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Democracy in America Today

Axia College of University of Phoenix

Pos/110

Final Project: Democracy in America

Over time, American Democracy has been transformed from its original foundation’s form. With all its adaptations, it still seems to be a well structured democratic form that supports our nation. The structure of our democracy has both strengths and weaknesses. In this essay, I will provide a review of the state of our democracy in America today. This essay will include my own viewpoint on the weaknesses and strengths of our governmental structure and include a number of subjects that are part of our constitutional rights, civil liberties, civic values, the role of our President and bureaucratic agencies in our government today.

There have been many changes within America’s democracy that have allowed us to arrive at our current state. Some of these changes have actually harmed our democratic process and our citizens. Some have helped us to achieve greater things within our democracy. Some changes have weakened our structure and our ability to take care of ourselves. Some changes have been benign, exerting little overall effect on our democratic processes. We face many obstacles and problems in our society today, but we do not always recognize the threat that these pose to our government and security.

The one thread that all American’s have in common in their position on democracy is that our democracy’s health affects every man, woman and child in our country and affects all those who live here. Everyone has their own perspective on the issue of democracy. One such view is that “Democracy is the means to select any policy maker and government, in which the policy would then represent the citizens’ preferences” (Edwards, Wattenberg, & Lineberry, 2008, p.14). To me, democracy is the pinnacle of justice, peace and freedom for all people. The most basic freedom accorded to every U.S. citizen is the right to free speech. This is not a universal freedom in other countries and is not to be taken lightly. We also enjoy several other unique freedoms. These are the right to vote, the right to adhering to any religion or to believe and follow no religion, and the right to act as long as we do not infringe upon the rights of others. (Edwards, et al. 2008).

I do feel that our government is quite corrupt. It seems that the trend is towards government worsening our society and this is not likely to change soon. The very right to say this is inherent in our democracy. Criticism of the government includes review of the manner in which governmental officials conduct business. Political instability, the misuse of power and moral decay are all factors that increase the wealth and power of those in places of privilege, allowing them to increase their power further by political access and appointment. (Edwards, et al. 2008). This ability leads only to further corruption. The members of our society that have been marginalized economically are not having their needs met in the current political climate. This lower class has emerged in a way that is limiting their basic rights. The decay in the moral fiber of our society has led government to pass laws that control aspects of our behavior which common sense should rule, such as school prayer and smoking in public places. This process infringes on rights since some members of society act irresponsibly.

Everyone has their individual view of how democracy should function. In my own view, positive changes need to be affected in governmental process for equality and opportunity to be accorded to every American citizen.

The beliefs and values that all members of our society share are our American Civic Values. The most basic belief is freedom and justice for all people. Our democratic society uses a number of programs, laws and regulation to strengthen our civic values. Individuals use volunteerism and sound ethical practices to strengthen them. When we teach our children good civic values, we are teaching them to respect one another, to share and to take responsibility for each other in a positive, supportive way. These things engender a strong civil and political culture that better serves us all.

For example, when community members help one another and stand up for what is right, refusing to tolerate bigotry, drug trafficking and other harmful practices, we engender respect for one another and have healthier communities. The penalties for allowing ourselves to stray from our civic values are imposed through the enforcement of laws and regulations. Anti-discrimination laws uphold the basic right of freedom for all. These laws enforce the rights of individuals to pursue their livelihoods and to live where they please, regardless of their race, ethnic or cultural background, gender or their sexual or religious preferences.

Our world has changed in both technological and economic ways that threaten the intentions and accomplishments of our founding fathers. The Constitution is at risk of being overrun in our current political climate. The gap between the rich and poor in American society had been narrowed during the last 50 years of the last century. It has been widened during the past decade and threatens our social stability. Many people like to say that America is a place of equality and opportunity. In my opinion, it is still a place of disparity and inequality. The most basic element of our democratic process that should be its greatest strength has become our greatest weakness. This is a great issue among those in our society who cannot find access to services or opportunity and is swept under the rug by those members of our society who have been able to find a way to succeed inside the system.

A new type of inequality has crept over us in the recent past. It is the way in which government shows bias to one group of citizens over another. These economic disparities strengthen the cause of those who have against those who do not have. They relate specifically to the disparate distribution of resources, education and income potential. Those members of our society who have been marginalized have much less political voice and therefore can expect to continue to receive less in the way of equal treatment and equal access to services and education. Reviewing the Constitution and American Democracy in light of what I have learned in this course, I find that the Bill of Rights is the foundation of all our rights as American citizens. The Bill of Rights protects us from congress passing any law which would abridge our rights to practice our own religion, our freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of assembly, and the right to petition the government. I believe that protection of civil liberties is essential and has to be carefully guarded in our society. The government takes away more rights, often surreptitiously. Freedoms are challenged in ways that have little to do with the intention stated by the government when they enact new laws, such as the Patriot Act, which allows monitoring of private citizens internet use. Spying of U.S. citizens has also become acceptable under current law. Why would that be acceptable? This constitutes unreasonable search and should never have been made law to start with. The level of privacy invasion in today’s U.S. society is somewhat shocking. It is implicit in settings where a large number of people would be at risk, such as in airport travel screenings.

There are a wide variety of ways in which it is up to all of us to strengthen our communities by upholding civic values in our lives. All of the rights that we stifle will continue to affect American citizens in their daily lives. It is up to us as citizens to take responsibility for our rights. We have no right not to know what is being done in our name. This country was founded on first on freedom and it is time to regain civil liberty and equal rights.

The founding fathers framed our United States Constitution so that we would have an established, stable form of government that would function at the will of the people. They designed our government as three branches that were to equally share power in balance with one another. These are the Legislative Branch (Congress), the Executive Branch (Presidential) and the Judicial Branch (The Courts). The stability afforded by the interplay of these three branches is the strength of our government as a whole.

A formal system of checks and balances was established to control each of the three branches. This limits their power so that one branch cannot dominate the government. This system is essential to the proper working of our democracy. The Electoral College was designed to eliminate corruption in our system. It instead serves unethical government officials. The electoral system does protect Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The electoral system is meant to allow a group of officials to make the final decision on the election of the U.S. President. The Electoral College system has an extensive background and is well grounded in our current government. I do not, however, believe that it truly serves the American people to give them representation by vote. It gives government officials the right to elect who they see fit instead of taking the straight one man one vote to elect our President. This is one of the basic precepts of democracy and so, I feel, the electoral process thwarts the intention of democracy. Many people say they do not vote because their vote will not count under the electoral process. Elimination of the electoral system would likely bring an increase in voter turnout and eliminate apathy toward our system.

The U.S. Constitution is grounded in a system of power by the people for the people. We can support and help our President to succeed through being actively involved in our governmental processes. This core value of participation by the people in the interest of the people as a whole has been lost in our country. The majority is meant to rule our government, not the other way around. Minority values are to be represented in our government as well.

The Constitutional powers of our President is accorded allows them the authority to make decisions that affect our immediate national security. The role of “Commander in Chief” is the most important of all of the President’s functions. The President is limited to a reasonable authority through exercising the checks and balances that are in place in our government. The President’s main job is to protect the democratic process in our country. This is the source of our safety and stability.

A number of different bureaucratic agencies have direct effects on my daily life. Some of these are the United States Postal Service (USPS), the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Each one of these agencies is designed to serve different needs of Americans and to protect the public at large.

We work around the schedules of these agencies so that we can get a motor vehicle or commercial vehicle license, purchase private or public land and to protect our business and personal interests. Some of these agencies have regulatory functions, such as the EPA and others provide us with services, such as the USPS. The requirements that they place in our path during our process is one of red tape that involves considerable performance on our part to meet standards of eligibility. Even things that do not require us to deal directly with government agencies, such as receiving many prescription medications from our health provider, require that they meet regulations and legal requirements to get into our hands.

The matter of governing ourselves is one of our greatest privileges and responsibilities. I believe that our founding fathers did an excellent job of framing a structured government that operates on the basis of morals and strong values. Some changes do need to be affected to discontinue political corruption in our country. The marginalization of many members of our society through economic disparity has yielded political access and corruption in the wealthier members. This is not the democracy that American was built upon. Only with true justice, peace and equality are we doing our best as a nation.

References:

G. Edwards III, R. Lineberry, & M. Wattenberg. (2008). Government in America People, Politics, and Policy. Retrieved on November 9, 2009.

