Discussion Topics - Assignment Example

Discussion Topics Topic The founding fathers came up with the idea of dividing powers to ensure that the libertiesof the people are not vulnerable. Different institutions had to bear certain responsibility in different areas to set effective governance. The different branches of the government and different institutions could only achieve this. It regulates the course of governance; keeping the government from moving in contrary to the founding principles. Different institutions holding power is the basis of a republic and any democratic nation (Beard & William 82).

In the age of warfare and nuclear weapons, this system is appropriate to ensure that power is not abused in any way. If power is centralized, an abusive government can come into existence and misuse the state of security, to cause massive and unreasonable destruction to both the United States and other nations. Divisive power observes control and regulation in decision-making. Topic #2The American constitutional structure has advantages such as the practice of pragmatism, which is very relevant and applicable to a country as large as the United States of America.

The constitutional structure creates laboratories of democracy. There is experimentation of policies and state governments can learn from the successes and failures of other states. It helps set a state of political stability by separating national government from areas of contentious issues. Finally, the constitutional structure helps encourage pluralism i.e. by expanding to local, state and national levels. By separating powers, it prevents tyranny (Beard & William 87).The disadvantages of the constitutional structure include prevention of national policy.

It lacks single policy on issues i.e. each state with its own and this causes confusion. It also leads to lack of accountability; the overlap of state and national boundaries makes it hard to assign blame on policies that have failed. To other democracies, the structure of the constitution depends on the geographical and political coverage. Small nations would function well with parliamentary systems, but to fully practice democracy, federalism would be the most effective.Members of the public should be adequately informed on the issues of governance and politics in order to fully practice democracy.

This also helps in the monitoring of the activities of the people in authority. Ignorance would definitely reduce the effectiveness of a democratic nation. Most of the Americans, however, are not well equipped with this information to guide the policies of the government. Lack of public information about politics poses alarm on the United States foreign policy. The public need to be aware of the foreign policies America formulates and implements. This is because the policies affect the political, social and economic lives of the Americans and the nation at large (Beard & William 62).

Topic #3The media poses a very great influence on the lives of the people. It should speak for the people; a great media is that which seeks the welfare of the people, for example, taking the role of being the voice to the voiceless. It should set the agenda based on the issues that affects the majority. The media should be the human watchdog that exposes the ill-minded individuals in the public and political domain. However, all these seize to be if the media is profit driven. The profit driven media harms the society; and they are easily corrupt.

Majority of the people consequently get brainwashed by such media that will only relay information as per the needs and requirements of the conveyers; which are mostly selfish and greed driven. This damage can be terrifying given the fact that many people in the society depend on the media for information.Works CitedBeard, Charles A., and William Beard. American government and politics,. 10th ed. New York: Macmillan Co., 1999. Print.