Please read the following article about various initiatives in the upcoming election. How democratic is the initiative process? Are there any problems associated with the process? If so, how would you fix it?
8 Comments
Katey Brown
9/29/2010 06:05:53 am
After reading this article, from what I understand is that some people are agreeing to vote for one thing because someone else told them to. Or paid them to. So technically its still Democratic, but not classically Democratic because everybody should vote for what they themselves strongly feel is right.
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Rico abreu
9/29/2010 01:01:59 pm
The majority of the measures being voted upon in the up coming November elections are money oriented. Politicians have decided on the content of these measures with the influence of special interest groups, such as oil companies, rather than basing it on the needs of the people. Rather than the election being oriented on the will of the people, "ballot measures sometimes amount to interest group warfare". A way to fix the problem is too find a way of minimizing the influence of special interest groups on the politicians. Voters need to become better educated about the people they are voting into office to decide wether or not that person will strive to focus on the needs of the voters over special interest groups.
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Kenny
9/29/2010 01:28:35 pm
I feel that the voting process is still democratic because the people still vote in the end. Some might not think that it is right to influence peoples votes with millions of dollars but doesn't big money come with big business? And if it becomes a problem the they should put ban on spending or a possible spending cap on advertisement.
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Raul Alcantar
9/29/2010 01:31:11 pm
The initiative process is a democratic process, for it does not necessarily take away people's right to vote. Even though the initiatives work hard to promote a proposition, people still have the ultimate decision. It is true that some citizens may be easily influenced by initiatives; however, it is important to remember that it is the citizens' responsibility to make INFORMED DECISIONS. Citizens should and must know what they are voting on. They can't just vote on a proposition simply because someone on TV told them to. It is crucial that citizens pay more attention to what each proposition is about and how they affect us. That is one of the problems with the initiative process. They have successfully learned how to influence other people's decisions with commercials and ads. One possible solution is encouraging citizens to do their own research on their decisions. After all, the citizens have the power in their hands to affect the lives of everyone with their votes. To be responsible citizen, one must consider all of the effects that a law has on the state or the country.
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Cindy Mejia
9/29/2010 04:22:42 pm
I thing that the Democratic process can be really influence in people because everyone has the right to vote but when voting we can get influence by advertising really quickly changing our minds frequently. There are problems with this because there is a lot of advertising in our world. For example if you sit down to watch television during commercials you would see a pop-up of some advertising something or someone which makes your mind to thing about it. Also that even in phone you get text messages and on radios you hear it, and on news paper sometimes is the front page or as you read it you see the advertisement. The only way for advertisement influencing peoples mind is to not do it at all, which would then cause the thing being advertise to not be recognize at all.
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Lauren Brown
9/30/2010 02:43:28 am
After reading this article, i think that a more better, modern and alternative way to get more money, rather thean taxing the rich would be to put "sin tax" on simple things. Such as candy, beer and pot, as it is stated it in the article. If we did that they would make money also, maybe even more then just by taxing them, because greater amounts of people would purchase those other things and they would make more of a profit, then just taxing a citizens who are rich.
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Courtney Brown
9/30/2010 02:57:50 am
The process used now is very democratic, and should be changed. People should be free to vote, in which ever way they feel but they need to vote for what they believe would help their state, and how it would affect them. Following others decisions who have lots of money doesn't always have to be the answer. If enough people think and vote for themselves, it would over rule the people with the money. Then we would all get what we want, and everyone could have their say. By having adds to represent how it could be changed could help greatly, telling people it's okay to vote for what you believe in. The political office also comes into play, because the people need to know how their leader would handle the situation and make it better for everyone else.
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Ireri Bernal
9/30/2010 04:51:02 pm
Considering the fact that a democratic government is based solemnly on what the people want , this article proves that at a glance the peoples opinions are not mainly influencing our current ballots. Due to our current national economic standpoint, money seems to be the most heavily weighted influence. Even though people get to vote on what to approve on the ballot, this article shows that what goes on the ballot however is not always influenced by "We The People", but by people who are rich enough to invest in adding something to the ballot. To make the initiative process more democratic , i think that we as a society should inform ourselves on what the incentives of each proposition are. As for ways to incorporate more of our society's overall views versus individual view to go to ballots I honestly have no suggestions. If you really want something you'll accomplish it and if you really feel passionate about changing something there will be a way for you to figure it out on your own. We cannot really do anything , its hard enough to get people to simply want to vote , image how hard it would be to get them to influence the ballots. As an American society we have become floaters simply driven by ideas that are already put out ,it has become the norm to simply opinionate on them versus to actually create them.
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