about political theories

Political involvement is defined as any action that contributes to forming, controlling, or being active in the political sphere. Democratic activity includes a variety of activities such as voting, attending marches, conducting violent acts, and writing letters to political leaders. Conventional, unorthodox, and illegitimate political activity are the three most popular forms of political participation seen in the majority of democratic nations. The standard interaction applies to any of the practices that are deemed safe for the people of a specific country. The majority of individuals assume that their involvement in politics is necessary for a periodical manner whereby they engage in elections every few years (DiGrazia, 2014, p. 111). However, there is the necessity for noting that individuals that exhibit a strong commitment to politics tend to participate in the political activities more regularly. Some of the conventional political participation activities include volunteering for a particular political campaign, voting, donating for a particular faction for campaigns, and serving the public offices.

On the other hand, the unconventional political participation entails some of the activities considered legal but on numerous instances inappropriate. The engagement in the unconventional activities usually involves majority of the youth, students, and individuals having concerns regarding some of the policies imposed by the regime. As such, these people tend to engage in the unconventional political activities as a way of sending out their messages or making their grievances public. Some of the unconventional political participation activities include the signing of petitions, protesting, encouraging boycotts, and staging demonstration against a particular policy.

However, the illegal political participation involves engaging in some of the activities considered breakage of the law. On numerous occasions, individuals tend to resort to the illicit participation on their failure to apply the proper legal means in the creation of a particular political change (895). Some of the considerably illegal political activities include engaging in sabotage of the campaign of an opponent through either vandalism or theft, terrorism, and assassinations.

America is a perfect example of a democratic nation characterized by the various forms of political participation. The conventional participation depicts itself in the freedom guaranteed to the citizens regarding their provision of opinion in some of the public affairs. Furthermore, the conventional participation manifests in the guaranteed freedom for any individual to a campaign, participate in the elections and hold office at any administrative level. On the other hand, the unconventional participation manifests in the capability of the citizens to influence the decisions made by the government through engaging in civil movements, for instance, the Vietnam War.

Question 2

The welfare state refers to a set of government-sponsored programs that aims at ensuring that provides cushioning of the citizens during some of the contingencies of life in the seemingly industrialized, modern, and individualized society. All the welfare states tend to contribute to the provision of direct state assistance to the poor through the provision of financial aid, kindness activities that include social services and housing, and facilitating the acquisition of social insurance against some of the economic consequences characterized by the natural risks such as illnesses, incapacitation, and childbirth. The welfare regimes tend to differ from one nation to another. The liberal welfare system entails the redistribution of the income. An advantage associated with the liberal welfare involves availing the minimum benefits to the disadvantaged members of the society and devotion of majority of the expenditure to the social insurance schemes that tend to focus on the common members. However, the liberal regime is characterized by the commodification of the citizen’s welfare, as they tend to have weak or no constitutionally inscribed social rights. Furthermore, the nations that embrace the liberal regimes tend to have a high tolerance to the socioeconomic inequalities.

On the other hand, the conservative welfare entails moderate redistributions whereby the nations have their objectives being the preservation of the social status achieved in the labor markets and the focus on the realization of the social citizenship rights. The conservative regimes, therefore, tend to concentrate on the provision of the equitable funding and free public education, moderation of the benefits to the poor and establishment of favorable social insurance schemes to the employed individuals. Some of the notable advantages of the conservative regimes entail the fact that the system recognizes the family as the primary source of welfare hence the necessity for designing the social insurance benefits and tax system in support of families.

The social democratic welfare regimes tend to play a crucial role in facilitating the achievement of long-term reductions in the socioeconomic inequalities across the different generations (Bertin & Carradore, 2016, p. 152). The social democratic systems tend to play a significant role in integrating the social insurance programs and antipoverty to the citizens of a particular nation. The regime is thus essential in facilitating decommodification whereby they grant the social citizenship the right to engagement in the social lives regardless of their employment status. However, some of the significant disadvantages that characterize this type of welfare include the fact that there tend to be constant threats of gridlock and things tend to take longer for their enactment due to the lengthy procedures involved.

References

Bertin, G, & Carradore, M 2016, ‘Differentiation of welfare regimes: The case of Italy’, International Journal Of Social Welfare, 25, 2, pp. 149-160, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 June 2017.

DiGrazia, J 2014, ‘Individual Protest Participation in the United States: Conventional and Unconventional Activism’, Social Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell), 95, 1, pp. 111-131, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 June 2017.

Kerrissey, J, & Schofer, E 2013, ‘Union Membership and Political Participation in the United States’, Social Forces, 91, 3, pp. 895-928, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 June 2017.