Democracy in America Book Review

Democracy in America Review

Democracy in America Book Review

Introduction

Democracy in America is a book that consists of two volumes. The author of the book, Alexis de Tocqueville, completed the first volume in 1835 and the second one in 1840. In 1831, Tocqueville was working as a lawyer in his country (France) when the county’s government sponsored him for a nine-month visit to America to study various aspects related to American democracy. Tocqueville was sent together with Gustave de Beaumont, who was working as a magistrate. The two gathered information through interviews from more than 200 Americans on various topics related to social practices, law and politics (Tocqueville, 2007). Although the primary aim of the book is to examine the purpose and extent of democracy in America, it has extensive information pertaining communication studies. Among other concepts, the book explains the source of American culture and language. The impact of democracy and institutions such as Jury and religion freedom of speech in America is also explicit in the book. The second volume provides an extensive explanation of how democracy influenced Americans to focus on practical science rather than theory. The ultimate impact was deficiency in quality of their products, including drama, literature and poetry works (Tocqueville, 2007). The book is unique in the sense that some of these concepts are hardly explored in communication studies. The extensive exploration of such concepts makes the book qualify for the purpose of study in our communication class. This paper provides a reflective analysis of various concepts that relate to communication studies in the book.

Analysis

In the first volume of the book, Tocqueville begins with exploration of social and cultural aspects of people who lived in different parts of America in early 19th century. Tocqueville notes that the Red Indians who inhabited different parts of North America prior to the entry of people from other regions were socially disorganized and relied more on hunting than agriculture. As people from different parts of the world moved to America, they interacted and started using the same language, which ultimately ended up in building American English (Tocqueville, 2007). The natives also learned the new language and started sharing it with the immigrants. English language was more influential since North America was once a British colony. The Britons, who migrated to America, exerted their influence to the natives and slaves in different aspects of life, including language. They applied criminal and political laws which were borrowed from Britain in North America. However, there was slight modification in laws that were meant to meet the conditions that existed in America (Tocqueville, 2007). Also, people from different social and cultural backgrounds practiced some social and cultural aspects of their forefathers, especially the natives. They also shared different cultural aspects. As a result, American people had a unique culture and language. When reading the first three chapters of the book, I found out that it provided a brief explanation of how the current unique America culture developed. The book enhanced my knowledge about how people from different cultural and racial backgrounds in America ended up having one common culture and language . Exploring how a society built up its culture and language is one of the key concepts explored in communication studies.

In chapter sixteen of the fist part of the second volume, Tocqueville gives an elaboration about how the unique language of Americans was built. According to Tocqueville, the myriad of changes in cultural aspects of American people was highly facilitated by the presence of democracy that was practiced by rulers, rather than aristocracy that was present in countries such as Britain and France (Tocqueville, 2007). Tocqueville notes that the English language that was being spoken by educated people in Britain had significant variations from the English language that was spoken by educated people in America. According to Tocqueville, language usually remains static in a country where autocracy is embraced. Changes hardly occur to the existing words and new words are hardly invented in an autocratic system. This, according to Tocqueville, explains the fact that no significant changes took place in the English language that was being spoken by educated persons in Britain (Tocqueville, 2007). On the other hand, Tocqueville noted that persons in democratic systems like making changes even without good reasons. This is evident in their politics, as well as in their language. Even when they do not have to change words, they try to transform them. In most cases, the new words that are invented by people in a democratic system tend to represent new ideas. They borrow ideas from the daily activities they engage in. According to Tocqueville, this explains the reason many words added by Americans to their English language were acquired from the language of trade, mechanical arts and jargon of parties (Tocqueville, 2007). I found this chapter being quite relevant for communication studies since it provides an explanation of the impact of democracy and aristocracy on language. I had never encountered the concept before or thought about the connection. I learned that democracy and aristocracy have different impacts on language.

In the second chapter of the firsts part of the first volume, to Tocqueville explores the issue of equality and freedom in American society. Tocqueville noted that people of American had a passion for equality and freedom. Tocqueville also explores the same issue in chapter two of the second part of the second volume. Although Tocqueville is concerned with the possible negative impact of too much passion for equality, he notes that equality and freedom coexisted in American society (Tocqueville, 2007). According to Tocqueville, the two were able to coexist because of existence of a local government that supported ways of exercising freedom by citizens. Tocqueville elaborates the issue through explaining key local liberties that were offered to citizens in laws in chapter five of the first part of the first volume. Also, Tocqueville explains that the existence of an independent jury that supported and propagated the local liberties played a major role in enhancing freedom in America. The impact of the jury is explained in length in chapter sixteen of the first part of the first volume. In addition to the existence of jury and laws supporting freedom, Tocqueville noted that religion played a major role in enhancing freedom in America. According to Tocqueville, religion played the role of teaching Americans how to utilize their freedom well. As a result, the government hardly intervenes through interference of freedom. Tocqueville gives a lengthy explanation of the connection between religion and freedom in chapter nine of the first part of the first volume. One of the key impacts of the ultimate freedom noted by Tocqueville is freedom of speech. Tocqueville notes that journalists were hardly restricted in writing content on newspapers. Also, people had freedom of speech which was recognized in laws. Thus, after reading the book, I learned that freedom of speech existed in America for a long time ago. I discerned the source of the current rights of freedom of speech that that are enjoyed by American people (Tocqueville, 2007). I felt that this might have been one of the factors that led to growth of journalism in America. Freedom of speech and how people utilize it is an important concept for communication studies and thus, I found the issue as being important for exploration in our communication class.

In chapter ten of the first part of the second volume, Tocqueville noted that Americans were more concerned with practical science than theory. According to Tocqueville, this is due to the fact that democracy is not conducive to abstract knowledge that is applied in theoretical science, which requires mediation and thought. Although this leads to an increase in material prosperity and innovation, people may end up forgetting principles and hence, dwindle away civilization (Tocqueville, 2007). In the next chapter, Tocqueville notes that this is one of the reasons why Americans focused on quantity and not quality when producing their artistic works. They were less concerned with reality and more concerned with appearance. This could also explain the reason why the Americans did not attach importance to the meanings of monuments, despite being plenty. Rather than taking an intellectual endeavor in literature, Tocqueville notes that people in a democratic society perceive it as a trade and take an industrial spirit. Tocqueville elaborates this issue in chapter fifteen of the second volume in which he explores the differences between American literature and Latin and Greece literature. According to Tocqueville, Latin and Greece literature of aristocratic ages indicated that they did nothing at random or with haste; rather they concentrated on every line that they wrote and tried to achieve perfection. In short, their literary works portrayed exceptional skills (Tocqueville, 2007). On the other hand, the literature works written during democratic ages, such as during the period when Tocqueville visited America, were naturally deficient and did not portray keenness. In addition, Tocqueville noted that the literature works produced during aristocratic ages have remained relevant throughout, unlike most of the literature works of democratic ages, which quickly became irrelevant. According to Tocqueville, the same applies to other aspects of literature such as poetry and drama. For these reasons, Tocqueville argued that the significant disparity between literature works of aristocratic ages and democratic ages implied that literature of democratic ages should not be read (Tocqueville, 2007). When reading chapters nine to eighteen of the first chapter of the second volume, I realized that Tocqueville exposed the negative impacts of democracy on various communication aspects of people, including artistic works, literature, poetry and drama. I did not know about the connection before. I learned that much of the existing literature is borrowed from countries in which aristocracy has existed for a long time and hardly from countries in which there has been democracy. This is an issue that relates to communication studies and would like to explore and understand it further.

Overall, I found Democracy in America as being a useful book for communication studies. Tocqueville gives a background that enables the reader to understand the source of the current unique culture and language of Americans, despite the fact that their forefathers have different cultures and languages. Further, the Tocqueville explains the impact of democracy and institutions such as religion and jury in enhancing freedom in America, which has had a positive impact on freedom of speech among Americans. As well, the book gives an elaborate explanation of the reason why American literature, poetry, drama and other communication aspects created during democratic age might be deficient in comparison to those that were create in aristocratic ages in other countries. The existence of such concepts, which are extensively explored, explains why the book can be recommended for reading in class.

References

Tocqueville, A. (2007). Democracy in America. Ed. Isaac Kramnick. Trans. Henry Reeve.

New York: Norton.

Democracy In The Middle East

Democracy

A lot of confusion and uncertainties have occurred when people have been have been called upon to explain what the term ‘democracy’ was. Some of the reasons behind the existing uncertainties have been linked to the many undeniable flaws and forms that the term has become to be associated with. The term democracy remains meaningful even though its manifestations in various cultures and times may differ in significant respects (Wood 2004, p.3). In helping us understand better the meaning of democracy, this paper goes an extra mile to analyse the various secondary literatures that addressed the meaning of this term. A conclusive interpretation of the term is then provided at the end of the analysis.

