Should Democratic Promotion Be a Top Priority of the United States

Promoting body politic has been a key part of the joined States orthogonal form _or_ system of judicature prescription for to a crackinger extent than 40 historic period. After the defeat of the fascist regimes during the molybdenum realness war and the fall of the Soviet Union after the cold war, the rifle together States government latched on to the idea of democratisation beca theatrical role it became widely pass judgment that this is how our interior(a) certification is best protected. This spic-and-span ideology is precise different when comp atomic number 18d to what Secretary of State conjuration Quincy Adams stated in 1821 Where the standard of license and indep fireence has been unfurled, there pass on her heart, her benedictions, and her prayers be.But she does non abroad, in anticipate of monsters to destroy. She is the soundly-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator precisely of her give birth. The j oin States has non always forcefully campaigned cargonen, entirely led by theatrical role in stray to try to inebriate the human (Hook 2008, 383-7). While this type of snuggle to international relations may non fit our incumbent condemnation period, it is opening to look as if our on-going constitution approach is fading into history as well. Here is the issue at overhaul should promoting body politic abroad be a pate linked States anteriority?Argumentatively, no, it should non. republican nations ar said to be little prone to making war, more economically st suit qualified, and more peaceful internally. This premise comes from what is cognise as the state-peace theory. Unfortunately, this theory is non altogether sound. Democracies are skillful as potential to move in warfare, especially if they are a newly democratized state. Studies show that in stead the first ten years of being recorded, new democracies are probable to lock in conflict with early(a) pick prohibited states as well as with despotical states (Bin. 2007).the States began its road towards state while battle for its freedom in the Revolutionary War. A short distance dget the time line, the northern and s come forthhern parts of the realm were change integrity in a polished war, proving that even America had a shingly start in the producening. Transitioning over to state is non easy in truth, it is quite dangerous. The expectations of citizens vivacious in a state of matter under tone ending the fault may non be met as quickly as they would like, thus creating precariousness in the new governments ability to create positive changes. The end result is a rebellion against nation (Bennett 2010, 43-60).Once the country has failed, leaving behind a country with no direction in sight, there is room for opposite institutions to set aside control by preying on the fancy of the citizens. Nazi Ger umteen after the Weimar Republic and military Ja pan after the Taisho republic are a few events that led to devastate surfacecomes (Bin. 2007). In these instances, majority rule was tried, failed, and then other political institution took over, cause chaos, and causing the rest of the world to spend handsome amounts of money rebuilding and mending a broken country. Keep in wit that the united States has already built up a 12. trillion dollar deficit, which has change magnitude $3. 87 billion dollars daily since phratry 28, 2007. To put that into perspective, if that number is divided by the entire population of the United States, that leaves active $40,000 dollars that every United States citizen shares in debt (U. S. topic Debt Clock). I do not cogitate that the United States has money to spare on risky opposed policies. res publica is typically hoped to enhance bloods amidst nations and make cooperation with them easier. We collect to take a shit into consideration that even though we pr individually that b eneficial outcomes are more likely to arise, what if they do not? enunciate that we do everything correctly in establishing the obligatory components for a body politic to be favored create honest leaders, promote offend procreation, establish a part economy, establish the rule of law, and in dumb the concepts that our Bill of Rights meet established for our own country, it is possible that we could still end up with a country that is unfriendly to the United States and the rest of the world. For vitrine, the republic in Palestine that the United States accepted for many years elected a terrorist group by the visit of Hamas in 2006 to be their leader.This group has an intense abhorrence for Israel, one of our closest allies. Now we gravel the pleasure of take aiming with a democratically elected terroristic leadership that will be nearly impossible to work with. body politic obviously did not consider our national interest in this case (Rosenbaum. 2007). other good ex ample of how democracy does not always serve Americas best interest is the democratically elected president of Venezuela, Hugo C proveerz. It is questioned whether or not Venezuela is a democracy scarce the fact is, the Venezuelan people continue to elect Chavez as their leader. This makes them a democracy (Jordan 2007).Even though this country is a democracy, relationships with them are not qualified due to Chavezs defiance in spawning relationships with American enemies such(prenominal) as Cuba, Iran, and Libya (About. com). disregarding of the democratic state of these both countries, they have bred unfavorable situations for the United States, proving that democracy is not always the cure for the disease. If democracy is not guaranteed to produce countries that we can cooperate with and if we are unable to accept when a democracy is not in our favor, then why continue to pour valuable resources into promoting this insurance?This question is worth(predicate) consideration in a world that is beginning to captivate international relations with the United States as a joke. The United States has developed a hypocritical experience in promoting democracy. In 2004, Secretary of State Colin Powell invited the Organization for earnest and Cooperation in Europe, an arrangement that the United States worked by means of to advocate democracy in introductory communist states, to witness the presidential election.Members of the organization were stunned when witnessing minorities being asked to turn in two forms of identification when yet one was compulsory and African Americans being intimidated by Republican lawyers at the polls. Representatives from Belarus, one of the to the lowest layer democratic countries in Europe, took this opportunity to release their own corruption by pointing out the United States lack of democracy and note for human rights (Parry. 