American Democracy

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how the United States is a nation that has been an active advocate for a democratic form of government. It examines how the author Edward Greenberg provides his readers with some ideas about the contemporary outlook of the democratic political system existing in the society today. It looks at how he believes that the United States does not fulfill the expectations of the three important models of democracy that have been conceived by social and political scientists in their study of democracy-- the Participatory, Liberal- Representative and Pluralist models of democracy. It analyzes whether Greenberg's beliefs are true in the U.S.'s status at present as a democratic nation, or if one of these models actually applies to the form of government the U.S. is currently practicing.

From the Paper:

"The Participatory Model of Democracy is considered a direct from of democracy, wherein people actively and directly participate in the control and governance of a nation. The Participatory Model of Democracy is characterized as a form of democracy wherein "citizens play an active role in the government through" assemblies and "councils" (American Democracy Online 2003). Further, the Participatory model is best described as the democracy model wherein citizen involvement plays a major role in the control and governance of a nation. The Liberal-Representative Model, meanwhile, is the exercise of democracy by its citizens in an indirect manner. In this model, the citizens play a "passive" role in controlling and governing the nation. Instead, a representative is assigned by the citizenry to serve as the "voice" of the people. This model gives the citizenry the option to oust or vote a representative out of office if the representative proved to be inadequate in representing the citizenry's interest and implementing the form of control and governance the citizens wanted to have."

More papers on American Democracy:

• Book Review # 118114 : "The Rise of the American Democracy"
• Essay # 130891 : "Plato's 'Republic' and American Democracy"
• Comparison Essay # 2134 : "Safeguarding American Democracy"
• Analytical Essay # 59119 : "American Democracy"

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