The word democracy originated from two Greek words; “demos” referring to “people” and “kratein” referring to “govern” or to “rule”. In reference to its components, Becker and Raveloson (2008) gave the literal definition of democracy as government of the people or government of the majority (p.4). The two scholars note that Abraham Lincoln’s widely adopted definition of democracy traced its source from this literal meaning. According to Lincoln ((1809-1865)) democracy was defined as the government of the people, by the people and for the people. To help us understand Abraham Lincoln’s definition of democracy, Becker and Raveloson (2008) expounded Lincoln’s definition as incorporating 3 broad subjects: a government that comes from the people; a government that is exercised by the people, and for the peoples’ own rights (p.6). Ressler (2009) introduced another dimension to the understanding of the term democracy when he argued that in asking what democracy was, one was relating 2 conditions of the current parliamentary representative democracies and the different approaches to what a more democratic system ought to resemble and the type of organizational forms it could take.

On its part, The US Department of State (2008) basically defined democracy as a government in which the Supreme power was vested in the people. To them, democracy was exercised through large societies electing their representatives. According to this department, the word democracy has been synonymously interchanged with freedom, though this should not be the case. In highlighting the difference between the two confusing words, The US Department of State (2008) noted that democracy was the superior term amongst the two since other than consisting of a set of ideas and principles about freedom; it also consisted of practices and procedures that had been modelled through a long, often tortuous history. Kolar (2005) went ahead to stress that democracy meant that all the people in a state ought to have a say in one way or another in everything that affected their lives. Drawing from Kolar’s thinking, democracy can only be considered as being representative if the elected representatives regularly consult their electorates before making commitments to matters that affect their lives.

From Hilla University’s Lecture for Humanistic Studies (2004), democracy was defined in terms of 4 key elements that included: a political system for choosing and replacing governments through free and fair elections, the active participation of people, as citizens, in politics and civic life, protection of human rights of all citizens and a rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens. Wood (2004) in trying to come up with an all encompassing definition for what democracy was, went on to list the key characteristics upon which a state can be taken to be upholding democratic principles. The listed characteristics of a democratic state are that elections are open to participation to all citizens; each vote is of equal value, voters have real or free choices, citizens have an open access to information and the availability of a rule of law that guarantees freedom to the citizens (Wood 2004, p.2). From Wood’s research, democracy should be considered as manifesting one of the most adored fundamental aspiration in human species; the aspiration for freedom.

To Pilkington (1997), the definition of democracy must incorporate the concepts of government by consent and the popular consent of lending legitimacy to the government rather than the mechanics of how the people as a whole can be involved in a participatory sense (p.5). From his works, it is clear that ‘true’ or ‘direct’ democracy should envisage a legislative and governmental process that involves all society members. In addition, Woolf (2009) looked at democracy as a system by which nations were governed (p.4). In line with his study, the following can be identified as the major components upon which the success or failure of democracy be assessed in a state: legislatures, executives, judiciaries, electoral systems, pressure groups and the media (Woolf 2009, p.22-27). Though ‘pure’ democracy calls for the people to regularly attend meetings to discuss issues that affect them mostly in small groups, Woolf (2009) notes that this is impractical in today’s world because of the millions of peoples who have accustomed themselves with details of every political issue in their countries (p.5).

Democracy in the Middle East

In analyzing the introduction of democracy into the Middle East region, it is vital if we begun by first defining what colonialism stands for. Colonialism, in earlier times, was defined as a historic phenomena supported by the notion that certain territories and people require and beseech denominations, as well as forms of knowledge affiliated with denominations (Page 2003, p.496). However, the current definition of colonialism simply states that, “colonialism is marked by a state’s successful claim to sovereignty over a foreign land” (Mahoney 2010, p.2).

The Muslim World has had a long history of authoritarianism, tribal, religious and cultural sectarianism (Ben-Meir 2006). Until recently, experts had noted that the level of transforming political institutions across Middle East regions had not looked promising. Most countries in the region were faced with obstinate domestic and external obstacles that made adoption of democracy to seem like a distant dream (Brown & Shahin 2009, p.3). Paths to political transitions were away from obvious, and the commitment of key persons or actors to practical realities of democracy that existed at those times would have provided a lot of room for questioning. However, the democratic situation across many Middle East countries has been gradually changing thus providing signs of hope that the region might eventually become fully democratised. Current Middle East states where democracy has been slightly embraced include: Israel (the leading Islamic nation to embrace democracy), Iraq, Turkey, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain amongst others. The reasons behind the introduction of democracy in these states have been varying from many experts and scholars. This paper therefore goes ahead to analyze the different views as adopted across the world over widely adopted claims of whether the colonialists were behind the current introduction of democracy across the Middle East Region.

Though there have been lingering questions on whether democracy was introduced in these states by colonialists, it should be clearly be stated that it wasn’t. The British and French colonialists suppressed national movements within the colonized Middle East states (Alkady 2004, p.38).In fact, throughout the Arab world, the colonial forces suppressed nationalist movements and attempts to hold democratic elections (Valkins 2011). This, according to principles of pure democracy, this suppresses and limits the growth and development of democracy.

Many non-Muslim nations agree that Western neo-colonialists, led by the USA, should be credited for having initiated measures that went in great length in promoting democracy across the regions; though many Muslims have not bought into this notion.

The US Government came to embrace the introduction of democracy across the

Middle East when the Bush Administration officials came to reject the idea that authoritarian Arab regimes constituted the bulwark against Islamic radicalism in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks (CRS Report for Congress 2006, p.5). The CRS Report for Congress (2006) goes ahead to stress that US’s change of heart to embrace the idea of democratizing the Middle East was the main reason behind the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq, a Middle East country whose citizens had never seen the signs of political “freedom”. In embracing democracy across the region, it is highlighted that active combat phases in the Middle East region by the USA were followed with “A Forward Strategy of Freedom in the Middle East” (CRS Report for Congress 2006, p.5). According to the Tschirigi, (2007)the following excerpts taken from the former US Presidents speech of November 5, 2003 emphasized the facilitation role at which colonialists greatly contributed in introducing democracy across the Middle East. The former US president, Mr. Bush, was eluded to have said that, “Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe — because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty. As long as the Middle East remains a place where freedom does not flourish, it will remain a place of stagnation, resentment, and violence ready for export.” (Tschirigi 2007, p.39).

Many scholars have referred to the above statement as having been the turning point in embracing democracy across the Middle East. For instance, David and Gondin (2006, p.129) confirmed to this view when he postulated that although Bush had alluded to the need for developing democracy in Arab States since 2002, his elements in the speech affirmed to his intentions. Amongst the deductions made from the elements in his speech was that Islam and democracy were no longer incompatible and that it was wrong for Western Nations to have previously favoured the flourishing of stability in the Middle East at the expense of freedom (David and Gondin 2006, p.129). On his part, Sterba (2009), in justifying the strong implication the speech had on the adoption of democracy in the Middle East, had gone on to laud the speech as a new policy-a forward strategy of freedom that emphasized or resembled the same persistence, energy and idealism as in Europe, Asia and every region of the world where democracy had been successfully adopted.

However, the USA strategy of invading some Middle East nations in the name of embracing democracy had also received critiques from some sections of the community who held different views. For instance, according to Sterba (2009, p.585), the obvious reason for invading Middle East countries of Iraq and Afghanistan was majorly to benefit from the many energy resources available in the regions. Moreover, Tschirigi (2007, p.39-40) in critiquing the US strategy, had gone on to say that Bush had casted doubt on his own optimism when he insisted that while democratic governments reflected their own cultures, they were required to also exhibit common essential principles of rule of law, healthy civic institutions, political parties, labour unions, independent newspapers, religious liberty and rights of women.

To add on that, Ben-Meir (2006) noted that Western nations could not claim responsibility for having introduced democratic reforms in the Middle East since any initiative to introduce democratic reforms in the region involved the full support of gradual reforms, which many Western powers were not ready to adhere to.

In analyzing the principal sources of political liberalization in the Middle East, Sayari and others (1993) unanimously agreed that the process of change in the Middle East’s authoritarian regimes was more heavily influenced by the defensive strategies of incumbent elites than by a groundswell of support for democracy amongst the people in the Middle East. For example, some of the region’s authoritarian leaders and regimes viewed controlled political liberalization and the creation of institutionalized channels through parliaments, elections and parties as a means of overcoming the mounting crisis of legitimacy that they faced (Sayari et al. 1993, p.4). As such, they embraced democracy when they allowed some few representative processes and institutions to provide outlets upon which Muslim people expressed their popular discontent and grievances. This was done without endangering the regimes dominant political roles.

