Political Philosophy Essay Example for Free

Political Philosophy Essay Barber (1999) refers to strong democracy as one of the democratic responses to contemporary political condition. The author clearly distinguishes the strong democratic type from unitary democracy, pluralist democracy, authoritative, and juridical democracy. All these types of democracy are idealistic, and are never applied to real political conditions in their pure forms, but they represent the five different visions of the democratic order which deserve attention and should be objectively reviewed. Barber (1999) defines authoritative democracy in centralized executive terms. Authoritative democracy exercises the principles of differential citizenry; although authoritative democracy is fully accountable to the democratic community which elects it, this type of democratic order relies on the excellence of elites (Barber, 1999). The two major deficiencies are characteristic of authoritative democracy: first, it tends towards hegemony; second, it tends to camouflage its political representation under the cover of political wisdom. As a result, individuals risk confusing the political virtue with the political excellence (Barber, 1999). Juridical democracy is based on the principles of protecting human rights. Arbitration and adjudication are the necessary preconditions of juridical democracy (Barber, 1999). In juridical democracy, the principle of differential citizenry is expressed through excessive reliance on courts, which resolve and mediate political issues and substantially limit the power of the democratic government. Barber (1999) writes that â€Å"juridical democracy is deficient because it subverts the legislative process†. The author is confident that juridical democracy initially distorts the notions of the natural right and the higher law, using them as the disguise for political reintroduction and representation (Barber, 1999). Pluralist democracy is the most ideal democratic form of all Barber describes in his work. Pluralist democracy is based on the principle of the social contract which free political markets use in the process of political exchange (Barber, 1999). In distinction from the two previous forms of democracy, the pluralist form relies on active (not differential) citizenry. All conflicts and issues are arbitrated with the help of bargaining in which free equal individuals are involved. The pluralist democracy is deficient because the power of the social contract and bargaining is very weak. In Barber’s (1999) view, pluralist democracy is too innocent, and cannot lead to formation of any public thinking. Unitary democracy could initially become the political representation of certain norm as the central element of democratic order. Although unitary democracy promotes the unanimous character of political decisions, it tends to undermine the principles of individual autonomy. The role of citizenry in unitary democracy is vague (Barber, 1999). The problem is in that the unity of political deliberation requires that individuals merge with the rest of the political community. As a result, they risk losing their political individuality, and promote collective political thinking. Unitary democracy cannot foster self-realization; in massive forms, unitary democracy borders on coercion and malevolence (Barber, 1999). In many aspects, unitary democracy is synonymous to â€Å"conformist† type of political order, which mixes tyranny with terror and views community consensus through the prism of collectivity and collective political interests. Barber (1999) is confident that strong democracy is the political order of the future. The author views this type of democratic order as a community which will never be collectivistic, and which is the most compatible with the contemporary society. The core of strong democracy is the self-government, in which citizens govern themselves (Barber, 1999). The conflict resolution is based on self-legislation, and the creation of the political community. The mentioned political community is the key element of strong democracy, and it is the necessary condition for transforming the political conflicts into the useful epistemological tools of public thinking (Barber, 1999). Simultaneously, Barber fails to define the criteria for the creation and existence of the already mentioned political community. If strong democratic community exists to transform political conflicts or implement political decisions (Barber, 1999), it is unclear whether this community will keep its previous form as soon as it achieves its political goals. One can’t but agree with Barber (1999) in that in strong democracy community is invariably linked to the notion of citizenship, but there are striking disparities between the notions of community and participation. Although strong democracy claims striking the misbalance between participation and community, it does not offer any reliable criteria for achieving the democratic world of the common ends, in which conflict serves the dialectical means of turning the masses into the democratic citizenship. Conclusion Strong democracy is viewed by Barber (1999) as the best and the most realistic type of democratic order. Barber (1999) emphasizes the deficiencies which authoritative, juridical, unitary, and pluralist democracies display. Simultaneously, Barber (1999) fails to provide the criteria for creating and supporting the strong democratic community and participation. The relation between community and participation remains misbalanced, and strong democracy will hardly strike it.

Media :: essays research papers

â€Å"It was about the liberal biases that overwhelm straight news reporting†, is what Bernard Goldberg had to say in response to his problem with CBS evening news. Is it wrong for a reporter to jazz some boring news topic up and maybe make it seem a little more interesting a problem? It can be if the reporter is tending to his bias thoughts and disregarding the objectiveness, fairness, and balance that he or she vowed to do. But is this really a problem in the media? From a conservative standpoint, TV news tends to be more liberal because it features stories such as civil rights abuses, gay rights, and antiwar demonstrations which are all liberal cases. But on the other hand, some can say that its conservative due to pro-business and sometimes doesn’t give equal time to non-mainstream views. When you look at the ownership of many corporate businesses, they tend to have a more conservative view as compared to the people who mend together the stories who are more likely to be more liberal and open to ideas. So where does one draw a line for too much liberalism or too much conservatism? According to Al Franken, â€Å"Asking whether there i s a liberal or conservative bias to mainstream media is a little like asking whether Al Qaeda uses too much oil in their hummus†. From my standpoint as a somewhat liberal-conservative, I can safely say that yes there are liberal views in the media and there are also conservative news reporters in the media. So what is the big deal? That is what makes this world go round, different view points and different outputs for those opinions. So for me to say that the media is too liberal or too conservative would go against what I feel is fair for the American public. I feel there is