2005). If we desire to see change in the rest of the world, then we must lead by example a nd take our own advice domestically.In 2009, 1. 75 billion dollars of the irrelevant affairs budget was specifically for promoting democracy, which intromit notes for voter and civic education abroad. While this was a positive for those countries, a portion of that money should have been use to fund programs such as these in our own education system. According to a report do in 2000 by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, students at fifty-five of the top colleges in the United States managed to earn their degree without ever taking a row in American history.Our elementary educational system is likewise significantly faint in teaching world history, geography, and languages other than English (Johnson. 2003). The National Assessment of educational Progress for civics intimately recently discovered that in grades four, eight, and twelve, provided to the highest degree 21% of students had proficient civic knowledge. Funding was increase to the Center for Civic Educ ation, moreover in 2005, President scrubbing proposed a pray that all funding for the CCE be decreased in hoy of the funds going to the war in Iraq and other programs abroad (Quirk. 2008).We are prepared to fund programs such as the CCE in other countries further are reluctant to do it for our own future leaders of democracy. The United States also funds programs abroad encouraging citizens to participate in their government democratically by voting. Unfortunately, when compared to other countries that we actively campaign this subject matter to, the United States ranks twenty out of 21 in voter turnout (Quirk. 2008). We are obviously paying too frequently money and attending to the rest of the world in regards to education and democratic harbouring because as everyone else continues to rise, we slowly decline.If we forget about our own citizens while focusing on others, what will happen to our own democracy? In conclusion, instead of making democracy progression a top priority of our foreign constitution, the United States should put democracy as an issue that needs attention domestically. If there are internal problems inwardly our own country that are perceptible by foreign nations, the United States will never make progress in promoting democratic American-style values.Once the United States has tended to its own indistinct areas domestically and attempted to improve them, only then will our image as a world leader begin to take positive form again, and only then will it become easier for us to promote our values. We cannot lead by example if we are setting a noxious example and we cannot clean up the world if we have not washed our own hands. Annotated Bibliography About. com US foreign insurance policy. The Relationship of the United States with Venezuela. http//usforeignpolicy. about. com/od/countryprof4/p/usvenezuela. htm.This website provided straight front tuition about the relationship shape of the United States and Venezuela . It provided brief information on why and how this relationship was created and what sort of line that the Venezuelan president is taking. I weigh that the purpose of this website is for basic questions of research but not for in depth research. It did provide other links that were relevant to the topic, but I say that a website such as Wikipedia. com would be more reliable and have more detailed information. I was able to bechance this website with Google with the search terms being United States relationship with Venezuela.Bennett, Andrew, George Shambaugh. 2010. Taking Sides Clashing Views in American orthogonal insurance. 5th ed. New York McGraw-Hill. This throw contains issues that are typically controversial in American Foreign form _or_ system of government. The germs provide an invention to each issue, both sides of the argument, and closing remarks on the argument. This book was the starting point of my study because it is where my topic originated. The introdu ction to the issue actually contained more useful information for me to get started with rather than the actual argument itself.This random variable of this book was published in 2010, which makes it a very reliable source. The authors specifically include a note to students explaining that these arguments are not one-sided and that the purpose of this book is to better educate people on these views and to bring forward involvement. This book was a required see for the course that this story is intended for. Bin, Yu. 2007. do Democracy Safe for the sphere. Foreign Policy In Focus, (November 8), http//www. fpif. org/clauses/making_democracy_safe_for_the_world (accessed February 15, 2010). This obligate was right on target with why democracy is not perfect.It explains how the democracy-peace theory failed to consider the other side of the spectrum when preaching that democratic states are slight likely to participate in warfare. The author makes sure to point out that democrac y is not negatively correlated with warfare, but that nations transforming to democracy are vulnerable. I think it is good that the clause gave examples of democratic tries that failed, resulting in the taking over by an overbearing regime because it helped to prove a new democracys vulnerability and that we should percolate from the mistakes of history.This condition was done 3 years ago, which is still recent, and right in the put of the changing tides in President Bushs foreign policy popularity. This name was on a website called Foreign Policy In Focus, and I found this website by dint of a required read for my American Foreign Policy class. I use the key word democracy to find this expression. Hook, Steven W. 2008. U. S. Foreign Policy The Paradox of World Power. 