The challenge that was posed by the Islamic fundamental movements was also reviewed as another principal reason for adoption of political reforms across the Middle East (Hunter 2005, p.193). The emergence of Islamic forces to capitalize on economic and social problems, especially on some grievances of the poor urban people may have also contributed a great deal in introducing democracy in the Middle East. These Islamic forces provided democratic openings when they held governments accountable for their actions. As a result of their increased pressures, authoritarian Middle East regimes decided to incorporate some of the leaders from these Islamic forces into their governments thus providing room for political freedom hence democracy.

Conclusion

In conclusion, though the “full” definition of democracy continues to be elusive in the modern society, it should be emphasized that only institutional pre-requisite can help in narrowing down to an identical meaning of the term. These six major institutional prerequisite for ‘full democracy’ are elected officials, free and/or fair frequent elections, alternative sources of information, associational autonomy, inclusive citizenship. The listed prerequisites are expressed in different times by citizens’ in different countries.

It is also vital to note that not all governments that are today considered democratic uphold all these pre-requisites in their systems. As such, it will only be proper if we categorised today’s governments into two categories namely ‘fully democratic’ or ‘partially democratic’. Moreover, it is also important to note that the following constitute the essential conditions that can favour the growth and development of democracy across states. These conditions include the civilian control of police and military institutions, political cultures that are democratic and the absence of foreign power interventions.

From the research above, it clearly emerged that democracy, though still in its raw stages in the Middle East, was, to a small extend, introduced by what we may refer to neo-colonialism by Western powers, USA constituting the major source. Other factors that facilitated introduction of democracy in these states have been the formation of Islamic forces and pressure movements.

References

Alkadry, M., 2004. Colonialism in a postmodern age: The West, Arabs and “the battle of Baghdad”. [online] (Updated 9 Jan 2004) Available at: HYPERLINK “http://www.spaef.com/file.php?id=199” http://www.spaef.com/file.php?id=199 [Accessed 5 April 2011].

Becker, P. & Raveloson, 2008. What is democracy? [print] Hamburg: University of Harmburg.

Ben-Meir, A., 2006. Challenges on the road to democracy in the Middle East (part 1). [online] Available at: http://www.theglobalist.com/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=53575 [Accessed April 5 2011].

Brown, N.J., & Shahin, E.E., 2009. The struggle over democracy in the Middle East: Regional politics and external policies. [print] New York: Taylor & Francis.

CRS Report for Congress, 2006. US democracy promotion policy in the Middle East: The islamist dilemma. [online] Available at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33486.pdf [Accessed 4 April 2011].

David, C.H., Gondin, D., 2006. Hegemony or empire? The redefinition of US power under George W. Bush. [print] England: Ashgate Publishing.

Hanson, V.D., 2002. Democracy in the Middle East.vol. 8. [Online] Available at: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/001/769bfuqn.asp?page=2 [Accessed 4 April 2011].

Hilla University for Humanistic Studies, 2004. What is democracy? [online] Available at: http://www.stanford.edu/~ldiamond/iraq/WhaIsDemocracy012004.htm [Accessed 04 April 2011].

Hunter, S., 2005. Modernization, democracy and Islam. [print] Washington: ABC-CLIO.

Kolar, M, 2005. What is democracy? [online] Available at: HYPERLINK “http://www.whatisdemocracy.net/” http://www.whatisdemocracy.net/ [Accessed 4 April 2011].

Mahoney, J., 2010. Colonialism and postcolonial development: Spanish America in Comparative Perspective. [print] USA: Cambridge University Press.

Page, M.E., 2003. Colonialism: an international social, cultural, and political encyclopaedia. California: ABC-CLIO.

Pilkington, C., 1997, Representative democracy in Britain today. [Print] Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Ressler, O., 2009. What is democracy? [online] Available at http://www.ressler.at/what_is_democracy_film/ [Accessed 4 April 2011].

Sayari, S., Converse, P.E., & The US National Research Council, 1993. Democratization in the Middle East: trends and prospects: Summary of a workshop, [print] Washington D.C.: National Academies.

Sterba, J. 2009. Ethics: The big questions. 2 ed. [print] USA: Wiley-Blackwell.

The US Department of State, 2008. What is democracy? [online] Available at: http://www.america.gov/st/democracyhr-english/2008/May/20080619223145eaifas0.5311657.html [Accessed 4 April 2011].

Tschirigi, D., 2007. Turning point: the Arab world’s marginalization and international security after 9/11. [Print] USA: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Vaknin, S., The democratic ideal and new colonialism. [online] Available at: HYPERLINK “http://samvak.tripod.com/democracy.html” http://samvak.tripod.com/democracy.html [Accessed 5 April 2011].

Wood, A.T., 2004. Asian democracy in world history. [print] New York: Routledge.

Woolf, A., 2009. Systems of government democracy. [print] UK: Evans Brothers.

Democracy is overrated

Although different institutions define democracy variedly, the fundamentals of this concept relate to government by the people through elected representatives. In other aspects, issues considered entail direct and indirect citizen political involvement, fairness, and prevalence of the rule of law. Idyllically, a democracy should ensure that all citizens have equal opportunities and access to national resources. Nonetheless, this is often not the case. Despite many governments and institutions portraying perfect democracies, this concept stands overrated because numerous ills that contravene social equality occur. These include flawed elections, majoritarianism, unfavorable safeguards and restrictions, and oppression.

One of the most ideal perspectives of democracy is based on the idea of ‘the will of the people’ (Mueller, 2001). As explained by Iversen (2005), this will is commonly found in elective processes across the world. When major democracies conduct elections every four or five years, there is a common belief that the processes are free and fair. Thus, the governments elected are ‘for the people, by the people’ (Mueller, 2001). However, an explanation by Iversen (2005) indicated that this is not the case. In underdeveloped countries, large fractions of the electorate are neither learned nor informed. Despite prevalent poor governance and underdevelopment, most politicians visit such persons in the eve of elections with handouts and gifts to woo their votes. After elections, the politicians fail to address major societal issues and emerge with handouts again after four years. Furthermore, the electorate has been customized to believe that the more flamboyant and colorful one’s campaign is, the better their ability to serve. To an extent, elections remain a contest of the rich. In other cases, candidates draw resources from friends who expect favors related to tenders and business policies if their candidates win. All these demean the original ideals of true democracy.

Another point worth considering is the relationship between minority and majority groups in elections. Many political parties and groups are aware of the fact that all bills and policies in parliaments are passed by majority votes. As a result, McDermott (2010) explained that political systems manipulate elections to ensure that they have majority memberships in legislative bodies. The implication of this is that they cannot lose anytime they intend to pass a law. Considerably, this moves the case from democracy to majoritarianism. This is because such a system could even deprive the minority of basic needs and still find the process democratic. According to Iversen (2005), the most common victim of this provision is the press. Because media institutions report on political ills, there have been many occasions across the world where parliaments have passed laws to bar the press from visiting parliament or performing other functions.

In its design, democracy provides numerous security measures and safeguards. These are entrenched in constitutions and relate to electoral processes, judicial procedures, individual rights and freedoms, and political representation. Miroff, Seidelman, and Swanstrom (1999) pointed out two examples that make such safeguards the breaking point of true democracy. The first rule is that a president must be elected by majority vote. In the event that an election is held and less than seventy percent turnout is achieved, fifty one percent of this attendance does not make up forty percent of the total population. It would imply that a decision made by approximately thirty percent is used to govern the rest. Although it is democratically correct, it is not ideal. Again, safeguards would bar the electorate from giving a hard working successful candidate a third term if the constitution restricts such.

The notion of democracy stands out as one of the most overrated ideas across the world. Globally, one of the ways of assessing the extent of democracy in a country is through elections. However, elections have numerous faults that make them flawed. Furthermore, many elected governments embezzle public funds and oppress minorities. Additionally, various safeguards introduced to ensure democratic success may sometimes turn around and hinder democracy in other ways. In general, the ideals of democracy are appealing. However, most systems that subscribe to democracy never practice these ideals.

References

Iversen, T. (2005). Capitalism, Democracy, and Welfare. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

McDermott, J. F. M. (2010). Restoring Democracy to America: How to Free Markets and Politics from the Corporate Culture of Business and Government. University Park: Pennsylvania State Univ. Press.

Miroff, B., Seidelman, R., & Swanstrom, T. (1999). Debating Democracy: A Reader in American Politics. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Mueller, J. E. (2001). Capitalism, Democracy and Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.

