive branch. Each branch was designed to keep in check the power of each other to separate the powers. Federalism was the idea that governmental authority was given to both national and state government
Citations
- LII Staff. (2017, October 10). First Amendment. Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment
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