American Politics

Contents

Introduction. 1

Ways in which demographic and institutional characteristics shape actual and potential political power of groups in U.S. society?. 1

How Madisonian Democracy as enshrined in American Constitution ensure compromise and moderation   3

Introduction

In the U.S. society, the political powers of groups are determined by the demographic and institution characteristics.  The powers is divided into two models, these includes; the pluralism which was created by the Madisonian democracy and the elitism. Pluralism is a system where the decisions of politics are being made resulting to the bargaining and negotiation among the special interested groups. For this case, no one is allowed to hold a majority of powers, since the power is widely distributed. However, elitism  is a system where the society are controlled by a few individuals who are at the top, here, the power is concentrated in the hands of some individuals who share a common interests. This paper examines how demographic and institutional characteristics are shaping the political power of the groups in the U.S, society. It also analyzes how pluralism which is created by the Madisonian democracy enshrined in U.S. constitution ensures compromise as well as, moderation.

Ways in which demographic and institutional characteristics shape actual and potential political power of groups in U.S. society?

Demography is a study which involves human population in regards of the size, age, sex, occupations, races and location while institution is a social group connected by some social relations to perform a social role, institution socializes the groups in any society. The U.S. society majorly used the group size to determine the outcomes of majority support but that alone did not guarantee the influence, hence the various demographic and institutional features were used to shape the societal groups who were involved in politics in U.S. The demographic and institutional characteristics have been of significant in shaping the potential political power of groups in U.S. society in so many ways.

According to Max Weber, politics and society is said to be running on the same tracks since they were both laid down in history of the country. The new ideas which are generated every day by people tend to shape the political power groups in the society of United States by transforming struggle between the societal interests. These politic power groups in U.S. society pursue their interests by establishing tracks which signified the country political institutions. Max Weber argues that a political institution can only shape the character and the pursuit of material interests (Weber, 2009).

Institutional characteristics also shape the actual political power groups in the U.S. society by having some impacts that tends to limit the groups and individual actions, for that reason, institutions are said to be not complete of policy outcomes. The impact of institutions conversely tends to be assessed since it interacts with factors which include; the interests of the society, the culture, the ideology and new policy ideas that shapes the society. The goals and actions of groups, the individuals and classes sometimes becomes problematic, however, those goals are shaped by the setting in which they operate. As a result, the analysts seems to have no choice, however they pay close attention to specific political setting (Prothero, 2006).

The institutional characteristics shape actual and potential political power of groups in U.S. society by an institutional setting in which it takes place. The setting of the institution is majorly the outcome of historical forces which shaped the political power of the groups in the U.S. society. Institutionalism analysis seeks to discover some historical dynamics which shaped and transformed the political powers of the groups in states and society. Institution majorly shaped the groups and individuals who wished to operate within th.............

American Politics

Name

Institution
United States Debt Crisis Monetary and Fiscal Policy in the United States

Introduction

The responsibility of the United States’ government goes beyond the control and regulation of production of industrial materials. The government must use its financial tools to track the flow of economic activities within and outside the country that will affect the prices and the levels of employment (WallStreetLtd, 2012). The monetary and the fiscal policies are the two financial tools that the government uses to achieve the objective of stable prices and acceptable levels of employment. The fiscal policy concerns itself with taxes and level of government spending while the interest of the monetary policy is the supply and demand for money in the economy. This essay looks at the IOUSA documentary and how it addresses the topic of economic tools.

Analysis of the documentary

IOUSA is a documentary by David Walker that reviews the fiscal and monetary policy of the United States and the problems that result from flaws in the policies. The documentary is an end product of a partnership between various heads of the fiscal policy in the U.S. The producers of the documentary stress on the importance of understanding the current situation of the economy to make conclusions about future prospects. The documentary features on the financial debt facing the United States and the contributions of her fiscal and monetary policy towards escalation of the debts. IOUSA also outlines various measures that the government can use to minimize the financial debt.

The U.S. has been increasing the level of her spending especially after the onset of the First World War. Increase in government spending increases the amount of taxes because taxes finance all spending by the government. According to IOUSA, the main reason of the escalation of the financial debt is deficit budgeting by various presidents in the history of the U.S. Deficit budgeting is a situation where the government plans more expenditure than it has (revenue). Increase in government spending is also a factor of the expeditions of a country. For instance, the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War escalated the levels of government spending with a significant level. The documentary proposes a reduction in government spending and increases in taxes as a feasible solution towards reduction of the financial debt (WallStreetLtd, 2012).

However, increase in taxes raises concerns among various players in the financial sector. For example, it has become extremely difficult for the government to make decisions about the taxes to increase in the budget due to mixed concerns about taxes, consumption and savings. The democrats and the republicans differ in their approach towards income tax and budgeting in general (United States Economy, 2012). This is the reason that makes the documentary stress on the importance of personal responsibility in realizing the goals and objectives of fiscal and monetary policy. The documentary stresses on the importance of regulating the deficit budgeting through application of a feasible monetary policy.

The government should focus on increasing the level of output or the GDP as the documentary suggests. The main cause of the deficit is reliance on money from outside sources, which is a factor of increased government spending witho.............