Does Size And Growth Of These Two Nations Have Any Relation? Capitalism And Democracy?

An essential part of every nation lies in the structure of its government. There are many types of political systems such as dictatorships, monarchies, oligarchies and specifically what this essay is concerned about: democracies. The United States’ presidential system and Great Britain’s parliamentary system have both adopted a democratic type of government. Despite bearing some minor similarities, the differences between the United States presidential system and Great Britain’s parliamentary system are pronounced.

The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast the government and economies of four countries in Asia: China, India, Japan, and Korea. Topics that will be discussed are their governments, economies, resources, and citizens.

As Milton Friedman once said, “Freedom is a rare and delicate plant. Our minds tell us and history confirms that the great threat to freedom is the concentration of power. Government is necessary to preserve our freedom, it is an instrument through which we can exercise our freedom; yet by concentrating power and political hands, it is also a threat to freedom.” Friedman’s “Capitalism and Freedom” takes us into the mind of an economic genius and shows us his beliefs in a free market and the threat it presents to a dictatorship. Friedman, clearly a supporter of the free market, gives examples to show how a free market can aid a society in striving for success, becoming more dominant, and becoming more powerful. Though, at times he does show how a free market has disadvantages and he makes us aware as to how it can aid people in gaining individualism, knowledge, and overall improving a society. A free market is one that the price of a good or service is determined by supply and demand, in theory, rather than by government regulation. Milton’s thoughts and theory is that through a robust free market with political freedom, economic freedom will follow. Showing how economic freedom is a crucial toward the success of political freedom, Friedman’s theory of a free market and the Do Nothing Principle are major themes throughout his book.

Democracy: A political system in which citizens enjoy a number of basic civil and political rights, and in which their most important political leaders are elected in free and fair elections and accountable under a rule of law (26). In the studies we have undertaken, comparing and exploring various countries and systems politically, economically, and psychologically throughout the quarter, this outcry of democracy has prevailed as a main theme. Successful countries such as the United States and Great Britain are based upon such democratic ideals. It is no wonder that countries have striven more recently toward this goal of democratization. Both the Russian and Mexican revolutions prove that democracy is an attainable goal in the next

Free markets have often been idealized in the US, and have become a dominant tool for trade and distribution of goods and services. There have been multiple waves of government regulation and deregulation of the market in US history. Each of these trends have been grappling with the central question of how sufficient markets are at satisfying our goals. In theory, free markets are fair and efficient at distributing goods and services. In reality, however, government must intervene in the marketplace for two overarching reasons. First, because in practice free markets left to themselves are not always fair and efficient. And second, because fairness and efficiency are not our only goals and

Democracy is a form of government that allows for the people to rule over themselves with more than one person having power. Various countries criticize democracy because they believe that people aren’t intelligent enough to make important decisions on their own. To understand their viewpoint and the viewpoints of people who do support democracy, we must examine civilizations who used democracy to gain their success. Democracy allowed for people to have their own voices heard. Having more than one ruler allows a country to not only focus on their governing but to give attention to recreational things for their people too. Democratic governing stops power driven rulers from taking complete power. The most efficient government is democracy because

Democracy as a form of government is usually exposed to different understanding, interpretations and even definitions. For some it is the solution and for others it is a problem. It is a term that is a fundamentally disputed concept—a concept that is at the heart of endless debates that although are not settled by any kind of argument, are nevertheless continued by all sorts of scholarly evidence. Democracy is a disputed concept because nearly everyone values the “ideal”, yet there are different legitimate but also incompatible criteria for judging whether the ideal is actually one to strive towards. In a perfect world, we as comparative thinkers would use concepts that reflect the uniqueness of each country and yet are simple enough to be relevant and measurable in every country. In reality and practice, the difficulty of gathering political information usually prevents scholars from achieving these goals so we tend to settle on concepts that focus on characteristics of democracy like Robert Dahl in his book, On Democracy, and Sheldon Wolin in his articles “Fugitive Democracy” and “Norm and Form”. These scholars lead us to question why

A free market is driven by individual innovation and the concept that hard work and initiative will be rewarded with success. Because of the ingenuity factor, there is plenty of competition in the market place. Therefore, the rivalry between companies provides the best possible product to the customer at the best price. In addition, this gives consumers the ability to let their voices be heard, since

What is a free market? By definition a free market is an economic system in which prices and wages are determined by unrestricted competition between businesses, without government regulation or fear of monopolies. (dictionary.reference.com). A free market is a system that is not completely controlled by its respective government, however there are many sources: big businesses and large corporations, to name two, that dominate within it. In Sitglitz’s “Rent Seeking and the Making of an Unequal Society” he describes how the dominance of big businesses leads to inequality throughout a free market. Also, this is seen in Moss’ “The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food”, because food companies only focus on making a profit from their products.

Democracy is a unique type of government, and the purpose of this essay is to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses that a democratic government provides. I will detail that many components of this type of society are both strengths and weakness as each component has beneficial aspects as well as unavoidable pitfalls.

In his article, “Some Social Requisites for Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy,” Lipset found that there are several factors that have a high correlation with democracy, which can be used to discern between democracies and non-democracies, including: higher income, more vehicles, urbanization, less agriculture, more industrialization, more media, more literacy, and the most important factor differentiating between democratic and nondemocratic entities, education (Lipset 75-80). Although Lipset states that there are two

Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Democracy allows eligible citizens to participate equally—either directly or through elected representatives—in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. It encompasses social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination.

Democracy has in the 20th and 21st century grown in popularity, which has been credited due to the ‘waves of democracy’, which has been caused by a variety of reasons all over the world. However because of the growth of democracy, it has led to debate between academics as to whether or not presidentialism has had a positive or negative effect on new and developing democracies. In this essay it will discuss the effect presidentialism has had on democracy as a system of government. A brief background of democracy will be spoken about, especially what affect the ‘waves of democracy’ has had on new democratic systems. Moreover the affect that institutional design plays in maintaining a stable political system, in terms of representation

Theoretically, democracy is a stable form of government where power is in the hands of the people. In a democracy, people have the liberty to elect officials that best represent their interests, and political institutions exist as a result: Benjamin Constant argues in The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns that “true modern liberty is

Churchill’s claim that “democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried” is deliberately provocative and intended to challenge the reader’s simplistic ideal that democracy is without faults. There are an estimated 114 democracies in the world today (Wong, Oct 3rd lecture). A figure that has increased rapidly in the last century not necessarily because democracy is the best form of government, but primarily for reason that in practice, under stable social, economic and political conditions, it has the least limitations in comparison to other forms of government. Be it the transparency of a democratic government or the prevalence of majority rule, all subdivisions of democracy benefit and hinder its