Democracy without Democrats

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Democracy without Democrats

In this article, John Waterbury argues that lack of sustainable democratic involvement among the Arab Middle East countries is fueled by the existence of several factors. The most prevalent cause of the failure of democracy is the continued warfare and conflict that many states in this region have experienced. This as a resulted has created authoritarian political leaders who further suppress the possibility of exercising democratic rights among the citizens. In addition, existence of middle class with no decision on whether to support democracy or not has made the situation worse. This worsened by the fact that most of these middle class citizens depend on public employment thus have to follow what the authoritarian leadership tells them while those in private sectors live in fear of losing their financial position if they go against the government. In addition, the existence of the culture of obedience among the Islamic communities have made the citizens become slow in seeking for democratic change as they have to obey what their law and leaders state.

The reasons for those seeking the need for democracy may also be termed to lack a specific goal. While some groups in the Middle East states have lobbied for the end of authoritarian leadership, most of these groups are motivated by divided interest thus creating lack of unity in pushing for democracy. According to the writer, those who have put an effort towards seeking democracy are the people in the community who may have failed in accomplishing their political agenda and as a result, they feel that democracy is the suitable way of achieving their personal goals. In addition, existence of oppression towards the poor and religious groups in Middle East makes those belonging to such groups feel that democracy may help in ending the oppression. This shows that democrats are not entirely rejecting the current regime but they feel that democracy is an alternative way to ending the existence of conflicts of interests.

democratic self-government , democracy, political science

Political Science

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During the better part of the 19th and 20th centuries, authoritarian regimes predominantly dictated, controlled and influenced the political life in many Asian, Western and African countries. In the modern times however, many countries have displayed examples of democratic system of governance that have not only been successful but has also deterred re-occurrence of dictatorship. However not all the countries have pure democratic ruling because the system that have put in place not only encourage impunity but not effectively let go dictatorship. It has been a great challenge installing democracy in some countries especially those in Africa. The Islamism is a good paradigm that the western style democracy faces a lot of challenges in large parts of the world. There has also been return of the centralized authoritarian ruling in Russia. Although democracy has been progressing very well, the progress may be negated behind by those countries that resist letting go of the authoritarian ruling. Africa for example is a good example of the victims of authoritarian ruling (Magstad, 140). However Zambia served as emulation when they let go of dictatorship and allowed their country to be democratic.

Totalitarian regimes are termed as false utopias because they make promises that are they never fulfill. There is usually complete domination and those in control seem to run everything without the opinion of the followers. Those countries that have totalitarian governments aim at achieving total political, economic and social control of the people. The outright characteristic of this type of ruling is that those in power have the total say over the society and the state in general (Magstadt, 151). These are some of the reasons that make it to be referred as false because it is concerned with the needs of the society but is only concerned with gaining power over those who are in charge. This kind of ruling involved a lot of violence especially the killing of innocent people who were deemed dangerous for no particular reason.

The Russian government was run by a union called the Soviet Union. This union had emerged from the totalitarian regime and therefore it involved domination. The people were tied of having such kind of a ruling therefore decided to fight it. The citizens of Russia were more determined to promote nationalism, a belief in self determination and egalitarianism. They could not anymore take in the fact that there were people like them trying to take control over their country. They believed that it was high time to promote equality in their state and society as well. Russia has faced a lot of rebellion by many of its neighboring countries. This is because most of those countries became victim of the nuclear weapons that the Soviet government had deployed at the time of its reign. There was a lot of tension among those newly independent nations (Magstadt 242).

Economic development and political stability do go hand in hand. If a country is politically unstable, the most possible outcome is that the economy is usually at stake. In most cases it is not possible for a country that is politically unstable to do well with its economic structure. For example the economy of a country is highly affected when that country is experiencing internal wars most of which are politically driven (Magstadt 288). On the other hand if a country is politically stable, the economy is not much affected. If leaders ensure that their countries are politically stable it will not consume time trying to maintain peace but rather use that time to improve the economy of that particular country. It may not be necessary for either factors to depend on each other but each contributes to the success or failure of the other.

The concepts of citizenship and democratic self-government have certain correlations. Citizenship requires that one be patriotic and strives to see his country and fellow citizens develop and prosper. Democratic self government is based on the principle of popular mandate and sovereignty. As such citizenship enforces democratic self-government as the citizens would have their democratically elected leaders to rule their independent and sovereign territory on their behalf, while at the same time maintaining law and order but guaranteeing the same citizens fundamental human rights and freedoms.

I cannot claim to be politically active because basically politics puts me off. This is because most people misuse the positions that they acquire making it look like a bad venture. If people would change their perspective about politics, not viewing it as a base of competition, politics would have some relevance. Those involved in politics always think of what they will gain out of it and not how they will help those involved. For one to be a good leader and citizen they have to stick to the regulations and norms of that state. That is what would increase my level of participation and support towards politics (Magstadt, 352).

In most cases, people who seek political offices and are in search of fame do not do it for the good of the public. It is usually a matter of what will make them famous and what they will gain out of all that. These kinds of leaders will not show that they are there to cause any harm and neither will they show any good that they are willing to do to their followers. Their main aim is for them to gain the leadership and to ensure that they are re-elected the next time there is an election. For a good leader, his or her interest is not whether they are elected but rather to ensure that they fulfill the major needs of the society. Some of the leaders that were driven by the desire for fame include George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison (Magstadt, 401). According to them leadership was a way of pursuing fame but at the same time they were patriots and were ready to serve their country.

Works Cited:

Magstadt, T., Understanding Politics, Cengage Learning Academic Resource Centre, CA: California, 2009.

Democrats & Republicans

Both democrats and republicans fear the hard road head they see ahead. The groove that has cut between the two is growing bigger day by day even inside the houses, yet they are the ones supposed to govern this great nation together for the next term. The American people decided to leave the Republicans to control the lower house but let the democrats stay on top of them so they voted in President Obama. Even though they expressed frustration due to the stand still that almost pulled the nation into defaulting on its loans in the last year, they showed a sort of 50-50 split among the supporters considering the very narrow win against a republican, Mitt Romney. This will be a divide that will in a major way; slow down the progress of any issues maybe for the next 2 years and this might soon be an arousal of a crisis in the American nation. During the campaigns, Obama put his focus more on giving help to the middle class and the high number of believers of “yes we can”. Even with Mitt Romney and his allies spending more than $1 billion trying to throw him out, Obama’s tactics were more of a coalition of identity rather than ideology. Other than winning himself the seat, as a democrat of the nation, he also won himself a seat in history next to those other eight men who were re-elected more than once.

Even with the re-election of democrat and President Barrack Obama, the republicans continued hold of the house with House Speaker John Boehner saying that they will have as much mandate as Obama. They had made it their goal four years ago that they would work towards the loss of power for President Obama. Mitch McConnell, a senate republican leader, in his remarks following the elections said that the voters were not looking at the failures and excesses of the president’s first term. This showed their effort toward throwing him out of the white house. The republicans also went against the health care law that Obama tried to push through. They did not give even one single house or Senate vote for it but instead beat down the efforts towards ending tax cuts targeting the richest households, instituted during the Bush era. They had tried to use the high rates of unemployment in the states to show his incapability for a second term. In an attempt at deficit reduction, republicans have failed to raise taxes targeting the rich citizens.

Democrats however think that Obama has learnt his lesson in his first term that has led him to the realization that at times he will have to get involved in not just the crafting of, but also the negotiation of legislation. In addition, democrats topped up that such tax hikes by the republicans might always accompany such deals. By re-electing Obama back to power, the democrats made sure even with the number of republicans in the house, democrats sat on the throne. It is probable that the larger number that voted him in were democrats.

Obama proceeded to show the urge for unison between the republicans and democrats in the house when in his victory speech he stated that he was looking forward to working with leaders from both sides of the divide in order to meet the challenges that can only be solved through collaboration. This greatly supports my personal view of the situation. The United States of America will either have to change this name or rephrase by the end of this term if they do not set aside their differences and lead this nation together.

Demonstration of Empirically Supported Counseling Procedures

Suicide Counseling Session

For confidentiality purposes, recording of names will use abbreviations where CLR will represent Counselor/ Therapist while B. will represent the client.

CLR:Welcome B. to our first counseling session. My name is T. and I am happy to meet with you for this session. I look forward to working with you until the therapy is completed, and I’m sure we will be good friends as time goes on. I referred to you as B. because that is what the receptionist told me about your name when sending you in; am I free to call you by that name or you would like me to use another name during the sessions?

B:I am Ok with that. Most of my friends call me by that name.

CLR:Good progress, I am one of your friends from now on, aren’t I.

B:Yes you are.

CLR:Are you comfortable in this room before we begin, or should we find another place for our discussions?

B:I’d prefer that we are not heard by your colleagues in the other offices.

