I'm trying to DD but it isn't working out (Defining Democracy)

Democracy, for me, is such a tough thing to define. I found it especially difficult to define it in fewer than 25 words. To start I looked up a definition of Democracy from the Internet.

“Government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.”

I found this definition to be lacking direction; it’s too literal. I tried making several single sentence definitions that included the purpose of democracy. Here’s a couple.

Democracy is a system of government in which authority is collectively held by the people of a nation in order to protect the rights and equality of those people.

Democracy is a system of government that protects the interests and freedoms of the individual by giving the individual political representation.

I found my definitions of democracy always to contain key words of American Democracy: equality, freedom, liberty, rights, ect. I feel then my personal definition of democracy must be biased because it is being written from an American perspective. I think many other Americans also base their image of democracy on American ideals.

Perhaps this says something about how a successful democracy operates. Earlier we talked about how democracy needs to be developed by a nation not forced on it. How American democracy developed over 160 years in the American colonies. I wonder if a successful democracy can still develop in a globalized world.

Another challenge I found in defining democracy is that the term itself, democracy, is a very complicated concept. I feel it is easy too get either too vague or specific about what constitutes a democracy. For example what level of equality does a democracy require, can it have an extreme disparity between social and political classes, or contain a large host of socialized government institutions, or have a powerful level of national/political/military leadership and still be considered democratic. I find it hard to understand today, when the goal of many Americans is to globalize democracy, how we can label one nation democratic (in the American sense of the term) over another.

Rewritten Sentences

“What I am trying to say in this rather awkward and cursory glance at American history and the pietistic awakenings and reformulations that have shaped it is that the dialectic of pietism is a continuous spirit around the moral core of our cultural ethic.”

“What I am trying to say in this rather awkward and cursory glance at Freestyle Skiing and the ski tech revolution of the last decade that has shaped it, is that the cultural rebranding of skiing is a constant process shaped the perpetual drive of athletes to push the sport further. “
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“In an important respect, however the Dream of Upward Mobility, particularly in the south, was actually too successful; it quickly became apparent to those who employed servants that is was in fact. . . (couldn’t find rest of sentence)”

“In an important respect however, the introduction of can toads, particularly in Australia, was actually too successful; it quickly became apparent to the local population that is was in fact quite difficult to maintain them and then they became dangerous predators in the ecosystem.”
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I thought this mini-project was really illuminating. I often find that my writing seems formulaic (anybody’s probably is to some extent). This seems like a really cool way to explore unique ways to structure sentences. I will definitely to apply this technique to our next writing assignment.

The Middle East, Democracy, and Tocqueville

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/07/opinion/07gerecht.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1

I saw this and was amazed at how relevant it was to our brief discussion on Egypt and bringing democracy to the middle east today. I'll post some analysis later, but right now i'm just proud of finding this and had to claim it.