The State and Democracy Final

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What makes a state?

 

The state is the organization that issues and enforces binding rules for the people within a territory and is only one of many different ways of organising government. Every places on earth belongs to a state and that is territory. Territory consists of air, sea, land, or any type of terrain and geographical area which are permanent. Territory can be as huge as Canada and India, or as small as Netherlands and Switzerland. People is another factor that make a state. They are a group of people whose common consciousness and identity makes them a collective entity. They are also under the government and the country’s political system. A state has to be able to control its territory and people of the population has to follow the law. Lastly, sovereignty is the last thing that represent a state and is highest power that gives the state freedom of action. Sovereignty is a claim to ultimate authority and power. Sovereignty is divided into internal and external. Internal sovereignty means within the territory, every state act as it wishes and is independent of other powers. External sovereignty refers to the fact that the state is recognised by other states.

 

How is a state established?

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The state develop in medieval Europe, about 1100 and sixteenth century. The french revolution changed the way government form. It bound up with European history and Western political theory. There are three general patterns that a state follow: transformation, unification, secession. Transformation is when a state transform from medieval monarchy to a modern style, while unification is when independent political units agreed to join as one. Lastly, secession is when a state is divided or a break up of independent political units. A modern state are closely link to cleavages, differences in society, such as class, religion, language, cultures, ideologies, or orientations. However, to distinguish between state formation and nation building, we need to focus on the creation of the state constitution and uniting people. Rokkan mentioned four stages in the development of a modern state. The first stage is to make unity and make sure people are healthy. The second stage is about education for kids and military conscription for young mens. The third stage is about voting. Lastly, the fourth stage is about strengthen economic solidarity between different parts of the population and public welfare services. However, not all states have to follow these four stages.

 

What is a democracy?

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Democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. When we think of democracy we think of rights, such as basic freedoms of speech, religion, association, and the press. Democracy need to also have competitive elections, which is the requirement that the government be chosen through regular free, and fair elections. There are two main types of democratic system--presidential and parliamentary. For presidential, people elect the leader directly. The president does not have to have experience in government to run or to be elected.

While in parliamentary, prime minister is member of parliament who is chosen by political party to be the leader. People elect members of parliament.

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What is the role of political parties?

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Political parties is an important task in governing. They bring people together to achieve control of the government and develop policies according to their interest. After that, people will go persuade voters to elect their candidate. In other word, the political parties have to nominate candidates for public office and to get as many of them elected as possible. Once elected, these officials try to achieve the goals of their party. The parties have to also energize their member, such as make brochures, run media campaign or call member on the phone. For instance, Pheu Thai Party, Yingluck is the prime minister

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How are citizens involved in government?

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Citizens are involved in government because government, private group, and media affect is the three factors that affect people's opinion toward politics. Government take action and make change to change people's opinion on him. Government can also put stories into the media to get support. This is on purpose to grab people's attention and announce what the government wanted to say. Private groups is another one that affect people's opinion toward politics. This group can be consists of anybody that has enough money or people to be heard. A private group can be a company, intellectual group or protest group that shared same believe. Those protest group can influence citizen's opinion because they can be in the news or make an advertisement for themselve. Lastly, the media is the most powerful and going to shape people’s opinion because it’s the lowest cost to do. Every media source can choose what story are they going to tell and chose perspective that give and affect people’s opinion in different ways. The media will show information about the story over and over again to make people believe.