Democratic Form Of Government Research Articles

Is greater citizen participation in planning possible and desirable?

A review of present research suggests that significant alterations in democratic forms of government are possible in coming decades due to new communications technologies. Increasing citizen participation in planning is considered desirable due to the growth of planning in a democratic society, the need to restore a psychological balance between available information and decision making opportunities the need for common forums in a society fractionated by multiple communication channels, and the potential for improving the responsiveness of government to the public at large. The advocates of citizen feedback hold a position distinct from the views of establishment social scientists, technocratic planners and radical community activities.

The Persistence of the Gerrymander in North Carolina Congressional Redistricting

One of the most important special geographic units below the state level is that established for conducting elections. The determination of one type of electoral unit, the congressional district, is a matter of considerable conse­ quence to our federal system of government as manifested in the United States House of Representatives—’’the grand depository of the democratic principle.” Yet in our supposedly democratic form of government, congres­ sional districts have traditionally been subject to enormous population disparities and gerrymandering. Political power is rarely surrendered volun­ tarily. A political “rule of the game” has been that the party or interest in power apportioned and redistricted so as to stay in power. North Carolina has been no exception. Among its 21 congressional district plans over the past 180 years, including three realignments since 1960, the gerrymander had helped perpetuate the rural domination of the state’s congressional delegation, and mor§ recently, it has been used to try to stem the rising tide of Republicanism and return Democratic incumbents to office. North Carolina therefore provides a meaningful case study as to the persistence of a tactic that has too long prevailed with the nation’s political system.

The Rise and Fall of the Elites: An Application of Theoretical Sociology.

Combining a thorough introduction to the work of nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Italian social theorist Vilfredo Pareto with a highly readable English translation of Pareto's last monograph "Generalizations," originally published in 1920, this work illustrates how and why democratic forms of government undergo decay and are eventually reinvigorated. More than any other social scientist of his generation, Pareto offers a well-developed, articulate, and compelling theory of change based on a Newtonian vision of science and an engineering model of social equilibrium. This dynamic involves a shifting balance among the countervailing forces of centralization and decentralization of power, economic expansion and contraction, and liberalism versus traditionalism in public sentiment. By 1920, Pareto had developed a scheme for predicting shifts in magnitude of these forces and subsequent change in the character of society. This book will be of interest to students, teachers, or general readers interested in political science, sociology and late-nineteenth/ early-twentieth century social theory.

Woodrow Wilson's Use of the Non-Recognition Policy in Costa Rica

Of all Woodrow Wilson's foreign policies, none is more deserving of criticism than his non-recognition policy. This policy, initiated by the President within a week after his accession to office on March 4, 1913, in response to the news of violent revolutionary disturbances in Mexico and Nicaragua, was primarily predicated on Wilson's assumption that the best way to prevent the recurrence of revolutions in Caribbean nations would be to warn all would-be revolutionists that they could expect no political or financial support from the United States. Ultimately he hoped that he could end the threat of revolution and induce all Latin American nations to abide by constitutional and democratic forms of government.

The Party System and Democracy in Africa

ANY people believe there is some special connection be tween the democratic form of government and the party system, so that one cannot exist without the other. This belief is strengthened by the fact that the freedom to form as many parties as people want is seen to be incompatible with a to talitarian r?gime. An ideal Communist government is run by a single party composed of the working class; a Fascist government is similarly run by one party in the interests of the capitalist class. This type of thinking is based on a misconception of the true nature of democracy. It confuses cause and effect. There were parties before the advent of democracy. The first political parties in Britain, for example, are believed to have come into being in the reign of Charles II. This was long before the Reform Act of 1832, which was the bare beginning of change in the direction of democracy. At present there are political parties in countries which do not even admit the correctness of the thinking behind democracy. Has not the U.N.'s 17-nation committee on colonialism ruled that there is no self-government? let alone full democracy?in South ern Rhodesia because of the denial of equal voting rights to Afri cans? And yet Southern Rhodesia has political parties which fight and win elections and form governments. South Africa also has parties which have been governing the country for over 50 years against the will of the majority of the people. No one can suggest South Africa enjoys anything like democracy. The same conclusion is reached if we look at the circumstances M

An Analysis of the First Interim Report of the New House Subcommittee on Family-Size Farms

