Demographic and institutional characteristics shaping political power of groups in U.S. society

American Politics

In the U.S. society, the political powers of groups are determined by the demographic and institution characteristics. The powers is divided into two models, these includes; the pluralism which was created by the Madisonian democracy and the elitism. Pluralism is a system where the decisions of politics are being made resulting to the bargaining and negotiation among the special interested groups. For this case, no one is allowed to hold a majority of powers, since the power is widely distributed. However, elitism is a system where the society are controlled by a few individuals who are at the top, here, the power is concentrated in the hands of some individuals who share a common interests. This paper examines how demographic and institutional characteristics are shaping the political power of the groups in the U.S., society. It also analyzes how pluralism which is created by the Madisonian democracy enshrined in U.S. constitution ensures compromise as well as, moderation.

Ways in which demographic and institutional characteristics shape actual and potential political power of groups in U.S. society?

Demography is a study which involves human population in regards of the size, age, sex, occupations, races and location while institution is a social group connected by some social relations to perform a social role, institution socializes the groups in any society. The U.S. society majorly used the group size to determine the outcomes of majority support but that alone did not guarantee the influence, hence the various demographic and institutional features were used to shape the societal groups who were involved in politics in U.S. The demographic and institutional characteristics have been of significant in shaping the potential political power of groups in U.S. society in so many ways.

According to Max Weber, politics and society is said to be running on the same tracks since they were both laid down in history of the country. The new ideas which are generated every day by people tend to shape the political power groups in the society of United States by transforming struggle between the societal interests. These politic power groups in U.S. society pursue their interests by establishing tracks which signified the country political institutions. Max Weber argues that a political institution can only shape the character and the pursuit of material interests (Weber, 2009).

Institutional characteristics also shape the actual political power groups in the U.S. society by having some impacts that tends to limit the groups and individual actions, for that reason, institutions are said to be not complete of policy outcomes. The impact of institutions conversely tends to be assessed since it interacts with factors which include; the interests of the society, the culture, the ideology and new policy ideas that shapes the society. The goals and actions of groups, the individuals and classes sometimes becomes problematic, however, those goals are shaped by the setting in which they operate. As a result, the analysts seems to have no choice, however they pay close attention to specific political setting (Prothero, 2006).

The institutional characteristics shape actual and potential political power of groups in U.S. society by an institutional setting in which it takes place. The setting of the institution is majorly the outcome of historical forces which shaped the political power of the groups in the U.S. society. Institutionalism analysis seeks to discover some historical dynamics which shaped and transformed the political powers of the groups in states and society. Institution majorly shaped the groups and individuals who wished to operate within them by ensuring that U.S. Constitution ensures compromise and moderation to all individuals in the society.

Other characteristic of institution that shapes the politic power groups of U.S. society is the way the institution is changing. The institutional change is sticky as well as, episodic rather than being continuous. Once the institution is established, it becomes so difficult to change it again even if the social forces continuous to evolve. This is because, it rely upon arguments to account for persistence of the institutional characteristics. One is simply that, the institution shapes the group by creating privileges positions mainly for individuals who work hard to perpetuate the institution even if the interests changed (Prothero, 2006).

The demographic and institution also shape the political power of groups in U.S. society through the economic growth. The economic growths in U.S. shape the incentives of the key economic actors in the society. Institution influences the investments organization of production therefore influencing the size of groups and individuals shaping their political powers.

How Madisonian Democracy as enshrined in American Constitution ensure compromise and moderation

It is evident that, the pluralism created by the Madisonian democracy enshrined in the U.S. Constitution ensures compromise and moderation. This is because, the Madisonian democracy has endangered a deep factionalism between the ethnic groups; however, it faces deeper threats of a majority faction. The threat mainly focused on the attention of European-American politics identity. And that is why Madisonian came up with a model which would be used by the government to focus on the limitation of powers, since power allured many politicians towards abuse. James Madison opposed those behaviors by avoiding tyranny by the trust alone, making pluralism to become the descriptive and standard of politics as a theory of the liberal democracy (Kenney, 2002).

Madisonian democracy has also ensured peaceful handover of power, something that never used to be in the olden days when there was vicious display of voter wrath. The Madisonian democracy has injected accountability in governance. It has institutionalized systems of checks and balances. The present day principle of separation of powers heavily borrows from the Madisonian democracy. Madison felt that this principle would help in protecting the rights of others because human beings tend to fall into factions adverse to the rights of others. Madisonian democracy ensured compromise and moderation because the checks and balances were integral in primary control of government save for electoral accountability (Shane, 2009).