Robert A. Dahls book

‘How Democratic Is the American Constitution’ is a book written by Robert A. Dahl that raises many provocative questions and doubts about the U.S. constitutional document. Dahl, the book’s author, is a former president of the Political Science Association of the United States and Yale’s University Sterling Professor Emeritus. To introduce the thesis of the book’s main subject matter, the author sarcastically poses the question ‘How democratic is the American Constitution?’ which also serve as the book’s title.Advertising We will write a custom book review sample on Robert A. Dahl’s book – â€Å"How Democratic is the American Constitution† specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More According to Dahl’s perceptions and opinions, as presented in the text, many American citizens have always held their country’s Constitutional document and the principle this has to embody into their lives, with much honor and esteem. However, majority of the American citizens have always been worried that their esteemed Constitutional draft fails short in addressing some of the crucial aspects affecting the general humanity such as women rights, racial integration, and economic equality (Robert 16). In this text, Dahl explicitly explores the big tension existing between the people’s faith in the credibility of the laws governing their country and their stand on the principles of democracy presented by these laws. In this book, Dahl reminds the American society of the missing link in their constitution; a flaw that makes the sacred draft unqualified as a basis for the country’s democratic system. The book presents the writer’s viewpoint about the Constitution as just a representation of the history that surrounded its creation and implementation. This actually makes him to believe that, most the current Constitutional does not addres s the present day issues affecting the humanity. According to Dahl, the framers of this constitution had failed completely in some respects such as establishment of a strong democratic system of government. Some of the approaches used by the writer to achieve his purpose on the book include the power of transparency, outright critique of American political institutions, and use of reliable evidence and examples to support his claims. More importantly, the writer also applies a gentle but a persistent approach to express his critics on the subject matter. Dahl has widely applied historical evidence throughout the text to reveal the imperfection of the American democracy, as stipulated by the constitution. There is also a wide application of contemporary aspects such as real-life events and other people’s observations by the writer, to provide substantial evidence as to why he thought the American Constitution was indeed undemocratic. A good example of how evidence applies in t he book is observed in various episodes where he compares the American Constitutional system with that of other countries of the same status. Dahl observes that, the most reasonable revisions on the constitution were done more than a century ago and no significant changes have been applied on the document since then.Advertising Looking for book review on government? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More I personally tend to agree with Dahl’s point of view on the American secret document, if I may call it so. We cannot just rise up and start condemning Dahl, simply for his attempts to highlight some of the most unusual elements of the constitution that needs to be revised and amended, to fit the standards of democracy. Despite what many of his critics may tend to observe, Dahl is part of the many brilliant personalities who have openly come out to condemn the many loopholes in the U.S. Constitution. Dahl’s main agenda h ere is to encourage critique of both the American political institutions and the Constitutional system, in a manner that will call for significant amendments on the constitution, thus making it more democratic. Dahl may not have had any big hopes that his claims will succeed in making significant democratic changes in the American Constitution in the immediate future, but his outright observations of the document’s shortcomings have always raised debate and discussions on the matter. This gives him the hope that maybe; with time, this may lead to something more beneficial to the future American generations. One reason why I would agree with Dahl is the issue of the various questionable aspects presently surrounding the American Constitution, as far as democratic representation is concerned. Lieven observes that, â€Å"there is often the issue of unequal senate representation in the U.S. whereby some states continue to receive larger representation compared to others† ( 17). There is really no good reason as to why the Constitution should continue to permit such unequal representation. Another questionable aspect of the Constitution is the system of the Electoral College, normally applied in the selection of American presidents. According to Levinson, â€Å"this system has serious democratic defects† and a good example here is the failure of the person receiving the majority of votes to become the holder of the highest office, in most cases, owing to some confusing elements of the constitution (353). This system raises more questions than answers, especially to the voters who may never get to understand the real sense of democracy as expressed in the constitution. As a matter of fact, this deprives the American residents of their rights of citizenship and democracy. These are some of the parts that need to be amended, so as to make the U.S. Constitution more acceptable as a democratic system of governance. Just as Dahl observes, the U.S. Con stitution has been eluded by other recent developments observed in other democracies in the world.Advertising We will write a custom book review sample on Robert A. Dahl’s book – â€Å"How Democratic is the American Constitution† specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More As witnessed from this useful text, Dahl has succeeded at raising informed questions that every patriotic American citizen should be informed about, regarding the nature of the constitution. As a matter of fact, by pointing out some of the many imperfections in the U.S. Constitution and calling for the necessary reforms and amendments, Dahl has fully achieved his purpose on the book. His overview on this crucial matter deserves universal recommendation, for it reminds the Americans of the need to revise their constitution and consider the chances for coming up with a more democratic society, which can only be achieved through a well-drafted constituti on. Dahl’s agenda here is not to condemn or to criticize the U.S. Constitution system, but to offer some light to some of the elements that make the system appear imperfect. By incorporating a number of provocative questions and assertions throughout the text, Dahl challenges all of us to utilize the opportunities we have, to help our country achieve the democratic systems befitting its outstanding status as a Superpower and a global economy leader. Instead of wasting time criticizing Dahl’s indictment of the constitutional structure, it is time for the government to push for immediate reforms on the highlighted sectors and establish a governance system that guarantees the citizens all the rights, opportunities, and liberties which could be found in a more democratic society. Works Cited Levinson, Sanford. â€Å"Looking Abroad When Interpreting the US Constitution: Some Reflections.† Tex. Int’l LJ 39. 17 (2003): 353. Print. Lieven, Anaton. America right o r wrong: an anatomy of American nationalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print. Robert, Dahl. How Democratic is the American Constitution? United Kingdom: Yale University Press, 2003. Print.Advertising Looking for book review on government? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This book review on Robert A. Dahl’s book – â€Å"How Democratic is the American Constitution† was written and submitted by user Alayna Bishop to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

