Question

Can democracy sustained when so people are involved in the political system? Voter turnout in a local election can run less than 10 percent yet are the ones that affect people more closely on a daily basis. Why do more people not vote in America? Explain

Answer 1

In the United States, we have the institutional structure in place to use our existing democracy to create a sustainable society and economy. However, we must respect the natural hierarchy of sustainability. Society is a part of nature and the economy is a part of society. Thus, the laws of nature must be respected by society and the laws of society must be respected by the economy. Nature's laws can be violated by society and society's laws can be violated by the economy, but not without suffering the eventual consequences. A sustainable economy must function for the overall good of society and society for the good of nature.

To sustain our democracy, our legal statutes must be rooted in the laws of nature, including the laws of human nature, and the economy must function within the bounds defined by those statues. In our democracy, our interpretations of the laws of nature and natural law are expressed as rights and responsibilities in the U.S. Constitution. They are the self-evident truths referred to in our Declaration of Independence, including the rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

The preamble to the Constitution gives government the responsibility to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.The Bill of Rights and later amendments identify the additional rights and responsibilities of all citizens.

To sustain our democracy, we must not only reaffirm our basic constitutional rights but also assert our rights to live in a sustainable society. Fortunately, our Constitution was meant be amended, as we become more enlightened in the words of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine wrote, The best constitution that could now be devises may be far short of that excellence which a few years may afford. Yet, only 17 amendments have been added since the original Bill of Rights, and no new amendments have been approved since 1971.

To sustain our democracy, all people must be afforded sufficient food, housing, health care, education and a sufficiently clean and healthful environment to meet their physical and mental needs. To ensure equality of opportunity, both within and across generations, both nature and society must be protected from economic exploitation and degradation.

Unfortunately, corporate influence in our political processes today would preclude any serious efforts of the American people to proclaim their right to a sustainable democracy. Therefore, the first new constitutional amendment for sustainability must be: Corporations, not being natural persons, have no right to participate in any way in the process of amending the Constitution. The privileges of corporations are distinct from the rights of natural persons.

A sustainable democracy would not be socialism or communism, although it would require an active role for government in establishing and enforcing the bounds within which the economy must function. Within such bounds, capitalism can function sustainably. Without such bounds, democracy is not sustainable.

In the United States, we have the institutional structure in place to use our existing democracy to create a sustainable society and economy. However, we must respect the natural hierarchy of sustainability. Society is a part of nature and the economy is a part of society. Thus, the laws of nature must be respected by society and the laws of society must be respected by the economy. Nature's laws can be violated by society and society's laws can be violated by the economy, but not without suffering the eventual consequences. A sustainable economy must function for the overall good of society and society for the good of nature.

To sustain our democracy, our legal statutes must be rooted in the laws of nature, including the laws of human nature, and the economy must function within the bounds defined by those statues. In our democracy, our interpretations of the laws of nature and natural law are expressed as rights and responsibilities in the U.S. Constitution. They are the self-evident truths referred to in our Declaration of Independence, including the rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

The preamble to the Constitution gives government the responsibility to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.The Bill of Rights and later amendments identify the additional rights and responsibilities of all citizens.

To sustain our democracy, we must not only reaffirm our basic constitutional rights but also assert our rights to live in a sustainable society. Fortunately, our Constitution was meant be amended, as we become more enlightened in the words of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine wrote, The best constitution that could now be devises may be far short of that excellence which a few years may afford. Yet, only 17 amendments have been added since the original Bill of Rights, and no new amendments have been approved since 1971.

To sustain our democracy, all people must be afforded sufficient food, housing, health care, education and a sufficiently clean and healthful environment to meet their physical and mental needs. To ensure equality of opportunity, both within and across generations, both nature and society must be protected from economic exploitation and degradation.

Unfortunately, corporate influence in our political processes today would preclude any serious efforts of the American people to proclaim their right to a sustainable democracy. Therefore, the first new constitutional amendment for sustainability must be: Corporations, not being natural persons, have no right to participate in any way in the process of amending the Constitution. The privileges of corporations are distinct from the rights of natural persons.

A sustainable democracy would not be socialism or communism, although it would require an active role for government in establishing and enforcing the bounds within which the economy must function. Within such bounds, capitalism can function sustainably. Without such bounds, democracy is not sustainable.

The reasons why do people not vote in america are

1) Registration takes work  In many countries, being registered to vote is automatic. If you are a citizen, you are signed up to vote. Not so in the United States. It is up to each person there to sign up, notes Barry Burden. He’s a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. To register, someone must go to an official site, such as a library or a government office, then fill out paperwork. A 2012 Pew Research Center study reported that 51 million citizens — nearly one-in-four eligible to vote — had not registered.

Easier registration could mean more voting. Burden and his colleagues showed that during the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections, a “one-stop shop” where people could register and vote at the same time increased voter turnout. By contrast, making it easier for people to vote by letting them vote before Election Day (known as early voting), actually lowered the voting rate. The researchers published their findings in 2013 in the American Journal of Political Science.

2) Education  Data show that the single biggest predictor of whether someone will vote is whether they hold a college degree, Burden notes. College graduates make more money, on average. They are more likely to look for information about politics. And they are more likely to have friends who vote. People without a college degree, he says, are less likely to seek out political information. They also are less likely to have friends who care about politics or talk about voting.

3) Two parties may not be enough The United States has two main political parties: Republicans and Democrats. Other political parties exist, such as the Green party and the Libertarians. Few people, however, vote for candidates of those “other” parties. This is because U.S. elections only reward what is known as “first past the post.” The one who gets the most votes wins.

In many other countries, such as the United Kingdom, people don’t vote for individuals. They vote for parties to sit in a Parliament. The party that dominates the Parliament gets to pick the Prime Minister. But even a non-dominant party can get one or more members in Parliament — if that party gets enough votes. “A party that got 25 percent of the vote could get 25 percent of the seats,” Burden says. “That’s very encouraging.”

In contrast, it wouldn’t matter if the presidential candidate for the Green party or the Libertarian party got 25 percent of the U.S. vote. If 25 percent wasn’t the highest percentage of votes, their candidate wouldn’t become president. No one else from their party would automatically get a seat in Congress either. Americans vote for candidates for particular, individual seats.

4) Apathy and burnout   Who your friends are can affect whether you vote. “We use voting as a tool to transmit to others who we are,” explains Eyal Winter. An economist, he works at the University of Leicester in England and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. Voting — and then telling others that you did, or publicly stating that you plan to — is a way to show loyalty to your social group and its values, he says.

But some people just don’t care about politics, which can lead to voter apathy. And if a social group doesn’t regard politics as very important, its members may not bother to vote, Winter notes. In fact, he says, one might argue that in terms of any one citizen, “it makes no sense to vote.” Only very rarely has a single vote changed the outcome of an election. And where that happened, it usually was only in very small, local elections.