CLR:Nobody can hear what we are saying from outside, as you can see, there is no one near the windows and the door is locked. Just as you can’t hear what they are saying, no one can hear what we will discuss. If you are not Ok with that, we can find somewhere else. Let me see what we can do (standing to look for another place).

B:No. In that case we can use the room. It is only that I don’t want people meddling in my life anymore. I am Ok here.

CLR:I understand what you are saying. I assure you it is going to be safe here. Is there any other concern that we can handle before we proceed?

B:No.

CLR:Good. B, it is important that you become aware of a few session regulations. First, we will be following a timetable kind of a schedule that I will hand to you when we meet next. Secondly, we will observe time since we have a maximum of thirty minutes for a day’s session, unless otherwise stated in advance. Thirdly, professional code of conduct regulating counseling dyads restricts our relationship to purely professional purposes. Fourthly, we shall be guided by the principle of confidentiality throughout the therapy and nobody should be aware of what we discuss. I like the fact that you observed that we need to have a private environment where nobody hears what we discuss. Other regulations will be communicated in bits during our coming sessions.

B:Does it mean that I cannot ask for any favor from you outside my case questions.

CLR:Precisely! That’s right. I case there is a favor that you need from me, just ask and we will discuss if it will compromise the professional and client duties that we need to observe for the sake of the therapy’s success. Don’t hide any detail if we can discuss and clarify things out. I like your attitude in this matter and I promise you my assistance in the session. Is everything clear form there, B?

B:Yes. I appreciate your information. I have not been in a counseling relationship before.

CLR:Welcome. B we are now into the main agenda of the therapy process. First, I need to know the details of your challenge in your own words. Please feel free to tell me what has put you in the state that you are in now that you need professional help. Continue please. (Creating eye contact with a pen and paper to write important facts)

B:I have a problem with my family. Every body thinks that I am insensitive and careless in what I do. Many bad things have happened and I have been blamed by every one. Even those who don’t blame me don’t come to my rescue. My performance in school went down and I felt unwanted at home and at school. I thought it was time that I put this to an end once and for all. I wanted to take poison but my brothers found out from a suicide note that I had written and they reported me. That’s why my mother brought me here.

CLR:Wait a minute B. Sorry for that. That was too quick to make a decision, don’t you think so?

B:I think so. But I have my point to every one.

CLR:Can you tell me what bad things happened?

B:At one time, I was left at home alone because I had a cold. Everyone went to school and others to work. I went out of the room and forgot to switch off the heater and it caused a fire that nearly burnt our hose. Our neighbor’s gardener was quick to help me switch off the power and call the fire brigade. We called our parents and my mum was very mad at me like my elder brothers. My late dad calmed them down but they keep on mentioning it to me that I burned our living room and family treasures that were there. It is painful.

CLR:Sorry for that, B. Are there more bad things?

B:That is the main one. But there is another one. I went to walk our best dog, Milo three years ago, alone and I was still small. Unfortunately, I met two stray dogs on the road that usually met on other days without a problem. That day they got at me and our beautiful Milo, they attacked him biting very badly. I could only manage to pick him and rush him back home. It had cost our family so much money and it was very like. I called our parents from work. My dad came and he was angry at me and asked me to get in the car to take Milo to the animals clinic. He bled profusely on road and unfortunately died shortly after being placed on treatment. I cried and my dad consoled me. He understood it and promised to buy me another dog on the way home. We bought another dog that I named Milo but the rest of the family was not happy and painful memories of the dog’s death are blamed on me. Any security breach in the compound is directed at me since Milo was always alert to keep guard.

CLR:Any more bad things.

B:No. Just the events that crop from the blame placed on me.

CLR:Tell me whether this is what you are precisely saying; that you feel that the blame for the two mistakes and possibly others make you feel like everyone is on your neck.

B:Yes. This is not because I am not responsible but because they blow everything out of control. They make me feel like I am always walking on shells.

CLR:Give me your family background.

B:I have three elder brothers and sister younger than me. My dad passed away tow years ago. I felt like I lost a close family partner since only my dad understood me. Everything is unbearable since the demise of my dad. I miss him so much. (Sobbing)

CLR: I understand how you must be feeling. I am sorry for everything that has been disturbing you. (Leaning forward, hands a soft tissue paper to the client for wiping tears)

My closest friend had a similar challenge in his family when his dad died and felt that the rest of the family was incapable of fitting in his shoes. This happens when we are faced with loss and the grieving is shifted to the worries of the environment around us. I am sorry for the loss.

B: Thank you. From the bitter treatment that the family has given me, particularly from my mum and my brothers, I have been affected in my studies. I was an above average student but since then my performance is very wanting. I was almost discontinued last semester on grounds of poor performance but my previous performance assured the school management that I can turn things around and I got a second chance. I am afraid that my family background is not likely to improve. Every time I go back home I resume my troubles and I feel unwanted in this conditions. Nobody is concerned about me at school either. Since my dad’s death, I don’t have a personal mentor at home. (Sobbing.) All I have are enemies in disguise of family members (sobbing).

CLR:Sorry for that. Things will be different now. Could you tell me what was contained in the suicide note? Tell me what you had written, if you don’t mind.

B: Of course I don’t mind. It was a short note. I had stated that my school performance was embarrassing me and that my family was responsible for not giving the support and love that I needed. I also had included the death of my dad as a big loss that I cannot continue with in my life.

CLR:I want to add the other rule at this juncture concerning your suicide thoughts. It is terribly wrong for any one to think and attempt to take someone’s life. Including your own life and it is punishable by the law. B, I want you to understand that everyone is protected by the society that we live in as a custodian of our rights, the basic one being the right to live. In such cases, when a counseling client insists that they want to take their lives, we are under duty to report them to the authorities, thereby breaking the principle of confidentiality. I will continue asking you in the therapy sessions whether you still hold the suicidal resolve in order to clarify if I should report you to the police. What can you say about that?

B:Oh no! I don’t want anyone to be told about this. It has caused me enough trouble at school and home. I hate myself for being too harsh on myself. But I am confused. I am sorry and I beg you not to report me.

CLR:That is very positive to hear from you. I know what might be going on in your mind. You feel that everybody hates you. Do you think that your classmates hate you?

B:I have lost all of my friends because they don’t want to be associated with my failures. They make fun of me for failing in class. It is painful since most of those that make fun of me were not better than me.

CLR:Neither are they better than you now. It is only that you are undergoing three difficult situations. You are affected by deteriorated school performance and it appears you are affected this much because you are a performer like we are going to see. Secondly, the poor family relations are affecting you such that the environment is unsupportive. The third challenge that has been affecting you is the loss of a parent who appears to be your mentor and close friend. This is called attachment where a child feels specially attached to one family member or parent than the rest. We will address each of these at a time to assist you in finding a reason to avoid suicidal thoughts that rise form these challenges.

B:Does it mean that my performance will improve and I will feel love at home?

CLR:With your cooperation, that is very possible. How do you relate with your classmates.

B:I hate them. They laugh at me because they heard I wanted to commit suicide due to poor performance.

CLR:I would also like to put across an important remark that might assist us in finding a different perspective to the challenge ahead of us. Human beings have a very complex feelings perception and responses, particularly when dealing with the environment that they are dealing with. Both bad and good feelings from the environment are processed in our brains in various ways. In a counseling perspective known as rationale emotive therapy, clients’ minds are opened up to point at their defective thinking and they are assisted to think positively. In fact, every human being is capable of retreating into negative thoughts to think that they are hated, they are stupid and they are unlucky or doomed. Through a little intervention targeted at the wrong mindset, therapy achieves success that enables them to view themselves positively once again. Using negative descriptions for example, hate, don’t, foolish among others; it is very possible for us to retreat into our own negative perceptions. This is inflated into more serious problems such as suicidal thoughts. I think part of these challenges is contributed by that. If I may ask, what would be different if your dad will be alive today?

B:Things will be very different. I would be feeling his love. He was different from every one else in the family. When he died, I cried for several days alone in my room. No one felt that much pain. They told me to stop crying because I was making them sad. So I hid from them to cry. I still feel like it was worse for me than all of them. (Sobbing)

CLR:Sorry for that. (Handing soft tissue)

It is important that you feel free to cry out that feeling. Crying is important in overcoming loss and grief. There is a healing process that every body is supposed to follow without prematurely terminating the process in between the stages. Anger, denial and confusion make up some of the feelings that every client should time to come to terms with. There is nothing wrong with crying as long as you come out of it having known how to deal with the fat that some one you loved is gone and will never come. Moving out of anger may take time if one does not accept the facts of the loss. But with the cooperation that you have demonstrated to me, I am sure you will be out of that state. It happened to my closest friend like I had said before and I had to assist him with all my heart. I am ready to help you also since we are already friends. Aren’t we? (Smiling)

B:Yes we are. I will appreciate your assistance.