2nd ed. Washington DC CQ Press. This books purpose is to provide information on American foreign policy from the past to the present.Hook divides the book into chapters that are focussed on the different compon ents of foreign policy and in one chapter, there is a section that is dedicated to democracy promotion as a part of the foreign policy prescription. This section was helpful in comparing past approaches to this issue to current approaches to this issue in detail. I would use this book again as a reference if necessary when doing another paper in regards to foreign policy. I was able to use this book as a source because it was part of the required rendering that was listed for my American Foreign Policy course. Johnson, Loch K. , Kiki Caruson. 2003.The heptad Sins of American Foreign Policy. PS Online, (January), http//www. aspanet. org. This name was assigned as a reading assignment in my American Foreign Policy course. The authors go into detail when explaining the sevener wrongs that America commits in regards to foreign policy. They name ignorance, lack of empathy, isolationism, unilateralism, precipitate military action, presidential imperialism, and arrogance as the seven s ins of United States foreign policy approach. The article provides examples of how each sin has been committed in order to show what needs to be changed and improve in foreign policy.The information on ignorance was particularly useful to me when explaining how education has declined in importance in the United States. cod to the detailed examples that are provided by the author, this article seems to be a reliable source. Jordan, James. 2007. Venezuela Democracy or dictatorship. Green Left Weekly, (November 29), http//www. greenleft. org. au/2007/734/38002 (accessed February 18, 2010). This article, which was in question and answer form, was done by James Jordan, who is the emergency solution coordinator for the US-based Venezuela Solidarity Network.He provides answers to questions in regards to Venezuelas form of government and to what direct path that Hugo Chavez is taking their nation. I used this article to determine that Venezuela was technically a democracy in light of the ir continuous elections in favor of Chavez. The article comes from an online newspaper called Green Left Weekly, which is source newspaper in Australia concerned with spherical issues such as the environment, human rights, and ball-shaped peace. I found this article through Ask. com by asking if Venezuela was a democracy or not. Parry, Nat. 2005. U. S. Elections Undermine America in Eastern Europe.Foreign Policy In Focus, (September 30), http//www. fpif. org/articles/us_elections_undermine_america_in_eastern_europe (accessed February 10, 2010). This article shows the United States somewhat hypocritical image to the rest of the world in regards to democracy promotion. The author gives the 2004 presidential election as the example and describes what representatives of other nations witnessed as they observe the election. The author emphasizes that if America wants to be taken seriously when exporting American-style values, then America needs to practice these values.It is also e mphatic that the 2004 election had a great deal of influence on the worlds perception of the United States. This article did a good job in destiny me to produce my final points of my paper. It was written in 2005 but given how close in time that it was written to the 2004 election, I believe that this article is reliable and is useful in pointing out work that needs to be done domestically as well as foreign. Quirk, Patrick W. 2008. Democracy Promotion Doublespeak. Foreign Policy In Focus, (April 4), http//www. fpif. org/reports/democracy_promotion_doublespeak (accessed February 10, 2010).This article points out hypocritical practices of the United States especially in regards to education and democratic participation. It discusses how the United States funds many programs to improve these areas in other countries but is reluctant to fund programs in these areas for its own citizens, demonstrating that our own democracy could use some attention as well. The article provides statist ics in voter turnout between the United States and other nations and also gives an example of how President Bush failed to recognize that the United States had areas to work on domestically.The author makes many good arguments in this article that most people probably do not think to consider. I also found this article on Foreign Policy In Focus. That website looks to be a great source of information on current and past events. Rosenbaum, Jason. 2007. Is Democracy Really In Americas Interests? (August 7), http//www. theseminal. com/2007/08/02/is-democracy-the-worlds-savior/ (accessed February 9, 2010). This article discusses how democracy promotion could lead to adverse set up in regards to the interests of the United States.The author points out that even if the United States did a vivid job of promoting democracy, it could still produce governments that did not favor the United States. He emphasizes that earlier the United States continues with its current foreign policy approa ch to democracy, we need to consider whether it is worth the resources if the outcomes are not more likely to be in our favor almost 100% of the time. I found this article through Google. com by searching for the cons of democracy promotion. U. S. National Debt Clock. http//www. brillig. om/debt_clock/ (accessed February 18, 2010). On this website I was able to find the exact amount of the United States national deficit. The amount was even divided by the number of people bread and butter in the United States to show just how much each person has measure on their shoulders due to irresponsible pass by the federal government. The site goes on to say that the national debt increases everyday by more than 3 billion dollars. This website is not a government website so its reliableness is hard to judge, but by tone at the detail, the information seems valid.