Admitting average or mediocre students into college has not debased american higher education

American higher education is one of the oldest in the world. Since the establishment of the first higher institute of education in the country, there has been tremendous growth in the number of students admitted to our higher education institutions every year.In deed, College education has been the aspiration of the many young adults in the country.   As the modern technology takes centre state in life, education has become in important tool to assist a student to cut an edge in the technology driven economy.However the issue of admission to American colleges has remained controversial in respect to the admission of average or mediocre students. While some have argued that the admission of average and mediocre students has debased American higher education, this paper strongly refutes this claim. Poor base structure in our education system can be held responsible for debasing American higher education.American education poor base structure debasing higher educationAccording to the charter of human rights, every student has the right to education and admitting average or mediocre students does not debase American higher education (Guinner, 1998).There have been differeing college admission criteria which have denied some students a chance to acquire higher education.   It has been argued that average or mediocre students have debased American higher education but there are other factors which have debased the higher education.First we have to understand what makes an average of mediocre students.   There are many factors which are used to grade students and therefore determine their entry criteria to higher education institutions.   Some of these factors include the low grades, SAT scores, environment and social behavior factors.Therefore these factors determine the ability of the student to purse higher education. However some of the average or mediocre students have performed better than other students. Therefore the first point that refutes this claim is that our system has poorly divided and graded our students (Thill, 2006).SAT has been widely used in determining the eligibility of a student to higher education institutions.   There are many scholars who argued against the use of SAT to determine the eligibility of student to higher education arguing that it is flawed and very unreliable.The first factor that has debased American higher education is the use of SAT in determining the eligibility of students. Therefore we can say that there are no averages or mediocre students but we only have a mediocre system that is used to scrutinize them and this system is SATs.There are other college admission criteria that have debased American higher education system. There are some students who are admitted to college based on their past sports record. Rothchild (2008) argue that there are a number of top colleges which pay students exorbitant amounts of money or award with possessions in order to sway students to join their colleges and play for their teams.No one is quite sure whether the coaches who admit these students to their team really look into the minds like the SAT test looks into student minds.   Most of these students do not really deserve to be college student as their mediocre or average classmate.This means that it is not the admission of average and mediocre students which has debased American higher students but rather the discriminate admission of students based on other factor like sports career.

Decision Making Process Of The School Board - 1354 Words

Decision Making Process The superintendent needs to take the lead on creating a formal plan, keeping in mind that the school board has the final decision making power as far as resource allocation and making a proposal official policy. However, leading a process does not mean drafting it single handedly. Gaining staff and community buy-in will be essential if the plan is going to be a success. Representatives from the same groups that provided input on the needs assessment should be included in a committee of 6-7 to help draft the plan. A committee might include a strong parent leader, 2-3 teacher leaders, a principal, a representative from the Chamber or another highly visible community group, a board member, and the superintendent.†¦show more content†¦Fiscal responsibility and careful research about what is absolutely essential is also important. Delegating, promoting, organizing and prioritizing this two-way communication, among all the other competing responsibiliti es, makes up the bulk of the type of decision making the superintendent has to do. Marketing and Communication Once the plan is approved, the goals, action steps and results must reach the community at large. In addition to traditional methods of â€Å"getting the word out† such as newsletters, websites, informational displays at local businesses, and open houses, the plan should be promoted by purposeful dialogue. An emphasis on one-way communication leads to distrust and disillusionment in the community. True dialogue and listening for understanding vs. persuasion can really only be done by small, repeated conversations. (Johnson, Getting Your Message Out, pg 10-11). Additionally, building strong relationships with local media staff members is a way to open communication lines in the community. It is wise to over communicate and re-communicate key messages frequently, since the audience is diverse and likely has different preferences. Finally, key messages must be simple and focused. Lisa Unger Shoer, author of â€Å"School Recognition: Princip als, Do You Know Who You Are?† states, â€Å"Knowing what theShow MoreRelatedThe Power of Rational Decision Making Essay1457 Words   |  6 PagesRational decision making is one of the most common problem solving methods and can be used to solve almost all problems. Rational decision making and problem solving processes can be explained in a logical manner. Effective leaders use rational decision making processes to identify the problem, think up solutions, evaluate alternatives along with select a solution, implement and evaluate the final solution. 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