How democratic are the legistlative and executive branches of the U.S. government?
Hi,
I already have the basic ideas of the functions of the legislative and the excutive branches of the U.S. gov’t written down, but I have to consider:
– how they are elected
– how they actually function
& – include description of how much influence interest groups have on either of the 2 branches (for which I chose the legislative branch, as they focus greatly on the opinions of interest groups because its members can be in their local districts or state, and have significant influence)..
thanks 🙂 – any help would be greatly appreciated!
October 25th, 2010 at 6:40 am
Well to answer this would take a long time so I will give you some links.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_government
Basically it will tell you everything you need to know about the government. Hope it helps.
October 25th, 2010 at 7:04 am
I’m not going to try to address how US government is elected. Suffice to say it’s a democratic process. That said, the predominance of wealth individuals in Congress and the Executive, and how they were chosen to run for election, raises questions about how representative are chosen and the independence of their vote. In my view there are issues here … but then there are in any democracy. In my view the biggest problem with Congress (and other levels of government too) is how election funding almost ensures obligation of the elected rep to interest groups and that Congress breeds career politicians. For both reasons the parties elected are not really representative of their constituents … but interest groups who backed their candidacy and/or influence their chances for reelection.
Your question about external influence is therefor the important one. And unfortunately all evidence suggests that a bad situation is getting worse (for example the Jan 2010 Supreme Court decision removing limits on corporate political funding). The sheer cost of running for office guarantees that either the candidate must be rich (if they want to use their own money) or open to quid pro quo support from interest groups. And the rules on lobbyists and allowing “earmarks” on bills by any representative are a huge incentive for interest groups to influence votes.
It’s essential that interest groups have the opportunity to input on proposed laws, but it appears that the US system has swung too far in favor of interest groups whose perspective may be in conflict with the greater good of the population. I think the US has a major problem … and the degree of dissatisfaction with both Parties performance recently would say many agree that change is needed (admittedly dissatisfaction is undoubtedly for a range of reasons, not just the degree of influence by special interest groups).
The links are to some articles re the above. Hope they help.
October 25th, 2010 at 7:42 am
I am guessing someone will type…we are not a democracy and call it a day…no further explanation no further analysis…simply repeating a phrase they have been brainwashed to repeat.
But for those of us who actually have functioning brains and wish to have true exchange of ideas…here it goes:
how they are elected? not very much democratic at all since elections are mostly won by the candidate with the most money, which is not a democratic notion at all. What do I mean? lets assume a population of a hypothetical country of one million voting citizens, and lets assume that the top 1% richest citizens contribute 75% of the money the politicians running for office get. Well, Obviously this means that the politicians are in obligation way way more to the richest citizens and would clearly avoid passing laws to piss them off and look for ways to pass laws and regulations that make the rich happy. I don’t think anyone can challenge my claim and accusation that is not a very democratic process at all.
How they actually function? Not very democratic at all, especially the US senate…where 60 votes are needed out of 100 to pass a law…which means even if the people vote for change to take place and give the party they prefer a 57 to 43 advantage…its still not good enough…the minority still can block the change. Also the fact that these senators only get reelectd every 6 years make them highly insensitive to the will of the people…the fact that they have to raise sums like 20 million dollars or 30 million dollars to run for the senate is a big anti democracy notion….the fact that lobbysts get extreme access to legislators and often write the laws that they want and for the senators to try to put through is also huge.
The bottom line is we are nothing close to having representative govt in the USA..not even close.
What we have is a plutocracy…govt to benefit the few.