People shouldn't be afraid of their governments, Governments should be afraid of their people.?

Question

Agree or disagree? Discuss plz. Personally I think governments should be afraid of their people (in the way that it's the people that can vote them out - democratic voting system etc) but somehow this doesn't seems to happen :(

Answer 1

Absolutely. Fear of government is tyranny, government fearing the people is democracy. Somebody tell the repubs they are on the wrong course ......................

Answer 2

I agree with you entirely. The problem is, some elected officials only seem to be afraid of their constituents when it gets close to an election. With not public referendum, they know that they are safe as soon as they enter office.
Although in my idealistic youth I believed that public referendum (the ability of the citizens to call for a recall election) would be a good thing, I can say that having given it more thought over the years my mind has changed. We elect our officials to make the hard choices that we at home in our armchairs may not have all the facts on and may not suffer the consequenses of. If we do our due diligence in researching a candidates prior voting record, stances on all issues, background etc., then we should rarely be surprised with how they vote while in office. If we cannot do that, then we cannot be expected to have done such due diligence on the issue that causes us to call for a recall. Thus, I see the outcome of enacting public referendum nationwide would be to have a few in the media influencing the public to pull officials out of office any time they disagree with a decision.

Answer 3

Heh... I love how people are using this to, once again, strike out at the Bush administration... Typical liberals. Can't even have a decent discussion about government in general without resorting to the same old talking points...

Firstly, people seem uninformed. The United States is NOT, in fact, a democracy. We are, in reality, a REPUBLIC. The founding fathers feared democracy as much as they feared tyranny. It was John Adams that said there is no more dangerous, unstable system in the world than a democracy. It soon wastes, exhausts, and burns itself out.

In a democracy, you have direct rule by the will of the people. The problem with this is it often results in mob rule and descends into anarchy. No true democracy has ever lasted.

Our founding fathers instead elected to go with a REPUBLIC, or what could also be called a CONSTITUTIONAL or REPRESENTATIVE democracy. This is the system under which we exist as a nation today. In a REPUBLIC, the people elect representatives to go to the government on their behalf. These representatives, ideally, are elected by a majority of people in the country based on their ideals. These representatives then vote and work to pass laws through two stages. The first is the senate, in which every state is represented by a single vote. If a measure passes in the senate, it moves on to the house of representatives, where every state is given representation based on its population (thus one reason for a census to be taken). If it passes the house, it then moves on to the president, who can sign it into law, or can veto it and send it back to start the process again.

It's a system of checks and balances.

The President checks the congress by his power to approve or veto legislation presented to him, and checks the supreme court by nominating judges.

The congress checks the president because only they have the power to write legislation and send it onto him. No law can be made effective without congress's approval. The congress checks the supreme court in that it must approve judges put forth by the president.

The Supreme Court checks congress in that only it has the power to declare a given law unconstitutional and have it struck down. (Though this can also happen by a vote by the people)
It checks the president in that it has the authority to remove him from power should he violate the law, through the process of impeachment.

Anyway... That's that for my government lecture. :p

Now... To answer the question. My answer is this. People should no more be afraid of their government than their government should be afraid of them.

A fear of the government, a fear of persecution, is tyranny. And if a government ever descended into tyranny, if the people ever TRULY suffered a long train of abuses and userpations, it would then be the responsibility of the people, as the declaration of Independence tells us, to throw off such government and to provide NEW safeguards for their liberty.

At the same time, I believe a certain amount of RESPECT should be given toward those in power, those who face decisions every day that none of us could ever fathom.

Sadly, in our rush to defend our "free speech" and our "right to dissent", both of which are afforded us in the Constitution but are not always necessary (Especially right to dissent, which, if what I've seen is any indication, is in no danger at all), we lose sight of this...

So while government should always recognize that the power innevitably belongs to the people, people should also respect their government and do their best to support our leaders and help them to make the right decisions for our nation.

Answer 4

Well, Machiavelli would disagree, because he believes that if a government is soft, then the people will over rule the government. For a government to function, there must be a certain degree of fear/respect from the people. And I agree with Machiavelli because there's no way a government can function when the people would be able to tell them what to do all the time. If that was the case, why shoudl we even have a governmental system?

Anyway, that's my opnion. The people should be afraid of the government, because that is the only way a government can function properly. With that fear, comes respect.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

Why should there be fear on either side?

Why shouldn't the country in question be viewed as a well oil machine with the people and the government be the parts of that machine working together to keep that country moving forward?

That is the problem today. It is either "them" or "us". What happened to the "we"?

Working together certainly shouldn't be that hard of a concept to grasp and agree on.

Answer 7

If our government passes any form of amnesty for illegal aliens, I certainly hope Americans will finally strike out at our government! Obviously, protesting in the streets, making demands, disrespecting our flag & acting uncivilized works!

Representation for Middle-class Americans

Answer 8

I agree, but when the gov't gets too powerful they become the terrorists. Not enough people in the US vote so the idiots and crooks get themselves elected by the minority of people that vote.

Answer 9

Accountable not afraid. However it might interest you to know that the founding fathers made 'the right to bear arms' a constitutional right, because they wanted the people to have the ability to 'overcome' an out of control government. Will we see that happen if the democrats gain power and allow us to be hurt? Time will only tell.

Answer 10

The government is arrogant because most of the people have been systematically terrified into going along with whatever agendas their government has out of the threat of "terrorism" and "weapons of mass destruction."

Answer 11

I'm not into politics so I will not explain, but I agree.
Governments should be afraid of their people.
'Afraid' really isn't the word though. There should be compromises and agreements. Not fear.