Pluralism In America

Words: 785
Pages: 4

Pluralism in America was envisioned by James Madison to be a society in which conflict rather than consensus would predominate. According to the reading, citizens would be divided into many, groups, parties, and factions that would compete for benefits they felt to be rightly theirs. Not one group in particular could be the dominant power in the pluralist system because; in theory it would have the same opportunities to address the needs of all the groups. Madison thought that economics were going to be the major divide, but as it turns out, race is what has become the major divider in American politics and society.

In the environment of politics, pluralism involves the participation of various groups in the political system. This is where
…show more content…
The needs and plight of the Mexican community and that of the Cuban community are completely distinctive and need to be seen and addressed inversely. The Pluralist system would just sweep these two groups together into one political group and ignore the individual need of each group in the Hispanic/ Latino community in order to concentrate on the whole. This is an example of how one dominant group will take over a weaker group.

Another dilemma that pluralism faces is how it can be seen as having a class bias, where the upper class is better situated to compete for political gains and incentives. For a lot of minorities this is a challenge, because most minorities do not have the economic means to compete for the same political gain as the upper class, even though in the pluralist view both groups should be equal in standing. According to the reading, there seems to be a political trend allowing the upper class to lay claim to the majority of the political power while the minorities fight for effective organization and
…show more content…
In the chapter reading it is suggested that Latinos find themselves in the “two-tiered pluralism”, which cannot work effectively because there is only a small marginal inclusion of minority of group members within the political system. Again, we see the association between the levels of socioeconomic status and the education levels of these minority groups and how their participation and contribution to the political system will be affected.

A consequence of pluralism can be seen how it develops from one's own human circumstance and our own freedom of thought. In order for pluralism to function in a democracy there is a need to recognize diversity. If we want to achieve equality in society where everyone has the same amount of economic wealth and power, it would be necessary for the system to control citizens at all times so that no group can take any kind of advantage over other groups. This is not a democratic scenario because the people would have no control or voice over their own