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Democracy Reaction Paper

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Submitted By bubb9584
Words 434
Pages 2
Brian Sanders
4/15/2016
PS 101 79B1­SP16­8W2­INTRO TO POLITICAL SCIENCE

Democracy Reaction Paper Robert A. Dahl in chapters 4­7 discusses what is democracy, why democracy is better than nondemocratic governments, political equality, and civic competence. Democracy, a type of government that is ran by the people. According to Dahl there is criteria for using democracy. A democratic government must have effective participation, voting equality, enlightened understanding, control of agenda, and inclusion of adults. With these five standard criterias democracy thrives. Without them it would just be another political system where no one or very few has a say in what happens. Democracy is better than nondemocratic political systems because they cannot guarantee the above ten statements of advantages of democracy.
According to Dahl “Democracy produces desirable consequences:
● Avoiding tyranny
● Essential rights
● General freedom
● Self determination
● Moral autonomy

● Human development
● Protecting essential personal interests
● Political equality In addition, modern democracies produce:
● Peace­seeking
● Prosperity” (pg. 45)

Political equality is a key to democracy. Giving everyone the legitimacy of being an expert is good and bad. But it does more good than bad. For example a meeting over what the new Star Wars movie should look like needs everyone's opinion.
Everyone can do the same research as a Star Wars expert has which in this case is watch the movies. But a new aspect can come into play from someone who is ignorant of Star Wars as well. In political equality everyone is heard and has the opportunity to express their views. If this wasn’t the case experts running the system could conclude there is only one way to run a government. Or discussions would always be the same and no new ideas would be a concern because experts eventually get set in their ways.
Civic competence is the ability to live life the way you want. I know I love living my life in my fashion. Through democracy we can live how we want by choosing our religion, beliefs, morals, occupation, etc. This is a tool that helps gays today and there is zero consequences from our political system for being yourself.

In conclusion democracy is a political system with five criteria that helps it prosper. Why is democracy better than nondemocratic systems because it gives several benefits to that other political systems cannot give. Political equality is necessary because everyone has the same opportunity to receive information as an expert. Civic competence is important so everyone can live their own individual lifestyle.

Word Count(398) References
Dahl, R. A. (1998).
On Democracy
. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press.

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