The Role Of Democracy In The United States

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What is democracy? There are various perspectives on what defines democracy. In certain respects, it requires the active participation of all citizens while it can be simply defined as the rule of majority. Our system of government; Responsible Government is presently based on the foundations of the Westminster System. In other words, the executive branch is dependent upon the support of an elected assembly (the legislative branch). However, there are those that hold dissatisfaction with the current system for the lack of direct representation and would prefer our current system to reflect American- style politics or replace the system entirely. Ideally with the conception of Separation of Powers. The problem with Separation of Powers, which …show more content…
As mention before, both Branches of government are directly elected with a mandate by the voters. Even if the president performance is poor, the president will remain in office until the end of his four-year mandate. This applies also to the Senate and Congress. Some may argue that this process is democratic in nature and determines its institutional features. Because, the branches of government are elected directly they are more susceptible to the support of minorities or special interest groups that would provide partisan advantage when seeking re-election. Since both branches are constantly seeking re-election (Two years for the House of Representatives, four years for the presidency and six years for the senate) it makes more necessary to find a favorable advantage before the election period . Essentially, this makes it difficult for any party to command a majority because there will always be other interest groups or minorities that exploit the rule of individual to ensure that the government impose policies which benefit the minority rather than the majority. This would also mean that certain groups may not always act as the dominant influence as there is always other minorities competing for their interest. This system depends too much on the principle of liberty at the expense of promoting the will of the …show more content…
One of the conventions of responsible government is that ministers will act together as a team or ministry led by a prime minister (or first minister), with each minister sharing in the responsibility for all policy decisions made by any member of the ministry . By convention, this is collective responsibility applies to the ministry, but it can apply to the governing party . It is responsibility of the governing party to control more than half the seats in the House of Commons, and because of the check and balances mechanisms that exist, the government is require to announce its actions to its opposition. Therefore, the House of Commons becomes a place of discussion and debate, while ensure the rights of the minority. It is the collective deliberation that makes Responsible government unique to Separation of Powers. This is true with a minority government because the party which forms government will depend on the support of other parties to maintain confidence, requiring more deliberation on policies in the process . In a majority government, the support of the other parties is not necessary, however, it will at times reverse its actions if they either go against public opinion or if the parliamentary caucus will not support it . Obviously the one concern for a majority government is
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