Petri_Democracy02E_CH01_Printer PDF.qxd 7/23/09 10:43 PM Page 1 Property of Kendall Hunt Publishing Ch. 1 from Petri/Azarcon's Democracy and Action ISBN: 978-0-7575-6509-0 | 2009 www.kendallhunt.com/petri_azarcon PART Foundations I DEMOCRACY DIRECT REPRESENTATIVE PARLIAMENTARY PRESIDENTIAL SEMI-PRESIDENTIAL CONSTITUTION FEDERALISM Petri_Democracy02E_CH01_Printer PDF.qxd 7/23/09 10:43 PM Page 2 Property of Kendall Hunt Publishing Ch. 1 from Petri/Azarcon's Democracy and Action ISBN: 978-0-7575-6509-0 | 2009 www.kendallhunt.com/petri_azarcon CHAPTER 1 The Citizen and Government CHAPTER OUTLINE • Democracy and Government: The Right to Vote and Electronic Voting • Why Do We Need Government? • Different Types of Government • Profiles in Politics: Socrates • The Democratic Ideal • Profiles in Politics: Alice Stone Blackwell • For Your Consideration: Increasing Access the Motor Voter Law • Types of Democratic Governments • For Your Consideration: A Pause in Democracy’s March • How Do We Compare? Comparative Politics and Thinkers Petri_Democracy02E_CH01_Printer PDF.qxd 7/23/09 10:43 PM Page 3 Property of Kendall Hunt Publishing Ch. 1 from Petri/Azarcon's Democracy and Action ISBN: 978-0-7575-6509-0 | 2009 Democracy andwww.kendallhunt.com/petri_azarcon Action The Right to Vote and Electronic Voting The right to vote is taken for granted by many pass, regardless of their level of education. How- people in the United States nowadays. However, the ever, if a white man failed, that man could still vote right to vote, or under the grandfather clause, which provided that A Closer Look universal suffrage, all men whose ancestors had voted prior to 1867 www.michaelpetri.info is one of the would be able to vote as well. In addition to these video: Overview minimum require- laws and intimidation by the Ku Klux Klan, many ments needed by black voters were disenfranchised for approxi- citizens in order to control their government in a mately the next 100 years. This disenfranchisement democracy. Many groups had to fight long and hard was not remedied until the Civil Rights Act, the Vot- to receive the right to vote and with each advance- ing Rights Act, and the Twenty-Fourth Amendment, ment of technology, there is worry that we are per- all passed between 1964 and 1965. haps increasingly disenfranchising voters. Officially, women were not allowed to vote (with Our founding fathers at first did not offer the right very little and short lived exceptions) until the early to vote to all citizens of their new union; only twentieth century. When the Constitution was white male landowners were given that privilege. being drafted, Abigail Adams wrote several letters However, the founders did relinquish to the to her husband, John Adams, who was one of the individual states the right to decide who was framers. In these letters she reminded him of the allowed to vote. During the first half of the nine- role women played during the Revolution. Abigail teenth century, reminded him that “the ladies” should not be for- A Closer Look there was much gotten when it was decided who should have the www.michaelpetri.info political infighting right to vote in the fledgling nation. She also gen- video: The Right to regarding the tly asserted that decisions should not be left in the Vote removal of prop- hands of men alone because by their “sex [they] are erty requirements naturally tyrannical.” As history shows, her plea fell for white males. This was finally realized in the on deaf ears. However, in the nineteenth century, 1850s, prior to the Civil War. women became outspoken visible leaders in many political movements, including the abolition move- Following the Civil War and the technical end of ment, the temperance movement, and of course, slavery, the Fif- the women’s suffrage movement. In 1869, teenth Amend- Wyoming Territory became the first to allow ment was ratified. women the right to vote, shortly followed by Utah, The amendment afforded all males over the age of 21 the right to vote, “regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servi- (Courtesy of the Library of Congress) tude.” This was the first time the Constitution set a determining measure on suffrage, instead of deferring to the states. This upset many southern states, and, in retaliation, implemented laws which have become known as Jim Crow laws in an attempt to prevent black men from exercising their right to vote. These laws included intimidation tactics such as a poll tax required of all voters. Newly freed slaves were New York City, 1909 unable to pay such a tax and were therefore denied Two young girls stand out in a crowd of the right to vote. Another popular tactic was a voter protesters. Their banners read “ABOLISH CHILD literacy test, which was a test administered by local SLAVERY!!” in both Yiddish and English. officials. These officials rarely allowed blacks to (Courtesy of the Library of Congress) Petri_Democracy02E_CH01_Printer PDF.qxd 7/23/09 10:43 PM Page 4 Property of Kendall Hunt Publishing Ch. 1 from Petri/Azarcon's Democracy and Action ISBN: 978-0-7575-6509-0 | 2009 4 PART I - FOUNDATIONSwww.kendallhunt.com/petri_azarcon Colorado, and Idaho. The women’s suffrage move- much controversy, because, as seen in many ment fought hard for more than 150 years and computer-based machines, there is always the pos- finally gained the full-fledged right to vote across sibility of “bugs” affecting the data. In a democracy, the nation with the passage of the Nineteenth where one of the most treasured rights is exercising Amendment in 1920. Lastly, the Twenty-Sixth the right to vote, the integrity of the electronic bal- Amendment was ratified in 1971. This lowered the lot poses a myriad of questions about the accuracy voting age from 21 years to 18, the age at which of the vote count. Without a paper trail to confirm one reaches adulthood. the count, there is no guarantee that a true count has been tabulated. How many votes may have With all the strife that Americans have endured to been lost due to malfunction? Has each vote been guarantee any person of adult age the right to vote, correctly logged into the proper category accord- one would think that this right is a fairly secure one. ing to the voter’s intention? Can these machines be Unfortunately, with the advancement of technology, easily manipulated? new voting machines have once again brought the fear of disenfranchisement to the forefront of The main question becomes, how can we make voting. sure that each vote is secure, private, and counted correctly? Some states have addressed this prob- Since the 2000 lem by including some form of paper audit trail election, most that works in conjunction with the machines. states have These paper trails are not traceable back to the implemented individual voter, thus protecting the privacy of use of at least the ballot. Additionally, they provide a secure some direct compartment where the voter can actually ver- recording elec- ify their vote on the paper log in addition to dig- tronic voting itally confirming their choice. This remedy is, at systems. These the present time, the most logical and accurate appropriately one; however, in a world of rapidly changing named sys- technology, there may yet be a better way for tems directly the citizens of a democracy to exercise their right record each (Courtesy of the Library of Congress) to vote.1 vote as it is cast into their servers, most leaving no paper trail behind for verification. This has caused Petri_Democracy02E_CH01_Printer PDF.qxd 7/23/09 10:43 PM Page 5 Property of Kendall Hunt Publishing Ch. 1 from Petri/Azarcon's Democracy and Action ISBN: 978-0-7575-6509-0 | 2009 CHAPTERwww.kendallhunt.com/petri_azarcon 1 - THE CITIZEN AND GOVERNMENT 5 Why Do We Need Government? We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessing of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America. ~ Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America As seen through various examples throughout the book, all governments perform the same tasks. For example, some of these tasks are to provide national defense, both foreign and domestic, and to develop social welfare policies. In order to pay for these programs, governments must collect taxes. The United States govern- ment is no different than other government with regards to these tasks. What sets the United States apart from other countries in the late 1700s was its belief that government should serve the people and it should derive its power from the consent of the people. The preamble serves as a contract that was drawn up between the American people and the government, meaning the “We the people,” consent to be governed as long as government fulfills its part of the contract. To fully understand this, one must examine the components of the Preamble in greater detail. To Establish Justice and Insure Domestic Tranquility Some of the government’s responsibilities are to maintain order and security. Because of this, the Constitution may be seen as a social contract, in which people allow themselves to be ruled in exchange for protection of their property and lives. No civil society can allow the vigilante justice that arises as a result of the “state of nature,” as described by philosopher Thomas Hobbes. For Hobbes the current state of civil society was intolerable. After many bloody years of English civil wars, he wanted a clearly identifiable political figurehead.