Mahoney’s Advanced Comp Blog

I really enjoyed the part of the article in which the ease of deliberation was discussed.  It was pointed out that meetings and deliberations would go much faster and would be much simpler if the people at the meeting were all of the same race, socioeconomic status, and background, who all shared the same ideas.  This isn’t the case although, and people should not strive to make it so.  Diversity is needed to better serve the need of all citizens.  A representative population would be ideal.  If 30% of the community is hispanic then idealy 30% if the people at the meeting should be hispanic.  In this was people would be comfortable sharing their ideas knowing that they are not alone.

…And I’m blogging about democratic participation.

I enjoyed the article as it delved into the aspects of democratic functioning and small time running of the backbone to society–the working class guy/girl.

Participation is vital to keeping the flow of society running for Americans, and voting is just one of the factors. Sociological issues that need to be settled with attending to needs might be changing townhall times or placing a holiday to promote participation.

I’m curious why that’s not been set in yet. For a community to grow, I guess it does depend on the psychological factor (like New England).

I agree with Young that exclusion comes in 2 different forms of External/Internal. Views seem to be under the shadows of the overwhelming majority with Internal, and the word cannot be spread appropriately in External.

I like the part with Consensus and will from God to show that even your lone opinion should still create an impasse since nobody can look into your eyes at a situation. Seems familiar to my life.

I actually enjoyed and understood this entire article, probably because it was a simple Q & A session. However, the questions asked of these experts were relatable for out class. For instance, in college we are taught that we should give a damn about what is going on around us, for us, and to us. This article exemplifies these views. This article discusses how and why the whole nation should get together in smaller groups to make decisions. Since we all have our own lives to deal with, it is obvious that many Americans don’t pay attention to politics. Or, they may think that their one view does not matter. However, in the Kennedy election, one vote made him president. Therefore, each and every view on a subject does matter. That is what Young and Mansbridge are trying to prove.

In order to get more people involved in local and national governments, people are going to need to see the actual outcome of the involvement they put forth. I think it is a good idea to make a holiday for the nation in which they decide smaller matters for local governments by people from that small town. If it is them who are affected, they should want to be involved. This is the exact problem, getting people to come to the meetings. They brought up how night meetings interfere with mothers and fathers who work during the day, and so on. That is why the holiday would work. Higher up authorities should deal with budgets and more serious problems; they should not be bothered by minute decisions that make more sense for smaller groups to decide. With the nation as it is now, hopefully people will start getting more involved in what will happen to them, their kids, and so on. If not, slowly and surely, we will lose even the little bit of power we still have.

I can honestly say out of the readings we have done in this section of class, Fung was my favorite reading.

The idea of deliberative functions are very interesting and I think they make a very valid point throughout the article. I especially liked the ideas that if we want more people to become politically active and take the time to care, we should shorten the work week or create national holidays for political affairs. As the article states, we have holidays for all other kinds of historical events, why not political events as well? They bring up interesting incentives.

It is true that in today’s society, many citizens choose not to be deliberately active because they do not have the time. After being a parent, working full-time, and taking care of other interests that may come first, what times is left to be active in different groups?

Overall, I was able to relate, understand, and agree with this article in many ways. They brought up a lot of points to think about.