Bala 1

Carolyn Bala

Ambassador School of Global Leadership

Topic I: Republican Democracy in the United States

17 January, 2017

The Struggle to a Better Union

As a country, we continue to grow and evolve. Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness

are “unalienable rights given to human beings, by their Creator, and which governments are

created to protect”. Our rules cannot be changed and our spirit will not be broken. “Our

constitution favors the many instead of the few… this is why it is called a democracy” (Pericles).

Our Declaration of Independence was created July 4, 1776. As a nation, we declared we

were now separate from Europe. This was marked down as an important day in history because

the Declaration of Independence basically declared our freedom from British rule. In order to

declare freedom from something, we must fight for it and that's exactly what we did. We, the

people, have the power to make a difference, and democracy without the people is nothing.

"Change happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged and come together to demand

it” (Obama, Presidential Farewell Address).

Ideally, in our democratic republic we have a type of democracy in which everyone has a

say in the government, but taking advantage of that is a threat towards our democracy. Let's take

2016’s election for example. When finding out about our new president-elect, many people were

unhappy. Most were people who didn't like either candidate and chose not to vote, while others

found it silly and voted “ironically”. In the end, some citizens didn't exactly get the results they

wanted to see, but that was because of the lack of participation in the community.
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The United States has slowly been showing change. We've fought for healthcare, LGBT,

women, and racial rights. We've also had the longest thread of job creation in history which is a

big step for us. We haven't exactly created a paradise, and if anything, our nation is more divided

due to recent events. However, we will continue to fight for what we believe in to get there.

We’re developing. Whether it's adding laws or removing them, or even sticking to the

same political ways to our U.S government or keeping the vocabulary that we inhibited from our

models, the Greek from way back then. We will continue to work towards making a better union.

Works Cited

Cartledge, Kevin. “The ancient Greeks Would Not Recognise Our Democracy, They Would See

an Oligarchy,” The Conversation, 3 June, 2016. PDF 1-4.

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Przeworski, Adam, Susan C. Stokes, Bernard Manin, Democracy Accountability, and

Representation, Ch. 1 “Election and Representation,” (pp.29-54) PDF 1-15.

Romeo, Nick. “What Modern Democracies Didn’t Copy From Ancient Greece,” National

Geographic, 4 November, 2016. PDF 1-4.

Staloff, Darren. Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson: The Politics of Enlightenment and The American

Founding, “Introduction,” (pp. 3-43) PDF 1-22.