CLR:I appreciate that you are young and you have a lot of potential to make some of the discussions we will be having fruitful. I almost forgot but as we wind up, tell me about your relationship with a close person outside your family, like a boyfriend or a very close relative that you share your inside world with.

B:Honestly, I don’t have a boyfriend at the moment.

CLR:That means you had one before?

B:Yes. And we broke up.

CLR:When was that?

B:Exactly a year ago.

CLR:How long did the relationship last?

B:For slightly over a year.

CLR:What happened till you broke up, if you don’t mind?

B:He could not understand me in my difficult moments. He thought that I was oversensitive and I thought he was mean to me. Later I learnt that he was seeing another girl. I let him go.

CLR:And you can be honest that it hurts.

B:Exactly. But I don’t want to talk about that since I have had other serious issues than him.

CLR:Would you have him back, or get in another relationship?

B:With him again, no. I don’t think I am ready now for a relationship.

CLR:Ok, B. It is good to take time off. How about a close relative like an aunt, cousin or somebody else?

B:There is no one closer than my dad was. I don’t have any one to talk to.

CLR:I understand your condition because I also had nobody to talk to. But my social problems became lighter when I started to open up to a friend. A girl came into my life and she has been with me all this time. I hope that your relationship life is also affected due to the fact that there is difficulty in expression of inner feelings. We will work on that too, don’t be worried B.

Empirical Explanation of Interventions

Preparations, Techniques and Theory

Every therapist must take charge of a counseling session and making some rules known to the client is perhaps the first move to thump authority in the session, creating some order in the meetings. This is important at the preparatory stages for future sessions just in case clients become rowdy in the sessions. It is also important that the client is made comfortable with the environment in which the sessions will be taking place. Alternative locations should be made available for the client to choose from, if they are not comfortable with one of them. This is the reason why the client is made aware of the safety of the room since it was her main concern. The rules are also illustrated in the beginning of the session, which establishes the session’s standard based on safety to open up and maintenance of order assured too. According to Loesch and Vacc (2000), preparation for a session must demonstrate the professional duty that the counselor has for the client.

It is important that the professional obligation is important in the entire therapy period with particular emphasis on the counseling dyad features and the duties of each of the parties to the dyad. Similar session preparation information is contained in the work of Clawson, Hernderson and Schwieger (2003) to the effect that the counseling sessions must be prepared within the professional obligation perspective. Professional responsibilities of the counselor are more important since the counselor has to follow the expected professional code of conduct. Reminding the client about duties such as confidentiality and counseling dyad relationship regulation makes an important contribution in the establishment of the initial counseling setting (Fagan, 1966). When the client understands the responsibilities of the parties within the guiding professional framework, it is easy for the therapist to identify various interventions needed in the process.

Perhaps the most important preparation stage regarding the therapy itself is based on the requirement to have the client give their own account of the story all over again even if it might be reported at the reception in bits such as names. Understanding the client’s historical and family background should be established in the first session in order to assist in diagnostics and detecting the actual case presenting challenges. This is important in the formation of an understanding of the client’s challenge, which assists the therapist to find the appropriate techniques for the therapy, which are founded in theoretical approaches (Nelson-Jones 2005).

A number of counseling techniques are applied in the session in order to capture various interventions as guided by theory. Therapists are guided by counseling techniques in order to manipulate theoretical tools in driving the therapy process towards a certain desired end. The client may be informed at some points of the technical application if the therapist feels that the client will understand and related well with the technicalities of the therapy as applied. Using one technique is inadequate since there are several interventions that the client needs for the presenting challenges.

Firstly, the session applied eye contact technique from the beginning of the client’s narration, since the therapist needed to establish some communication agenda. Eye contact is important in therapy as it enables the therapist to demonstrate the importance of the client’s narration. By shifting eye contact, a client may get the perception that their story is not important to the therapist (Geldard and Geldard, 2008). This is a form of communication tool that the therapist uses to enhance trust in the client that they are important in the sessions. By establishing trust through communication signals, the sitting position is important to the therapist. Observing the sitting position of the client and gestures enables the therapist to manipulate the techniques in order to bring the client back into the session with all the attention. This is important for the therapy.

Additionally, as mentioned before, the client’s sitting position is a useful cue in determining the level of concentration in the therapy but the sitting dynamics for the therapist are important too. In the session, the therapist is reported to be leaning forward towards the client in an emotional episode whereby another action is also facilitated by handing a soft tissue to wipe off the tears. This is important in the demonstration of understanding the client’s emotions and moving towards assisting them further creates an important communication impact. Brown (1957) reckons that communication for emotionally disturbed persons should be handled sensitively, which is done by offering tissue sends an image of being cared for, especially for a sensitive client who has negative ideas of being under the threats of others other than their care and love. Trust is eventually created which is important in the development of therapy foundations.

Alternatively, facial expressions such as smiles being spread throughout the therapy are important in changing the mood of the client in order to manipulate and invoke further important developments of the session. Gestures such as nodding may be used to enhance this perspective which moves the attention of the client from one mood to another. Invoking humor may complement the mood changing aspect that is very important in communication during the session (Nelson-Jones, 2005). Furthermore, probing and questioning the client in an attempt to reveal details of their feelings and case facts is important in formulation of conclusions. Without asking the necessary questions to the client may prove to be prejudicial and judgmental in end, since conclusions may be made on wrong facts about the client. This is important in alleviating biases and wrong conclusions, which is human and inherent in many decision making processes. Wrong conclusions are avoided by paraphrasing the client’s statement in the session, in order to clarify areas of misunderstandings (Sanders, 1996). In addition, giving examples that the client associates with such as of a close friend and of the therapist’s own relationship life enables the therapist to further strengthen the counseling dyad relationship. Trust is built when a client understands that the therapist is willing to share their own experience in dealing with the client’s challenge. Use of sympathy and empathy is important on the client’s perception about the process.

Theory

There are a few instances of mention of rationale emotive therapy (RET) in the session which has been explained to the client since the therapist feels that the client will grasp the meaning of the technical perspective (See, 2007 and Dryden, 2003). To supplement to RET, the session applies cognitive therapy (CT) perspectives in dealing with the clients perceptions about their environment in order to correct wrong thinking regarding self worth and esteem. The application of these two perspectives is similar since the establishment of their application is based on personal thinking and cognitive behavior (Maddux

Smaby, 2011). Grief and loss therapy theory has also been invoked in the session and equally explained to the client regarding the healing process. Relationship issues relating to the client’s environment have been approached from a behavior therapy (BT) perspective which pays attention to the facts on the client’s environment and context.

Understanding the theory of suicide therapy is important in determination of how to assist clients with guilt to cope with their feelings, for instance in an environment where they feel judged. According to Worden (2003), dealing with fears that the client has for having been associated with a serious social vice must be facilitated. Confronting thinking likely to aggravate fear and feelings of rejection from the family and friends leaves the client in a sensitive perception which is almost always wrong. The youthful thinking of the client must be confronted to assist the client in shaping up their perceptions about their relationships with others (Schuster, 1999).

Bibliography

Barry, D., Bazerman, M. H., Dreu, C. K., Lituchy, T. R., O’Connor, K. M. & Schroth, H. (2002) “What We Want To Do Versus What We Think We Should Do: An Empirical Investigation of Intrapersonal Conflict,” Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 15(5):403-418 DOI: HYPERLINK “http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bdm.426” 10.1002/bdm.426

Brown, F. F. & Rainer, J. P. (2007) Crisis counseling and therapy. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press

Brown, J. S. (1957) “Principles of Intrapersonal Conflict,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, 1(2):125-154 DOI: 10.1177/002200275700100204

Clawson, T. W., Hernderson, D. A. & Schwieger, W. K. (2003) Counselor preparation: program, faculty, trends. New York, NY: Brunner-Routledge

Daniels, J. A., D’Andrea, M. J., Lewis, J. A. & Lewis, M. D. (2010) Community counseling: a multicultural-social justice perspective. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning

Dryden, W. & Ellis, A. (1997) The practice of Rational emotive behavior therapy. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company

Dryden, W. (2003) Rationale emotive therapy: theoretical developments. New York, NY: Brunner-Routledge

Fagan, R. A. (1966) Confidentiality in counseling. Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press

Geldard, D. & Geldard, K. (2008) Personal counseling skills: an integrated approach. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas Publisher Ltd.