T HE family farm has occupied a high position in our scale of values. Not only has it been a value in and of itself but it is also claimed to be a vehicle for the realization of other typically American values. Some maintain, for instance, that the family farm has been the dominant source of our political liberties and our democratic form of government, of our spiritual values and attitudes, of our individualistic values (and the accompanying desire to run our own businesses and be our own bosses), of our motivation to work hard and be successful, of our spirit of community participation, and of our free enterprise In fact it is sometimes argued that the continuation of our free enterprise system is dependent upon the perpetuation of the family farm. The family farm as an economic, political, and social goal has a long history, going as far back as the early days of land settlement in this country. In early New England, for example, land was apportioned according to how much a settler and his family could farm. In the Old South a settler was granted a minimum of fifty acres (which was enough for the average family in those days) under the Headright system. The importance of the family farm as the goal of national policy is pointed out by a cursory examination of federal land policies. Congress in the 1800's recognized squatters' rights, sold land to family settlers quite inexpensively, and ultimately gave it to homesteaders. More recently Congress has seen fit to base irrigation and reclamation projects on a familysize basis; establish extensive (but not necessarily adequate) credit facilities, the FSA and the FHA, the Extension Service and the agricultural experiment stations; and make sizeable grants for education and research -all for the purpose of aiding the family (and in some cases other) farmers.1

Scandinavian Co-Operation in International Affairs

UT HE five States commonly called the Northern countries of Europe -Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden-are often looked upon, from outside, as a collective entity. Within the international community the Northern peoples undoubtedly feel akin, and give the impression of being more or less a distinct family group. They may thus themselves be to blame if the result has sometimes been an oversimplified picture, standing in the way of a realistic appraisal of existing conditions in this region and of the numerous and important national distinctions actually found. Geographical proximity, common history, and cultural ties, including the similarity of tongues, have bound the Northern countries and their peoples together by firm bonds. The same democratic form of government and the great similarity in economic and social structure, where, to quote the Danish poet Grundtvig: 'Few have too much, fewer too little', have all tended to shape a common way of life as well as a largely common outlook on life. It should be kept in mind, however, that the Northern countries do not form a political or economic union of any sort. Nor do they constitute a bloc in the modern sense of this word. They remain five independent States, which on a regional basis try to solve common problems by mutual co-operation. It is true that in earlier times attempts have been made to unite the Northern countries, and political unions of varying duration were also established between two or more of the five. These unions were, however, mainly a result of dynastic power politics with little or no popular backing. During the first part of the last century the ideas of the so-called Scandinavian Movement met with response among university students and in literary circles at that time influenced by German romantic philosophy. The political reality behind this movement for greater Scandinavian unity was fear of Russian aggression against Sweden and of Prussian aggression against Denmark. The romantic Scandinavian ideology created by enthusiastic intellectuals had, however, no foundation in the world of realities and the movement collapsed when Denmark was left alone to withstand the Prussian attack in i864. These experiences and other lessons of history have developed among Northern peoples a rather sceptical attitude towards all unrealistic plans for Scandinavian unity. The same scepticism colours their reaction to the more ambitious plans for European Union. Rather than plunge into 285

Some Processes of Strengthening Civil Rights

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, for my subject today I will discuss: Some Process of Strengthening Civil Rights. Members of the Hungry Club know that the processes of having people creatively and constructively discuss vital issues will help America strengthen democracy in principle and in fact. On the surface this may seem to be an easy undertaking inasmuch as we have a deeply rooted democratic heritage. However, alert participants in a democratic form of government know how necessary it is to give constant watch-care to its preservation and growth. They know how vital and difficult it is to keep alive the right of protest which is one of the mainsprings of democracy. Progress in this respect depends on development and growth of a political liberalism that will operate within the confines of the Constitution of the United States, thus giving deeper functional meaning to the Bill of Rights, the fifth and fourteenth amendments in the protection of civil liberties. This approach is even more necessary when one recognizes how relatively easy it is to hood-wink the masses of people by hysterical propagandistic techniques and appeals. Assailed by extremists on the right and on the left too many persons often despair of receiving the benefits of a creatively functioning democracy. Victimized by such appeal they tend to give up their freedom without much

Does the health officer have status?

