Although the United States was founded only more than two hundred years ago, it has been the world's most powerful country for more than half a century. Although there are many reasons for the development and stability of American society over the past two hundred years, the democratic system is indispensable. At the same time, people have also made many criticisms of the American political system. One of the more representative points is the low efficiency of decision-making, because the government's inability to make decisions can no longer adapt to the reality of rapid development in today's society.
The formation of any kind of social system has its deep-seated roots. In addition to the corresponding level of productivity, the emergence of a political system is also inseparable from the historical tradition, social life, cultural background and dominant political philosophy on which it is formed. Studying and examining the American political system based on such methods and principles will help us more fully understand the pros and cons of American politics.
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The United States is a typical capitalist democratic country. The values ??and principles of democracy are mainly reflected in the political system and political practice of the United States as the separation of powers, representative system, and party politics. , interest group politics, press freedom and civil rights, etc. The U.S. government agencies include three systems: legislative, executive, and judicial. Each system plays its own role and at the same time restricts each other. They are the direct policy makers. In addition, the United States is a society with diverse powers, and various social forces such as political parties, interest groups, and the media also participate in policy formulation. Modern American political scientist Robert Dahl believes that the United States is a typical pluralistic democratic country. In a pluralistic democratic society, people live in different interest groups. Democratic decision-making "is not a situation where many people unite to support a specific policy." The process of the government’s solemn march is a steady process of compromise between groups. “The characteristic of American pluralistic democracy is the decentralization of power, or the plurality of power centers. Therefore, the political life of the United States is the process and result of the interaction of multiple power centers.
An important principle of democratic politics is "majority rule." However, since the political process in the United States is reflected by the operation of a group of power centers, and the number of power centers in the United States has a tendency to further increase, so , In American politics, it is indeed not easy to gain consensus on certain major issues and formulate relevant policies quickly and in a timely manner. In this way, the efficiency of decision-making cannot be very high. . For example, the social welfare and social security system in the United States was created during President Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s. The system has made certain achievements, but it has also accumulated many contradictions. When Clinton entered the White House, he vowed to "end the current welfare system in the United States." He regarded health care reform and welfare reform as the two major social reform goals during his term, and successively proposed reform plans for them. However, because the current social security system involves the interests of numerous groups, the health insurance industry is the most resolute in its opposition to the reform plan. Stakeholder groups engaged in fierce debates that turned into partisanship, Congress and the president undermined each other, and by the time Clinton left office, his plan to reform health insurance had failed to materialize. In addition, on issues such as environmental protection legislation and gun control, we can also find a lot of evidence for the inefficiency of the US government's decision-making. The issue of gun control is particularly prominent. Although polls show that 60% of Americans support the enactment of laws to control guns, legislation related to gun control has been slow to pass. The proliferation of guns in the United States has become a serious social problem. "Currently, there are more than 200 million privately owned weapons in the United States, and the number is growing at a rate of 1 million per year. The gun crime rate in the United States has always been the highest in the world. , and the cost of gun crime is staggering, about $674 billion every year." In recent years, many gun murders have occurred in the United States, exacerbating people's concerns about this problem. The proliferation of guns has had many negative impacts on the security and stability of American society and the legitimate rights and interests of citizens.