Hostetler, B. & McDowell, J. (1996) Josh McDowell’s handbook on counseling youth: a comprehensive guide for equipping youth workers, pastors, teachers and parents. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

Loesch, L. C. & Vacc, N. A. (2000) Professional orientation to counseling. Philadelphia, PA: Brunner-Routledge

Maddux, C. D. & Smaby, M. H. (2011) Basic and advanced counseling skills: skilled counselor training model. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning

Nelson-Jones, R. (2005) Introduction to counseling skills: texts and activities. Thousand Oaks: CA: SAGE Publications

Nelson-Jones, R. (2006) Theory and practice of counseling and therapy. Thousand Oaks: CA: SAGE Publications

Restle, F. (1975) Cognitive theory. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers

Sanders, D. (1996) Counseling for psychosomatic problems. Thousand Oaks: CA: SAGE Publications

Schuster, S. C. (1999) Philosophy practice: an alternative to counseling and psychotherapy. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group

See, L. A. (2007) Human behavior in the social environment from an African-American perspective. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press

Slimak, R. E. & Whitaker, L C. (1990) College student suicide. New York, NY: Routledge

Worden, J. M. (2003) Grief counseling and grief therapy: a handbook for the mental health. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company

Denial-of-service attack (DoS)

Denial of Service

Name

Date

Denial of Service

Denial-of-service attack (DoS)

Dos refer to deliberate efforts by a person to temporarily or permanently suspend or interrupt services of a host connected to the internet. According to The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), this kind of attack has diverse effects on the computer system. Some of them include slow opening of the web sites; inability to open certain web sites; unavailability of certain web sites and a sharp increase in the total number of spasm emails received (Andress, M. et al., 2009).

How it works

In this kind of attacks, the attacker explicitly attempts to prevent the legitimate service users from using it. This can either lead to the crush or flooding of the service. However, it can be perpetrated through the following ways:

Consumption of bandwidth, compressor time, disk space or any other computational resources

Disruption of state data such s unsolicited resetting of the TCB sessions

Disruption of configuration data like routing

Disruption of the components of the physical networks

Blocking of the communication channel between the victim and the intended user in order to obstruct further communication

Prevention

Some of the ways through which this kind of attack can be prevented include the following:

Use of firewalls

The firewalls can be effectively applied here because of their ability to deny or allow IP addresses, ports or protocols. If properly used, they can help in effective prevention of the user from launching flooding attacks particularly from the machines located behind the firewall itself. However, the firewall may not effectively filter certain attacks because of their complexity and inability to distinguish the DoS attack traffic from the good ones (Yuval, F., 2004).

Switches

Switches can also be used to prevent these attacks because they have automatic, TCP splicing, Bogon filtering, wide rate limiting, deep packet inspection and traffic shaping. These enable it to detect and prevent service attack denial through balancing, automatic rate filtering or WAN Link failover. However, this is dependant on the type of attack experienced. For instance, in case of content attacks, deep packet inspection is used. If a proper selection is done, the attacks will be dealt with and prevented before they cause any damage to the computer.

Routers

Routers are manually set to help them prevent any attack to the computer network system. Even if DoS attacks can easily overwhelm them, they possess some ACL and limiting rate capacity which enable them to prevent flooding.

Distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDos)

DDoS refers to the type of attack that involves all computers within a network from any part of the world. In other words, unlike DoS which only involves one computer, the DDoS attack involves a lot of computers. This means that an attack on a single computer will eventually affect all the others in the same system globally (Kristoff, J., 2007).

According to series of researches, the DDoS attacks are so cheap to launch, but extremely expensive to stop. This is due to the complexities involved in it.

Prevention

Just like the DoS attacks, the DDoS attacks are also preventable. It is very important to take appropriate measures to prevent the occurrence of such attacks to a computer network. However, some of the preventive measures include, but not limited to the following:

Use of IP address

The IP address can be used in preventing it by verifying the reverse-path on the in put interface at the end of the router connection. This helps in stopping the SMURF attacks especially at the ISP’s POP. Hence, there is a full protection of all the users of the internet server.

Filtering

It is very simple to prevent DDoS attacks by filtering because they are very easy to spot. This is done by training routers to drop the DDoS connections, thus, preventing the attacks from slowing the server or network (Kristoff, J., 2007). If all the potential threats are spotted in time, it will be easier to deal with them and prevent any possible attack they may cause the user.

Black holing

This is a method of preventing DDoS attacks that help in the elimination of the flooding effects of attacks. It does this by channeling all the traffic to an address which does not exist from the site that is under attack. This eventually prevents the flood from impacting on other sites within the network or server. If this happens, the system will be protected from any attack that would cause unnecessary trouble to the user.

In conclusion, I would like to say that these types of attacks are very dangerous for any computer network system. The DoS attacks can cause a very big problem to all the people relying on a certain server which is affected. Meaning, unsuspecting users may be affected even if they are thousand of miles away from the attacker. Therefore, it is important to be cautious about the kind of server being used. In order to prevent such problems in time, each and every one should be careful. They should always understand that the exposures to such dangers are always there. Therefore, they should seek the advice of their technicians and take the necessary measures in case of attacks. This is the only way through which they will ensure that their data is safe from any corruption or loss.

Refernces

Andress, M. et al. (Eds.) (2009) CIW Security Professional. New York, NY: Hungry Minds, Inc.

Kristoff, J. (2007) Root DDoS Attack Analysis. DNS-OARC.

Yuval, F. (2004) Google Android: A Comprehensive Security Assessment. IEEE Security &

Privacy (IEEE).

Dental Treatment of a patient

Name

Professor’s Name

Course

Date

Dental Treatment of a patient

The patient is a 33 year old female in good health under the care of a physician for her general health. However, auscultation and further examination have revealed that the patient suffers from a heart murmur that does not need to be pre-medicated, although her pulse and blood pressure are both normal at 68 beats per minute and 112/64mmHg respectively. Further, the patient is taking tapazole 5 mg due to hyperthyroidism, as well as over the counter medication such as vitamin D 2000, vitamin b complex and flaxseed for her own general health. The patient reports that she is not allergic to any drug or chemical known to her, with a pregnancy test revealing that she is not pregnant.

According to the ASA code, the patient is a II mainly due to the use of the prescription drug Tamazole and knowledge of the fact that the patient suffers from a well controlled thyroid disorder. Both the patient’s report and records reveal that her last visit was 3 months ago, in November of last year, a visit in which she also had her last bite wing (3 months ago). The patient had an FMX done before her dental appointment, with no contraindication found for dental treatment.

Medications

Tapazole, which is also at times referred to as Methimazole is an antithyroid medication that works through inhibiting the thyroid hormone production. Tapazole therefore, helps regulate the production of T3 and T4 (Thyroid hormones) which play key roles in the body’s metabolism. Some of the side effects of Methimazole include: salivary gland swelling and abnormal taste. At times individuals usually experience joint pains, drowsiness, lightheadedness, headaches, muscle pains, vomiting, stomach upsets, numbing and tingling sensations and nausea. Further, and perhaps of quite great import within a clinical setting, is the fact that Tapazople usually produces drug reactions with the following drugs: Propanolol, metoprolol, warfarin, theophylline and digoxin. Tapazole does not however, react with local anaesthesia, which is quite relevant when it comes to dental treatment.

Flaxseed oil improves general health, digestion, and also reduces the level of water retention. According to the patient, her doctor advised her to take flaxseed as a remedy for the weight gain occurring due to her taking tapazole. In terms of dental treatment, flaxseed is not usually a local anaesthesia concern, and is therefore, by extension not a concern when it comes to dental treatment.

Vitamin D

Vitamin is being used by the patient as a dietary supplement that usually has no adverse reaction with dental treatment or local anaesthesia. The supplement also promotes the mineralization of bone by not only reducing calcium excretion, but also stimulating intestinal absorption.

Vitamin B

Similar to the vitamin D, vitamin B is also a supplement that improves general health and essentially has no adverse reaction with anaesthesia and dental treatment. Essentially, vitamin B complex contains B1, B2, B3, B5, B6 and B12, a number of important nutrients when it comes to CNS conditions. B1 and B2 particularly, are essential in the functioning of the muscles, the heart and the nerves, while B3 is important in the regulation of the digestive system and the nervous system. b5 and b12 are particularly important for normal growth and development. B6 aids the nervous system, the digestive system and is also essential when it comes to normal growth. B7 is essential in hormone production while B9 is essential in the making and maintenance of DNA. As such, although the client was taking the medication in order to develop thicker and smoother skin, the benefits are numerous.

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democratic self-government , democracy, political science

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Demonstration of Empirically Supported Counseling Procedures

Denial-of-service attack (DoS)

Dental Treatment of a patient

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