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Essay on Democracy in America

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Democracy is a unique type of government, and the purpose of this essay is to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses that a democratic government provides. I will detail that many components of this type of society are both strengths and weakness as each component has beneficial aspects as well as unavoidable pitfalls. A democracy is a government by the people, in which the power is vested in the people themselves. The people then elect representatives who conduct their power in a free electoral system. The Declaration of Independence, which says that all men are created equal, was written on the premise of a democracy. According to John Locke, who wrote The Social Contract, before acknowledging that an individual is part of a …show more content…

The laws of society are applied equally to everyone, but equitable to the circumstances. The same holds true for taxes: those with higher incomes pay a larger percentage of their income in taxes than those in lower tax brackets. Although not equally applied, the tax laws are equitable. Democratic laws are written in such a way as to allow interpretation depending upon circumstances. “A thousand circumstances, independent of the will of man, facilitate the maintenance of a democratic republic in the United States” Initially, laws are difficult to design because lawmakers can’t think of every possibility, every scenario, and every obstacle that may present itself in the democracy. Despite these difficulties, laws keep society together and provide unity for the citizens. Advantages for creating laws, include, but are not limited to, providing direction for the collection of taxes, declaring clear expectations for compliance and punishment of citizens and elimination of chaos. A weakness of democracy is the “Tyranny of the Majority”. This is an inevitable pitfall, because in a democracy, the power is vested foremost in the people the constituting the society itself. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote on this concept:

“Democratic laws generally tend to promote the welfare of the greatest possible number; for they emanate from the majority of the citizens, who are subject to error, but who cannot have an interest opposed to

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