The Fight Against Terrorism essays

The Fight Against Terrorism essays On September 11, 2001, Americans realized the threat that terrorists pose in the world today. Over five thousand people died in the terrorist attack, and now Americans want revenge. They want terrorism to be stopped. In order to do that, several things must be done. Dealing with terrorists like Osama bin Laden is difficult because his group, like many others, is very large and the members of it are hard to recognize. The majority of terrorists are Muslim and come from Arab nations who hate the American culture. Osama bin Laden has terrorists in over 35 countries. Nevertheless, a group of that size is very difficult to terminate. Osama bin Laden is responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The U.S. military needs to make swift air strikes on terrorist camps to possibly eliminate the leader and destroy their defenses. After that, ground troops should be sent in to take over the camp. It is different with bin Ladens well-armed group because he is wealthy. The group is almost entirely funded by him. In this case, bin Laden should be the main target. A special forces team should covertly enter the camp and capture him. Even with these possible solutions, terrorism is still hard to stop especially when supporte d by a government known as the Taliban. In order to stop bin Laden, the Taliban must be stopped, too. The Taliban is the government of Afghanistan, which harbors bin Laden. Also, it supplies and aids him. The U.S. needs to cut all economic and social ties with Afghanistan in order to slow the economy as well as bin Ladens group. The Taliban is a fundamentalist group and control 95% of the country. Our military should attack the Taliban because they are withholding bin Ladens location and not turning him over to the United States. We should ally with the five percent of the country fighting the Taliban. Stopping the Taliban means the e ...

College Essay Topics

College Essay Topics College Essay Topics The purpose of this article is to help you understand which of the suggested college essays topics would be more favorable for you. Whether or not the chosen topic is favorable for you depends on your writing skills and your life experience. If you're not an excellent writer, it would be more advantageous for you to write a narrative essay. You should simply recall one of the bright events in your life and describe it. The aim of a narrative essay is to describe any period of time, situation, or event from your life; it may be written in first-person present tense or first person past tense. It isn't obligatory to write a college essay chronologically, narrative essays, however, need to follow the development of a person through a series of experiences and reflections. The focus of the essay is on the narrator's point of view. Some college students think they need to choose college essay topic that will amaze the tutor. But that's not what colleges are looking for. Instead, they simp ly want to learn more about who you are and what is your way of thinking. College Essay Writing Writing college essay try to be interesting and original. Write about yourself and the events which happened with you, in short, your own life experience. Write an essay about your life that demonstrates your personality.It will help the reader to get to know you a little better. College essay is a great opportunity to tell the reader something he does not know. Your essay should be readable and understandable. College Deductive Essay Most college essays are of deductive style. A deductive essay presents an introduction and a thesis in the first paragraph, explores the thesis in several paragraphs, cites and analyzes the assigned text, and concludes with a paragraph reflecting on the thesis. This structure is based on deductive reasoning. Deduction is the process of stating a known fact, principle, or assumption and then examining the conclusion. ORDER CUSTOM COLLEGE ESSAY If you need help with college essay writing, you are welcome to place an order at .com. We deliver only 100% plagiarism free college essays and guarantee timely delivery. We do not re-sell competed for college essays and do not post them online. Become our client and you will be surprised with the high quality of college essay writing service! Interesting topics: Action Paper Research The Stolen Party Term Paper Police Performance Term Paper Human Rights Law Business Essay Great Expectations Essay

