Does the US Have a Good Government?

Drawing primarily from the pol203 course material, critically evaluate the extent to which the United States is a democracy. In particular, you should assess the extent to which the US does and does not satisfy one of Robert Dahl’s five ideal democratic criteria. Your paper will be evaluated by the following criteria:

1. Your thesis statement identifies the overall position of your audit. In particular, your thesis statement should identify three things: 1) which criterion you examine in your audit and 2) your main arguments for how the US satisfies this criterion and 3) your main arguments regarding how the US fails to satisfy this criterion. The order of the ideas presented in your thesis identifies the structure of your democracy audit. Your thesis should be nuanced: RECALL THAT NO DEMOCRACY HAS EVER BEEN CONSIDERED A COMPLETE 100% democratic.
2. You will need to operationalize the ideal standard that you choose. In other words, you need to “translate” ONE of Dahl’s ideal criteria into a democratic standard that can be measured and applied to the United States. Do not simply quote Dahl’s ideal standard! You need to interpret the standard so that it provides tools for assessing the level of “democracy” that the US has. In particular, you can (don’t have to) draw on your discussion of democracy in your outline to justify and explain why the standard is democratic.

3. As a theory assignment, you will need to use textual support to support your definitions of key concepts. Textual support means you cite the work directly using quotes and provide author and page numbers in parentheses, e.g. (Dahl, p. 17). Because of the subject matter of this audit, you need to discuss the meaning of democracy. Are you using a minimalist one via Schumpeter or a fuller conception? Liberal or illiberal democracy? In other words, you need to address how the one criterion measures a democratic dimension of US government. Thus, all papers should include a definition of democracy. Nevertheless, the focus of this paper will be on ONE of Dahl’s 5 ideal standards.

   1st criterion: what counts as “Effective participation”? 

   2nd criterion: what do you mean by voting equality? 

   3rd criterion: what is “Enlightened”?

   4th criterion: What is “Control of the agenda?” 

   5th criterion: What is” Inclusion”?

4. You must draw on the course material to support your arguments regarding the satisfaction of these criteria. In particular, you need to cite at least 2 different course readings for the satisfaction and 2 different sources for its failure to satisfy the criteria.
5. You can use at least 4 sources in total from the course readings or outside readings as “evidence” that the US has and has not satisfied the criterion. However, you must cite them and provide their bibliographic information. I do not care which bibliographic format you choose; however, you must use the same format consistently throughout the bibliography.
6. You are required to use Grammarly (or another grammar program)to proofread your paper to minimize the number of grammar and spelling mistakes. This should become second nature to all your writing assignments.