American Involvement In Government Research Paper

The Average American’s Involvement in Government
Arnold Schwarzenegger recently said, “When the people become involved in their government, government becomes more accountable, and our society is stronger, more compassionate, and better prepared for the challenges of the future.” (Schwarzenegger) This statement is something that is arguable as to how important and how accurate it is. Honestly, the average American citizen has a debatable amount of power in influencing of the Unites States of American government. It is a complex subject that typically has four theoretical traditions. (Gilens)
The first theoretical tradition is Majority Electoral Democracy. (Gilens) Majority Electoral Democracy states that the government’s policy direction truly does belong to the will of the general population of the American people. This is accomplished by the people voting for politicians from a field of candidates. The candidate that wins should be the candidate that has the majority vote by
(Gilens) Majoritarian Pluralism is based on a large portion of the population banding together and forming interest groups to have their voices heard by the federal government. (Gilens) One such interest group is the National Rifle Association, also known as the NRA. The NRA is extremely active in the federal government’s policy making process in all things related to the second amendment. In this way the average American citizen can join a larger organization and have their voice heard by becoming active in these groups. Biased Pluralism is based on business based interest groups. (Gilens)In this scenario the businesses offer large campaign incentives to encourage policy makers to pass policies that will be beneficial to the corporation. The desires of Biased Pluralism is typically not intended for the betterment of the American people. It is solely to benefit the companies conducting the lobbying and their