Curriculum Issues Facing Educational Leaders Research Paper

Curriculum Issues Facing Educational Leaders - Research Paper Example According to the research findings schools exhibit low standards, incoherence, poor management as well as insufficient regulation particularly in relation to the work that teachers do with their students. The teachers are not held accountable by the schools and the teachers are left to do whatever they please behind the closed doors of the classrooms. From this view, the projected result is a decreased quality of performance on the part of the teacher together with the students. Fundamental to this view is the notion the genesis of the quality problem in teachers is in a deficit that is in the preparations, commitments, engagements as well as efforts of the teachers themselves.As the paper stresses  the best solution to the problem that is being faced by the educational system is an increase in the centralized control of the schools and making the teachers become responsible. Advocates of this view are in support of curriculums which are uniform, subjecting teachers to licensing ex ams and improved performance standards along with comprehensive teacher and school assessments. Most of these accountability measures have already been executed so that no children are left behind.  Broad research has been carried out in power, control as well as accountability in schools over the past decades with the research involving evaluation of a broad collection of data. Push towards accountability typically ends up in the wrong diagnoses and solution for the problem of quality of teachers.

Consumer Learning Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Consumer Learning - Coursework Example For launching a new food supplement product an advertisement is created to teach the customer about product usage. The advertisement also explains benefits and features of this product. The ad is designed in such a way that shows details about the capsule. It contains different vitamins, minerals, amino acids, proteins which are essential for maintaining good health. Each of these capsules provides original nutritional value to the consumers. These capsules are packed within a small plastic container. In the label of the container essential details of related to the capsule and its manufacturing company will be mentioned. It is a daily food supplement consume for having healthy and strong physical. This food supplement capsule has a balanced combination of 20 essential minerals, 15 vitamins which keeps a person mentally alert and physically active. It contain different anti oxidant like zinc, biotion and selenium which improves health and skin. It also has calcium, magnesium and phosphorous. The capsule includes carbonyl iron within its ingredients. The advertisement of this capsule has to be designed in such a way that it clearly depicts its targeted customers. This new product is mainly launched for both male and female above 18 years. It can be consumed without doctor’s prescription. The price of this capsule is slightly high. So it is mainly targeted to the customers of middle class and upper class people who are educate and understand the value of this type of products (Applegate, 2005). It is also targeted to the persons who are suffering from weakness, vitamin and mineral deficiency and other nutritional deficiencies. The ad of this capsule shows that its potential customers can be those persons who don’t get time to eat healthy food or can’t maintain proper diet chart. They can easily have this capsule for getting high nutritional value and saving lot of time. Advertisement of this food supplement capsule has to be developed and designed

In a World of Stereotypes Essay Example for Free

In a World of Stereotypes Essay What is a stereotype? Stereotypes are characteristics ascribed to groups of people involving gender, race, national origin and other factors. (Nadra Kareem Nittle. Para 1). Most of these characteristics are over exaggerated opinions of the groups. The next few paragraphs in this paper will identify three examples of a stereotype one may encounter in their everyday lives, an argument that may support the stereotype, and any mistakes that may be found in the argument. One stereotype that is very common but a lot of people may not consider a stereotype is age in the work place. This may sound a little ridiculous but there are â€Å"persistent negative perceptions pertaining to older workers† ( Ostroff Atwater, 2003, p. 729; see also Posthuma Campion, 2009). An employer might think that a younger worker would have more energy or stamina, less health issues, and more of an open mind when learning new technologies. An older person might be considered stuck in their ways rather than a fresh young employee right out of college. Nonetheless an older person in age might have more experience that would require a higher paycheck, as where a younger person may take less money in order to gain the experience. Although some of these arguments may make sense to the average person reading this, the same feelings can go for someone in the younger age groups. â€Å"Young adults might also feel stereotype threat in the workplace, as younger workers are often perceived to be less reliable, less committed to the organization, and less socially skilled† (Nadra Kareem Nittle. Para 31). Moral of the story is that there are good points and there are bad points for any worker no matter what there age. These are all assumptions of an age group instead of the true characteristics of the person themselves. An employer may not higher a sixty year old man who has a better work ethic than a twenty five year old man and he will never know because he judged the older man based on a stereotype and vise versa. As a result to stereotyping he will continue to go through employees during his entire career. Here the employer commits the fallcy called a Hasty Generalization as well. Drawing broad and very general conclusions based on insufficient evidence can therefore lead to harmful results, not only for the victim of the stereotype but also for the person doing the stereotyping. † (Mosser 2011, para 33). The next common stereotype is called a racial stereotype. In 1933 Katz and Braly did questionnaire method research using American students on racial stereotypes. The results are quoted as follows: â€Å"There was considerable agreement in the traits selected. White Americans, for example, were seen as industrious, progressive and ambitious. African Americans were seen as lazy, ignorant and musical. Participants were quite ready to rate ethnic groups with whom they had no personal contact. † (McLeod para 15). Although this kind of behavior could be very well just plain human nature t stereotype a group of people based on their race, the face just aren’t there. Look at President Obama for example; he is by far not a lazy man just because he is a black man. A lazy man would not have the ability to run a country. Yet he is black, so he must be pretty lazy. Fallacy? The last stereotype to address in this paper is sports stereotypes. Some may say that only men play sports like football, wrestling, or hockey and women only play volleyball, tennis, and badminton due to how much physical contact women should have verses men. (Million Views para 1). One would say these stereotypes do not seem to far fetched because football is a very rough sport and most men are bigger and stronger than a woman so if she were to join the football team she may very well get hurt. But why cant men play tennis? Does this make him girly? Or not a man? Some would say yes because the sport is less aggressive and a man needs to act in rough sports if they want to be considered a man. There are women wrestlers today and plenty of men play tennis without losing their so-called manhood. These things we all do everyday, sometimes without even realizing it. We are all categorized in some sort of stereotype more than we would like to admit. But the bottom line is that we all bleed red, we all breathe the same air, and we all have to die one day. We are human. Instead of being separated into generalized groups based on or age, religion, race, etc. we all should be as one in the same group of humans. Because weather we like it or not, we are human.

Consequences in Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter :: Scarlet Letter essays

Consequences in The Scarlet Letter      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are two sides of consequences for almost everything that happens in life, directly or indirectly.   In life, we could learn mostly from the consequences, rather than from the punishments of our actions.   If the consequences are good, we know that the action should be repeated, sometimes.   If bad consequences outweigh the good, we know repeating would not be wise.   Hester Prynne of Nataniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, learns from punishment and the consequences of adultery, but from which does she learn more from?      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Punishment from the magistrates was usually strict and severe. Hester's punishment was to stand on the wooden platform, in the town square, for three hours.   She could not speak to any to the numerous eyes that stared at, through her until dark. Hester also had to wear an embroidered A of scarlet cloth upon her chest.   The A symbolized that she was an adulteress, and should not be associated with.   Hester had also been banished from town, and branded an outcast.   Even though she did not name her lover, so that he could be punished, he did not go unpunished. Reverend Dimmesdale had taken it upon him to stand on the same platform that Hester had, and he also whipped himself.   The whipping did not serve its purpose, he was laughing all the while that he lashed himself.   Neither means of punishment had taught him anything, as well as Hester.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   To fill in for what punishment had not taught, consequence brought forth the lessons of life.   The consequences that Hester found were bad and good.   There is usually two sides of consequences.   The scarlet letter showed everyone she was a sinner, an adulteress, making the people sick of her, and did not acknowledge her.   Yet as time went on, people noticed that Hester had embroidered the scarlet letter so beautifully, that she had offers to have embroidery done for others.  Ã‚  Ã‚   As the course of the story the A had changed its meaning.   People saw how strong Hester was and refused to interpret the A as it was meant, the A became to mean both ABLE, and ANGEL.   For her good deeds done unto the community.   She gave clothing to the poor and helped out wherever possible.