The interest groups and Social Movements

This reading is mainly about organizations and their contributions to make changes and how their approaches are; they use to forms their organizations.

 “Olson argues that you can separate” diffuse interests” the will of majority, from “concentrated interests, “minority interests. Take for example how trade policy is made in the country: a certain sector of the economy, whether it is industry, agriculture, or services, might lobby the government for tariffs on certain products from foreign countries. This would result in high prices being placed on these items”.

America get their oil from other countries, the  government official does not feel the  burden because they don’t have to deal with the high gas prices so , increasing the prices on the items or gas doesn’t affect them as it will affect the people. We can look at the “free-rider scenarios, He also mentioned the “ free riders problem” refer to a situation where some individuals in a populations either consume more than their fair share of a common resource, or pay less than their fair share of the cost of a common resource”.  We can said that people on public assistant are free-riders cause the majorities do not contribute, they do   nothing all day and expect the Government to provide for them. 

Brown v. Board of Education

Linda brown  8 years old little black girl have to walk crossed  Topeka, Kansas to go to grade school daily, while white kids  only walk few blocks to get to school. The school system was segregated between blacks and white. The declaration of independence stated that “All men are created equal” but this doesn’t applied to the slaves.

There are other similar  cases before Linda brown, All five cases are different from each other the law suit was mainly to fight equal right for all human kinds. Cases such as McLaurin v. Oklahoma board of Regents of higher Education case, he was admitted to the University however, he had to sit away from the whites kid, even in classroom, Murray v. Maryland case another ,blacks were rejected  to attend the Law school, mainly because of their race. The list goes on.

 The cases were combined and called brown v. board of education the main “issue of these cases was the constitutionality of state-sponsored in public schools” is concerning the issue with the segregation in public Schools. The brown vs Board of education of Topeka, this case was basically about outlawed blacks from attending public schools For example New York city public School System is primary example of this type of  segregation still in full affect in our today societies. In New York City school system is set by Zone, meaning your child can not attend school in the white neighborhood if you don’t reside there as a resident of that Zone.

The Minority neighborhood doesn’t have the best education system, the schools are not well maintained, and the resources provided to the Minorities communities are limited to the student. We can said American equal right applied to all but in reality the law was created to benefit the creators not us the minorities.  Segregation maybe something that was obvious during slavery, however  I do believe that segregation is fully active in our generation, despite all the freedoms that one may think they have, there are so many lop hole that are prevent us the minorities to succeed in the America.

Yes, Granted we have black president but that doesn’t changes how minorities are being treated from all expect in America.

President Barack Obama  January 2009 Inaugural Speech

I decided to go with our current president Barack Obama, because if feel like, from the time of his elections. The American people are more comfortable and have strong faith in him that he will fullfill his promises and lead our country/ government back to what it supposes to be.

"Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious, and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America—they will be met.’

President Barack Obama speech give the American people hope and serious reminder why is so important for Americans to change the failed politics and policies of the past, so American people can have their  government back . Seeing what took place in the real estate and the market falling, american were lost and need a leader that can bring their country back.

Two Faces of Power

We have seen countries around the world going to wars because of power. Power decides who controls what and who. What happens if the controlled do not want to be controlled?  If power is properly distributed and there is no abuse of power then a society cannot have that arise from mismanagement of power.

In the article “Two Faces of Power” Peter Bachrachand and Morton S. Baratz the multiple faces of power. The authors discuss that sociologists, scholars, and political scientists share different views of power distribution. While most sociologists believe that power is very centralized, scholars and other people argue that power is widely spread. In this paper Bachrachand and Baratz are arguing that power has two faces. In a simple example, the two authors point out that sometimes people just look that is ruling and making decisions but they do not look at the source of the power.

We can cite the revolutions that having taking place in the Arab world as a great example of this scenario. Their leaders became so powerful such that they thought they were irreplaceable and they were ruling with absolute authority. However, once people got tired the started uprising in order to change their society. In this case we see also that ordinary people are the source of power and they can change power holders to their favor. Bachrachand and Baratz finish the argument by saying that people need to study power without taking sides and they propose that a new model for studying power be developed. In this model researchers and scholars have to be neutral.    

What is America?” in the book What I Saw in America, by British writer G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

When we are to travel or go on a long journey to a new place where we have never been before, we normally create our own imaginations about what we think that place will be like. We create these imaginations based on what we have heard, read, or watched on television. Usually when we get to the place the feeling is always different. We sometimes find better things than what we expected, sometimes when we put higher expectations we end up being disappointed if we find less appealing environments or setting.

 In the book what I saw in America, G. K. Chesterton gives his narrative on what he imagined about America and what his experience was before, during, and after his American visit. In this paragraph we only focus in the chapter “What is America”. In this chapter Chesterton discusses what he thinks about America and the American people. "As he writes, I have found the American people the politest people in the world (4). Chesterton goes on to discuss that American constitution is founded on creed and that Americans are patriotic and they love their country".

 Despite all these, Chesterton is quick to point out that America is a country of tolerance as it accepts people from all over the world. America teaches its new people to love America just as their own home. From this reading I was deeply touched by the following quote; It is the experience of men that always returns to the equality of men…  is when men have seen and suffered much and come at the end of more elaborate experiments, that they see men as men under an equal light of death and daily laughter  (18). I feel like Chesterton is saying that people will mistreat, oppress, and dehumanize other people until they undergo the same mistreatment, and this is when they come to their senses that all people are supposed to be treated equally and with dignity.

Despite Negativity, Americans Mixed on Ideal Role of Government

In the article “Despite Negativity, Americans Mixed on Ideal Role of Government”,

 Frank Newport discusses American government and what Americans think about their government. In this article Newport tries to answer two simple questions; what is the role of the government, and how big should our government be? What makes Newport’s article compelling and interesting is that he avoids putting his personal opinions in it and he tries to stay as objective as possible. He draws his supporting points for his assertions and discussions from social research findings on what majority of Americans think and feel.

Looking at this article we can see that people's perceptions about the government are based on where they stand on the political spectrum. For example, in this article the author writes that conservatives favor less government on the other hand liberals favor a more robust government.  

“There are clear philosophical and ideological differences in views of the government that create the dynamic tension that exists in any democratic system, with conservatives generally favoring less government and liberals favoring more government”. He writes.

Now is it wrong that Americans have different views as to how the government should operate? The answer is no. In a democracy people are allowed to express their views as to how their government should be run. If people feel like their present government is not working as they had hoped when they voted it into power, the people are given another chance to elect a different government that stand for their views. In the long run, majority of Americans want a government that that protects its citizens.

In my opinion I believe that Government has to step in and help its citizens out. What is the role of a government if it cannot help its citizens? For instance let us look at the economic crisis that we experienced between 2006 and 2009. Many people lost their jobs and homes. Now should we say the government should not have helped any of those that lost their property during that period? As a progressive society people that lost everything deserve to be assisted. We cannot allow having a government that is not active.