Concepts of Contemporary Democratic Governance
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Name
Instructors Name
Date
Christiano (2006) defines democracy as a government system where eligible citizens of a country are allowed to choose their leaders through voting. Representative democracy in the United States is a type of democracy where the citizens elect the governing officials in the administration to represent them (Roust & Shvetsova, 2007). The people have the right and opportunity to participate in the electoral process of choosing their representatives in the government. The elected officials have the power to lead, make policies, and implement laws while still representing its people.
According to the U.S. Senate (2020), Constitutional democracy is a system of governance based on common sovereignty where the powers, structures, and bounds of the government are specified in the constitution. The constitution is the supreme law in the US, and it gives the framework of how the federal and state governments are organized, together with the limits of their powers. Federal means there is both the national government and the all-50 states, where each enforces its laws directly to its citizens, unaffected by the national government. The United States is more of a federal constitutional republic than a democracy. Constitutional democracy is characterized by popular sovereignty, where people are the definitive source of authority, the majority rules, while the fundamental rights of minorities are protected.
Republic forms of government
A republic is a system of government where the power rests with the people, is exercised through representative government, and has an elected head of state (Lovett, 2006). Some forms of government include the parliamentary republic, the state president leads the executive division of a government, and the head of assembly leads the parliament. Federal republics have a union of states, which operates independently, making their own laws and decisions on a republic form of government. Theocratic republics are led by religious laws. The religious scripts are the backbone of the governing structure and are drafted into the governing constitutions.
Contemporary democratic governance helps the US create a virtuous circle of enhanced security, robust economic growth, and strong alliances, all of which serve the interests of the citizens of the United States (Schuck, 2018). In a representative democracy, the US legislature representatives create laws that apply to all US citizens. In both houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives, all the representatives are elected by majority vote in their own states. The USA’s investments in representative democracy and governance should show that they strongly understand the democratic process and support good governance. Constitutional democracy in the US relies on the Bill of rights to create new legislation to ensure that they do not violate the citizens’ constitutional rights. The United States government should seek to promote inclusive societies that protect the rights of minorities, including religious, ethnic, and otherwise.
Since the USA is a democratic republic, they ensure that democratic governance is effective, fair, and freer. Collaborating with other republic allies like the Czech, Slovakia, and even South Africa to expand human freedom and leverage their unique knowledge is good. Democracy and governance is a vital pillar of national security. The United States should work diligently with religious organizations because they have a history of seeking greater human liberty, have credibility, and reach the US do not have. Modern theocratic republics like Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, all working with the USA, will help so much in national and international security matters. The US should give a chance for these countries to express their way of governance and maybe learn something important about incredibility from them (Schuck, 2018). Democratic governance is of great use to the United States Governance.
References
Christiano, T. (2006). Democracy. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition). Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/democracy/
Lovett, F. (2006). Republicanism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Spring 2010 ed.). Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/republicanism/
Roust, K., & Shvetsova, O. (2007). Representative democracy as a necessary condition for the survival of a federal constitution. Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 37(2), 244-261.
Schuck, P. (2018). Limits of Law: Essays on Democratic Governance. Routledge.
U.S. Senate: Constitution of the United States. (2020, January 21). U.S. Senate. https://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm