American Government and Constitution - Essay Example

Task American Government and Constitution America is a liberal democratic which can also be referred to as a constitutional democracy, whereby it grants all citizens their rights and freedom regardless of their race or gender. The American constitution allows the rule of the public by the people, its main aims being to allow people to willing fully elect their leaders directly. A strong central government was put in place; it controlled everything from its central office that made it hard for people to accept. They had wanted the government to disperse its operations. America comprises of people of different diversities; different religions, Catholics, Anglicans, Jews, Quakers and Calvinists, people from different origin, Sweden, Canada, England, France and many other parts of the world. They therefore, had and still have differing opinions on how the government should be run. In the past years, the number of immigrants into the United States has grown; therefore, diversity has augmented, making the nation grow stronger in unity. The constitution defends the rights of people without considering their backgrounds and by limiting the powers of both the state and national governments. In the bill of rights, amendment I states that, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and the government for a redress of grievance” (Schultz, p 273). This amendment does not include that a certain race is not represented; it includes all the American people. Many of the features of the constitution are meant to ensure that not any department of the state achieves control over the others and anything that can oppress its citizens. However, the constitution did not resolve the crisis of majorities imposing oppressive rules on the minority groups. The problem of tyranny until today has not been determined and needs to be addressed appreciably. This is an area that the federal government has been unsuccessful Race, ethnicity and color are the key characteristics of the minority groups in the United States of America, and although the government is trying to phase out the problem, it is extremely hard because people have it all in their minds. For example, some private schools cannot admit students from some ethnic groups or some races. In the earlier days of slavery, slave trade was operational in the south because the economic and communal status of the southerners was remorseful, and was justified to depend on the trade to make a living. The white homes in the south had been depending on slavery, ending the vice would have been a significant blow for them and the north still needed them for supply of raw materials. The blacks did not have any other option other than to be slaves, without education, socialization and a majority of whites living in the south. It is no surprise that the southerners felt that they were not being properly represented in the government. Their representatives’ were not heard whenever they tabled a problem in the congress. In my judgment, the idea of phasing out the majority rule by the federal government does not seem to be happening soon. Firstly, the federal government is composed of two houses, the House of Representatives and a senate with the representatives being more than the senators (Edwards, Wattenberg and Lineberry, p 34) If the government would have been aware of the rule of majority, it could have established one ‘major house’ whereby they cold have voted out the tyrannical rule. Senators alone, being 100 cannot vote out the majority rule since the majority vote wins. Liberal governments do not value the rule of minority; this means that a small number of the elected council will make rules and verdicts that govern the country as a whole. According to the constitution, democracies must apply majority rule and safeguard minority rights; many Americans consider that it is very important to defend the minority rights and especially the freedom of speech. Great proportions of Americans, however, view the government as corrupt and do not represent the interests of the people. They also believe that it is dominated by the affluent, which is a fact; the wealthy are more powerful and influential leaving out the minority groups. One significant disadvantage of a liberal democracy is that the value of education differs with the state in which it is being offered. The diversity of policy too can put off states from providing services that would otherwise be accessible because poor people can be attracted from other states with lower benefits (Bond and Smith, p 35). While democracy is all about using power, liberalism is about limiting the power; human rights are the link between these two aspects. Without these rights, democracy will have considerable influence on liberty and misuse of power; human rights, thus, need to be appreciated by the rule of law. American regimes though have a history of ignoring the rule of law and twisting it in support of the influential and the wealthy. It has a record of state bias whereby the state and its constituents tend to be corrupt and random, with the feature of power inheritance still being applied. In the region, the state and law have been used to benefit the powerful and for their own benefit making the United States government not being able to represent the people’s interests. In education attainment, there is a difference between the Whites and non-Whites, which has had an impact on the degree of racial inequality with some students dropping out of school. Education influences the job a person will get and therefore, concluding the ethnic gap in earnings among minority groups. As a result, there is tension involving the elite who own private businesses and those that are dependent on the elite to make a living and with this relationship; the constitution defends the powerful people in the society. The Founding Fathers that formed the constitution fell short of important requirement, which would later, have impacts on the afterward generations. The first shortcoming was slavery; they never included any comment that forbade slavery, instead; they created rules for slavery (Schultz, p 208). For example, any absconder had to be taken back to the slaveholder once they were found. The government secondly failed to guarantee the right of voting during political elections. Constitutionally, this is referred to as suffrage (Edwards, Wattenberg and Lineberry, p 34). It excluded half of the population including women, native and African Americans, it took a long time for women and African Americans to be allowed to vote in the election. In relation to equal representation, in the senate, every state was allowed to have an equal quantity of senators without respect to the population. This arrangement though failed to protect the rights of the minority groups and high profile minority groups -the slaveholders. The first amendment of the bill of rights assures liberty of worship, media and speech, the right to nonviolent assembly and to appeal to the government to correct wrongs (Schultz, p 273). The second amendment assures the people to bear weapons. The third amendment provides that troops may not be quartered in personal homes without the possessors’ consent. The fourth protects against irrational investigations and arrests. Four amendments in the bill of rights deal with justice and trial. They state that the trial processes should be just and fair regardless of the race and color of the accused. The states are, therefore, required to abide by these amendments in the bill of rights. In regards to the American democracy, equality reigns before the law and, that the constitution makes no partition as to the status of the person. The constitution provides that it will protect the interests of the citizens by maintaining domestic calmness and ensuring that there will be no invasions from the outside. The constitution laid an emphasis on personal liberty and in giving authority to the federal government, the framers of the constitution ensured that it did not limit on the freedoms of the citizens. Americans are, therefore, free to move, make their own decisions on religion, and jobs; they can go to courts whenever they feel that their rights are being violated. Amendment 14 is about citizenship rights, and states that all people living legally in the United States of America have the right to be regarded as citizens of the state where they are residing in, nobody shall deprive them the equal protection. Amendment fifteen in the bill of rights provides that nobody shall be barred from voting because of their race, color or background. Everyone is alike before the law. The rights provided by the first amendment are vital to democracy. Those covered in the fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth amendments provide protection to the citizens, making it hard to have citizens punished. Representation of individual Interests in the United States is largely influenced by the race. The word equality does not appear in the constitution except in amendment fourteen where the idea of equality is represented, it forbids the states from denying “equal protection of laws” (Edwards, Wattenberg and Lineberry, p 55). The most widespread minority group in the United States, African-American, has persistently pushed for their rights and has attained them with the thirteenth amendment finishing slavery. Democracy is often in divergence with itself, because, both equality and individual liberty are fundamental democratic aspects yet they disagreement with each other. Equality, for example, be likely to support majority rule but also intimidates personal rights in situations where the majority may want to deprive the minority their rights. Works Cited Bond, Jon and Smith, Kevin. The Promise and Performance of American Democracy. 2011 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Pp, 33-178. Edwards, George III, and Wattenberg, Martin, and Lineberry, Robert. Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy, 2010. New York Pearson Education, Inc. Pp, 34-78. Schultz, David. Encyclopedia of the United States Constitution, Volume 1. 2009. New York: Infobase Publishing. PP. 201-710. Read More