Health is the leading interest of the reading public for those over 40 years of age. Newspaper and magazine editors recognize this interest and capitalize on it. It is one of the most important issues before Congress. Wherever a group of people gather there is seldom agreement as to the best method for improving health. There are those who advocate placing the responsibility for providing good health for all in the hands of the federal government. Others have recognized serious dangers in such an approach—danger not only to America's democratic form of government but in the strong possibility that such a system would not result in health improvement, the very thing it is intended to accomplish. The only sound plan for reducing the load of sickness is one which prevents illness. Compulsory health insurance cannot be expected to accomplish this. The magnitude of the administrative machinery incident to such a

Towards a Democratic Theory

The principal, indeed the desperate, task of democracy is to maintain itself; its second, to improve and refine itself. It is well to conceive our problem in practical terms, as it tends to sharpen and limit the inquiry; and, in a sense, part of the answer, at least, lies in the terms in which the question is posed. The problem is not an exercise in theory, but is urgently practical. So is the answer. But as all political science teaches, though it may come in institutional and psychological devices, in the background, promising and perhaps mocking, there is also the metaphysical element. And the last is inescapable. For this question needs solution: What Marxism is to Soviet Communism, and what Racialism is to the Nazi State, is X to Democracy. What is X?For we cannot assume that uncultivated men and women, unshaped by their institutions that already exist, or without a doctrine, can operate the democratic form of government. If that were so, nobody would have thought of education. If the instinctive response of mankind to its social problems were democracy, or ineluctably something else, the political scientist could happily surrender his Ph.D. and close his college doors.

Affected and Effeminate Words

ACHORUS of many voices has for some years been inveighing against youth for its 'fear of excellence' and its inability-or its unwillingness-to use any words except the most familiar. Essayists, teachers, and at least one novelist have joined in denouncing this timidity in the use of language. James Truslow Adams's famous essay, 'The Mucker Pose, contains perhaps the most searching analysis of the reasons why the gentleman in America fears the appearance of being cultured. This distrust of culture, which reveals itself most strikingly in the deliberately slovenly speech of many Americans, Mr. Adams attributes to several causes. (1) The domination in the development of American civilization of the lower and middle classes, who are often insensible to all fine discriminations, who are uncertain of or indifferent to culture, and who slavishly follow public opinion. (2) The influence of the frontier, which stressed the more tangible and primitive virtues, equated culture and effeminacy, and treated both with derision. (3) The fact that America, starting with no old traditions, no rigid institutions, no fixed social castes, put a premium on rugged individualism and so made impossible the existence of any cultural upper class who cherished intellectual values and discriminating tastes and judgments. (4) The democratic form of government, under which the citizen showed that he was as good as anybody else-or better-by denying the value of any qualities he himself did not possess or did not admire. Unfortunately, democratic leveling has been downward. The triumph of democracy has also resulted in the emergence of a tremendous mass power-a power which cares nothing for subtle discriminations, for exquisite sensibilities, or refined tastes.2 Mr. Adams's reproaches become even more significant when one finds them expressed independently by other commentators upon American culture.3 These onslaughts upon the

Constitutional Democracy in Ante-Bellum Virginia

Prior to Constitution of 1851 conflicting theories of state government occupied attention of Virginians. But reforms and compromises of this democratic constitution brought democracy, and domestic tranquility to people of state. Relieved of fighting at home they could look abroad. They could turn their energy now to great questions-slavery, states' rights, secession-which heightened interest in national and sectional politics. Students of American history who contend that little democracy was introduced in Virginia until after Civil War had overthrown aristocrats are only partly correct. The east held measure of control, nevertheless west forced issue of democracy steadily forward to constitutional victory of 1851. The constitutional conventions of 1776, 1788, and 1829-30 did not result in democracy. They were anti-Jeffersonian-they did not express will of people. It was not until antebellum days that Virginia had a democratic form of government. This brief era of reform in the was ushered in by constitutional convention of 1850-51. It was business of this reform convention to substitute democratic principles for principles on which government of Virginia had previously been organized.' By fifties provisions of Bill of Rights and principles of Jefferson had been superseded by matters of current interest and philosophy of Calhoun. The debates of convention of 1850-51 show aristocratic or conservative leaders more in agreement with principles of government according to Calhoun's beliefs than with Jefferson's ideas of reform.2 Now the of community3 was interpreted as a political constituted of of property and persons-a majority of interests rather than a numerical majority-and they took their stand for rights of minority in governmental matters. But changes were brought about in this period between Compromise of 1850 and Civil War which brought Commonwealth more directly under control of people. Now democracy-public opinion and popular controlbecame a reality for first time.

