The American political system has seen many changes in the past. There are many interest groups, bureaucrats, and political parties who influence the decision-making process of the government. This assignment aims to discuss four different topics and essays. Following are the four essays along with their discussion.
The New Deal
Great Depression is one of the most significant incidents that has happened in history. In 1929, the US stock market crashed and ended up in heavy financial losses. It was the beginning of the depression period. Government interventions have been fruitful in changing people mind that is still applicable today. During the Great Depression, many businesses were closed, employees lost their jobs, and factories started to shut down. Unemployment situation also worsened. The era of the Great Depression lasted until 1941 (U.S. Embassy, 2020). The Americans who believed in individual achievements more as compared to government support had started to change their mind. Riots had started and hunger was evident in American society. American President Franklin Roosevelt was the person who rescued his nation from that crisis. He launched a welfare program known as “The New Deal” and the legislation was also known as “The Hundred days”. This program was launched to counter the economic, social, and unemployment effects on America. The program involves a series of welfare and federal administrated programs to counter the negative implications of the Great Depression (Patterson, 2015). The program facilitated banks in their capital rebuilding efforts provided employment opportunities to the American citizens, and actively strived to rebuild the economy. Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) signed a Social Security Act in 1935 aimed at distributing finance to the persons of age over 65 and to create a welfare system on a national basis. He also started programs such as federal welfare aid, unemployment insurance, and pension to help widows, needy children and poor people (Constitutional Rights Foundation, n.d.). Some people were opposing his new deal but despite that opposition, still, most of the population was in favour of the New Deal initiative.
Under the “New Deal” program, different welfare projects were launched including Civilian Conservation Corps, Works Progress Administration (WPA), Federal Emergency Relief Administration and Tennessee Valley Authority etc (Lumen Learning, 2020). some of its programs were stopped after World War II, but some are still lasting. Other programs included Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, National Labour Relations Board, Social Security, Securities and Exchange Commission, Soil Conservation Service, and Federal National Mortgage Association. The above-mentioned programs are still in effect today (Hadley, 2020). It implies that the population shift towards government intervention was not temporary and its implications are long-lasting as some of the programs are still evident after the Great Depression today.
Interest Groups and Democracy
Interest groups are a vital part of any political system. They may be beneficial or harmful. This essay aims to analyze the threats and benefits of interest groups to a political system. Interest groups are only beneficial if they lobby for anything beneficial for society. Interest groups include business organizations, political parties, NGOs, and media organizations. Lumen summarizes that the success of political policymaking also depends on these interest groups and their attitude towards the legislations and the moves of the government. If any interest group finds any legislation against itself or its interest, then the group lobbies and uses its influence to make the legislation or any government action ineffective. Mostly, the business organizations along with media are supported by any political party. This makes policy changing easier for business organizations through their political influences. For example, during the oil spill incident by British Petroleum in 2010 alongside the Gulf of Mexico, environmentalists and the Congressional allies worked to force a ban on oil drilling but they were opposed by the oil and gas industry lobbyists. On the other hand, another theorist James Madison elucidates the beneficiaries of the interest groups as the citizens having either minority or majority with similar interest, and common passion, adverse to the citizen’s rights, or aggregate and permanent interests of a specific community. Furthermore, the benefits of increased numbers of interest groups demonstrate that pluralism in case of competition also balances the policy preferences among different interest groups. A state of compromise is developed. If the interest groups lobby for anything beneficial for the whole population’s interest, then having interest groups is advantageous.
On the other hand, there is also an argument against the interest groups. For example, if business tycoons and their interest groups use their influence by using trade unions, Chamber of Commerce, and business associations to lobby for any policy that is in their interest but is against the citizen’s interest, then they impact the political system negatively. Most of the business organizations are portrayed negatively in media for lobbying only for their interests and without considering moral grounds of their interest. The role of political action committee (PAC) is substantial in the US Politics as they could also have the relations with those political parties that have their links with interest groups especially with businesses (Brunell, 2005). PACs fulfil the financial requirements of political candidates. Iron triangle consisting of bureaucrats, Congressional subcommittees, and interest groups, have few individuals responsible to make policies. Lobbyists turn individuals and communities in favour of political parties and candidates. It is evident that interest groups are beneficial in achieving policy objectives that are beneficial for society and they also could be bad if their interests collide with the society’s interests.
Public Opinion and Its Repercussions on Democracy
Public opinion plays a significant role in the government’s decision making. The notion of public opinion refers to the attitude and opinions that the public held. Public opinion is considered important in American politics. Public opinion could either fail or make a government successful. Polling is used as a tool to measure the opinion of the public about the success or failure of any government decision or regarding government itself. For this purpose, sampling out of the large population is done by the pollsters mostly by interviewing the sample population through telephone mostly. However, as most of the public is not well-informed about the political system, therefore, their opinion could also not be trusted but still, it influences the whole political system. Due to that non-trustworthiness, there is a fear in the Constitution based representative system regarding the government based on opinions. Federalists still trust public opinion despite this fact. An example of a public poll suggests that there are fewer chances of errors in public opinion and most of the polling results are reliable (Saylor Academy, 2020).
The positive aspect of public opinion in a democracy is that it could force the government to change policies that are not favourable for the communities. It could also facilitate in pacing any legislative reforms. Negative effects could include public opinion leading to the end of a government and lack of political information during polling that influences the political decision making of the government. The facts mentioned above provide evidence that despite the margin of error, public opinion has its strong influence on the government’s decision making, policymaking, and in changing the governments.
Interest Groups, Election, and Political Parties
The American political system consists of two major political parties including the Democrats and Republicans. Both parties have enjoyed the government seats for more than 150 years. However, both have become candidate-centred instead of using party influence to decide election outcomes as they did in the past. In candidates centred politics, a candidate does not rely on his party to get support, instead, he builds campaigns personally and organizes them. This essay succinctly discusses the scope of different political parties in the American political system.
In the US, Political success of other parties seems to be difficult due to strategic tactics being used by both Republican and Democrats to win elections. The American political system has observed the victory of landlord politicians in some cases. Minority parties and groups also exist but they are always unable to win at the national level because whenever other parties get strong, the Republicans or Democrats actively change some of the significant members and candidates of those parties in their favour by offering them something of their interest (Saylor, n.d.). The two-party dominance has mostly worked for its own good instead of working for the American people. This system will dominate in future as well because Americans still want that two-party phenomenon to serve the country in future. It could be concluded that the two-party system dominates the Americans and new parties do not have much chance in future as well.