Analysis of How Democratic Is the American Constitution by Robert A. Dahl - Book Report/Review Example

 “How Democratic Is the American Constitution” by Robert A. Dahl It is obvious that this book presents a positive and a negative view, depending on the many reads that access the book. One of the positive aspects of the book is that it is readily accessible and is a brief summary of the reasons why the United States Constitution requires to be amended. Looking at the book for instance, only a few pages of the book talk about the debate between the parliamentary and presidential systems that may lead to a new democracy. It is possible that most electoral systems would have demanded for more information about the Constitution but if such a situation prevailed, I am convinced that most readers would be really bored. Its brief nature is indeed an added advantage to the readers as opposed to if the book tried to cover all aspects of the Constitution that are already reviewed in records. The shallowness of the book and the specificity of the topics may be argued to raise lots of suffering by the book, but Dahl still makes his point that the Constitution does not give attention to democracy and therefore it needs to be amended (Dahl, 2003). In as much as the book really discuses almost all reasons why the Senate and the Electoral College should abolished from the electoral system, it does not cover arguments that support the importance of such bodies. If for instance popular votes were casted at the national level, it would result to a very inefficient voting system and hence human errors would be rampant. Again, in the event that there requires being a recount at the national level, it would prove to be such a problematic thing in the entire nation; but these aspects go unaddressed. This part of the Constitutional discourse according to me is really supposed to have been included in the book for the readers to compare and contrast the pros and cons of the Constitutional system and make their own informed decisions. Having looked at the negative and positive aspects covered in the book, i strongly believe that Dahl at least made an effort of discussing both historical and contemporary issues in the states. This book increases the knowledge of the reader on the political systems of the U.S and I would recommend that every fresh man in every college should struggle to have a copy of this book or at least go through its review for their own benefit. This is beneficial especially when the reader is unable to describe the reasons as to why the American Constitution is not perfect as is considered by requires several amendments. The reader should however keep in mind the fact that that this book is not actually an absolute description of the amendments and possible solutions to the problem of democracy but rather just a brief summary. The amendments and possible solutions that Dahl makes in this book still requires further literature review and hence the reader should be prepared to go the extra step to find such literature. Critical Book Review of “A Magnificent Catastrophe” by Edward J. Larson This book presents lots of positive ideas regarding the political situation in the United States of America both in the past and shows a clear reflection of the present political dimensions. First and foremost, the book presents a vivid fight for the rights of journalists and the freedom of expression of the media during the times before the 1800 elections. Before then, the media was not granted freedom to air most of the events especially those that Adam’s government was striving to hide from the public which were of course a breach of the human rights to a just leadership. Larson shows his strong stand in the support of the media by freely using the media to back the Republican campaigns while still fighting for their rights grabbed by the government of that time. Larson definitely succeeds in his fight for the freedom of the journalists and the media at large following the changes he makes in Sedition Act even before his inauguration. Moreover, this book positively supports fair leadership and democracy; a leadership defined by justice and equal consideration of all people in the United States of America. He seems to refute utterances made by his election counterpart in the government Adams that the general public are not allowed to make political decisions for fear that they lacked enough information and would make wrong decisions. Larson supports Jefferson’s campaigns and through him lets the people to understand that they were the most useful assets in any electoral processand their views deserved to be taken into consideration while the Convention was making laws. The writer vies the 1800 elections as a fight between democracy and monarchy in which the democratic aspect was driven by Jefferson while the monarchical system of leadership was driven by the High Federalists such as Adams and Hamilton. There are however some negative aspects brought into light by the book through the leadership of High Federalists such as Adams and Hamilton. Such are like the support of one man’s leadership as demonstrated in the analogy of the Biblical Moses who alone was able to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land despite their rebelliousness. An example of such a leadership is seen in England and since it is also successful, the High Federalists feel that it deserved to be the same case for the United States of America. The worst thing about this kind of leadership is that the opinion of the leader who in this case is the president is viewed as absolutely right and final. It ignores the general knowledge that human beings are faulty and can make irrational decisions some of which may even result to the death of the innocent. On the contrary, a democratic government as symbolised by the Republicans allows for corrective measures and absolute scrutiny of situations before a fair judgement is granted. According to my own opinion, this book has been very successful in the coverage of the topic as it considers almost all the political aspects of life in the United States. These aspects range from the field of democracy through leadership wrangles to the freedom of the media which has been totally supported by the book. The successes of most of the aspects that are presented by this book have been expressed through the win of the 1800 election by the Republicans who actually won against the sitting government, writing history. Definitely this book has registered a perfect coverage of both the historical and contemporary view of the United States elections since it even goes ahead to predict the situation during the Americas election of 2008. Almost all aspects of the 1800 elections were represented in the political forum of the 2008 and this is therefore a confirmation that the book not only covers historical views of elections but contemporary views as well. This book would have ended in perhaps a better way if the death of Thomas Jefferson did not come into the picture. According to me, it is like it implies a loss of the war for the factors that the Republican Government was for fighting for. To make it worse, this hero Thomas Jefferson dies before his political rival in the political realm, Adams. This book is very relevant since it really increases the readers’ knowledge of the American system of politics. It reveals the fact that the American political system lacks the multi-party politics that are experience in most parts of the world and especially in the African governments. On reading the book, the reader will be able to judge for themselves whether the system is good in terms of its pros and cons and then would recommend that other governments struggling with peaceful politics would adopt it. Following this judgement, I would recommend this book to all readers in the world irrespective of their political background. Reference Dahl, A.(2008), How Democratic is the American Constitution? Yale University Press: New Haven Read More