The Education of the Negro in the United States

Education is as essential to us intellectually and morally as light and air are to us physically. We cannot develop to our fullest capacities as individuals, equipped to get all that is good and worth while out of life except through education. Dependent as we are upon our schools to prepare us for maturity as individuals, we are even more dependent upon them if we are to maintain and develop our democratic form of government. If it be admitted that education is fundamental to a democratic form of government, then it dobes not have to be argued that our form of government will be broad and fine and secure just in proportion as the education of the people composing it is universal and thorough and comprehensive. So necessary is education to the maintenance of our institutions that we must not let any crisis, however great, interfere with its maintenance and progress. The United States has set the pace for the world in the matter of public education and now more than ever do we need to encourage every talent and sharpen every wit. The progress through education of our Negro population furnishes to my mind the greatest proof that can be cited of the value of education to a na-

The Turkish American Controversy Over Nationality

The motive force back of immigration into the United States has shown interesting variations. Appealing first to victims of religious tyranny as a haven, the United States of America assumed a new importance in the middle of the nineteenth century as a refuge for victims of political tyranny, and somewhat later for individuals seeking relief from economic poverty. Its democratic form of government offered an undreamed of freedom to millions of politically oppressed people, and its marvelous stores of natural wealth held forth fabulous opportunities for an immigrant to improve his material well-being. The cumulative and collective effects of these inducements resulted in an increasing annual influx of immigrants seeking surcease from oppression of one kind or another which culminated in the most extensive movement of people from one continent to another ever recorded by history.

Homemaking—a family responsibility

The home and the family have become subjects of intense concern to thinking people everywhere. Sociologists, in their study of the art of living together, declare that upon a strong and stable family life depends the strength and stability of the nation; that in the single family unit are found the fundamental elements for the nurture of the best form of democratic government. Americanization finds one of its main tasks the adaptation to a new environment ot Old-World folk ways, customs, and traditions in relation to life in the home. Biologists, together with the students of eugenics, are bending their efforts toward the purification and refinement of hygienic and social sex relationships in order to strengthen and improve the family. Legislators are concerned with the passage of laws which will improve the stability of the home through the protection of individual members of the family and the improvement of housing conditions. Psychologists are developing an adaptive psychology-a study of those elements in human behavior which will, when understood and applied, tend to remove certain difficulties which interfere with mental and social adjustments in family life. Social workers are increasingly bending their efforts to the technique of the rehabilitation of disabled and broken homes and to the strengthening of those elements which maintain family life. The medical profession is applying research and remedial science to the eradication of social diseases which threaten the family and weaken its fiber. Sanitarians are attempting, through the elimination of causes for disease in the home or the community, to extend the lifetime of the race and promote its happiness and usefulness. The church which is alive to the social situation strives to improve spiritual foundations for the family as a means toward its stabilization. The position of the church is well summarized by Abbe Jean Viollet, of Paris, in the following words:

STATE RESPONSIBILITY AND AIMS IN COUNTY HEALTH WORK

It is plain that most of the relations and responsibilities of states to counties are very different from the relations and responsibilities of the national government to states. In comparing national and state reciprocal responsibilities, therefore, we shall probably not find any facts or considerations to aid us. As counties are decreed, defined and empowered by states, we perforce recognize that state responsibilities are fundamental, and aims must be on high levels, not only in the matter of health, but in all ways. Under our democratic form of government, the state should have a wise general health law, clearly prescribing duties and powers that counties should have for doing successful public health work. But the utmost possible freedom should be accorded to enable the inhabitants of counties to work out their own salvation according to their abilities. It would be necessary, for a state health law to secure live, progressive

The Monroe Doctrine and the Foreign Policy of the United States in the Western Hemisphere

The scope of this article does not admit of a detailed analysis of the varied phases of the Monroe Doctrine as originally enunciated and subsequently developed into a permanent feature of our foreign policy. It is only necessary to remind students of the subject that the predominant motive actuating President Monroe and contemporary statesmen in promulgating this doctrine was one of selfishness-if anxiety for self-preservation may be called selfish. The dangers which the United States sought to avert by this means were two-fold: First, the acquisition of territory in the western hemisphere by European powers and the consequent peril to the supremacy of the United States in the western world; and second, the overthrow of newly established republics in South America and the resulting loss of prestige to democratic forms of government, of which this country was the champion and which were on trial before the world at large. Naturally enough, altruistic motives were even at that time suggested as explanatory of this nation's newly expounded policy, but a careful study of the literature of the question convinces that any such motive was subordinate to the conviction that the cause of our own democracy would suffer from any further encroachment of Europe on this hemisphere. The thesis which the writer has chosen to defend may be stated at the outset and is simply this: The Monroe Doctrine should be maintained by the United States substantially in the form in which it was conceived by its originators. In one particular, only, should this be qualified. In view of the unquestioned supremacy now attained by this country and the impossibility of any successful aggression by any foreign power, the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine can best be expressed in negative rather than positive terms. Instead of the assertion that no European power shall be per-