Introduction
The United States is the leading economy in the whole world for a long time now. After the word war, Europe and Japan have overpowered economically hence the United States of America grew up economically than most parts of the world. However, for the last 20 years, Japan and Europe have posed a stiff challenge since their economies are coming up.
Discussion
In terms of democracy, the United States goes by the majority system where citizens vote for their leaders at all levels by use of the majority rule of over 50% of the votes. On the other hand, Germany uses both the majority and the proportional system to elect their members of parliament. The German government parties choose the person to run for a parliamentary seat, while in the United States it is the congress that chooses the person to run for the seat.
In the U.S freedom and security are very essential as part of the welfare of its citizens just like in Germany and Japan where they are very important. A welfare system promotes the freedom of the people as it enables them to live without fear. Germany emphasizes security while the United States emphasizes much on freedom. Giving a bad expression on an American company’s products on the web may lead to someone being prosecuted by the company lawyer through the judicial system. Homeless people in the U.S do not have the freedom of speech (Powell & Hendricks, 2009).
The US Supreme Court has ordered that local laws that do not allow individuals to ask for money are constitutional. Also, someone may be sacked for no reason which reduces the freedom of speech in the workplace. Germans have more concerns about security as compared to Americans as someone may be sacked from the job after being given enough reason that quantifies his or her sacking and after a long time of notice. There is no freedom of traveling by the U.S citizens such as traveling to Cuba was banned.
Sex education is emphasized in Europe more than in the United States and Japan. Killers and murderers in Germany are put in prison for fifteen years but in the United States, most murderers are put in prison for life. The juniors who commit murder in the U.S and are of age 13 and above are put in prison for life just like the adults. But in Germany, children below 14 years are not punished but those over 18 years are treated as adults. Japan is much like the United States. In the United States, the ownership of homes has gone down, this is a sign that there is inflation in the economy since it has reduced the people’s living standards. The U.S is more in debt than Europe and Japan.
The democratic deficit is a situation where the citizens of a country cannot freely elect their leader without being influenced by other people especially the senior people in the society. The European nation has a democratic deficit system because of the way it operates. It combines both the legislative and government and the government does not have democracy. Some countries such as Maastricht and Amsterdam have good treaties which include the democratic legitimacy in way of operation like appointment is done in the parliament.
In Europe the political control is done by the executive-centered system which comprises the European commission and council, these bodies do not take part in parliament thus their actions are rarely known and might not be the wishes of the citizens. There is no control over economic integration by the sovereign state.
The number of voters who turn out in Europe during elections is very low this is because the citizens are against the fact that the new leaders will be of so much control if the Lisbon Treaty is voted for by citizens on the referendum. The Lisbon Treaty provides the assembly legislative control in policies like security and justice in which the people are against it since it lacks democracy. The system of the assembly is dictatorial which hinders the way people’s views are to be represented through the national assembly (Bekkers, 2007).
Conclusion
The citizens do not elect their representative directly they vote for the party which will later choose the members of the parliament. The voters do not feel a direct connection with their representatives. This leads to a low turnout of the voters. The people’s welfare is of great concern hence the government should have in place policies that promote the citizens’ associations among themselves and the various institutions in the country. Democracy is very important hence it should be enhanced across all the systems in place.
References
Bekkers, J.J.M. (2007). Governance and the democratic deficit: assessing the democratic legitimacy of governance practices. 5th ed. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Powell, J. & Hendricks, J. (2009). The Welfare State in Post-Industrial Society: A Global Perspective. 4th ed. Heidelberg: Springer.