Section 4 Blog Post

1. The US does a fairly good job at follow the "fair and free" election condition. Everyone who is registered is encouraged to vote in elections so as to elect the person they think is best for the job, instead of someone inheriting an office of government. However, I do find some flaws in our system. I do not believe the electoral college is the most effective form of selecting leaders. Considering members of the electoral college don't have to vote for the candidate the state which they are represented voted for, it's as if the public doesn't really have to vote at all. For example, in the election of 2000 between Al Gore and George W. Bush, Al Gore won the popular vote among the public. Usually, the candidate who wins the popular vote wins the election, but the electoral college had different plans and G.W. Bush became the winner of the 2000 election. Because of the electoral college, I feel like the voting process for the public isn't really "free or fair" at all.

2. Anyone is free to organize and be a part of any political party they want in the US. However, the US isn't the ideal subject for this condition. There are two main parties - Democrats and Republicans - and others parties do not get equal attention or opportunity as these to do. Also, in our government, one of these parties is in the majority while the other is in the minority. The majority party changes everyone so often, so one party isn't always the minority. This may seem fair, however, the minority party never has as much influence as the majority party does. There is much conflict over the issue, especially when the condition states that the minority party should have adequate rights of contestation.

3. America prides itself on being the "land of the free" where "all men are created equally." According to the constitution, the US follows closely the condition of democracy that all citizens possess civil and political rights. This is generally true, but there have been many issues in the past that do not follow this condition. Women and blacks didn't have the right to vote and weren't considered "equal" until at least 200 years after the constitution was written. Still today there are people in the US who don't consider certain people their equal. Ridding the country completely of racism and prejudice would be a very tough task, but the government, over the last 200 years, has made it's effort.

4. The judiciary condition is represented very well in the US. Though things in the judiciary system are always been tweaked a changed, the overall procedures of the system are very close to the qualifications of the condition. Though some judges could be biased based on their political parties, I understand that it is hard to be complete void of some sort of bias.