Week 3 Discussion: Stability and Governing

Week 3 Discussion: Stability and Governing

Week 3 Discussion: Stability and Governing

Initial Post Instructions
"The US is a stable government." Develop an argument for why you think this is true or false. Use specific historical examples. Use evidence (cite sources) to support your response from assigned readings or online lessons, and at least one outside scholarly source.

Required Resources
Read/review the following resources for this activity:

Textbook: Chapter 7, 8, 9

Magstadt, T. M.  (2016). Understanding Politics: Ideas, Institutions, and Issues, 12th Ed

Lesson (added below)

• 1 Additional scholarly source you identify through your own research

example of peer submission for this topic

this is for example only

Stability and Governance

A stable political system or government is one which maintains laid down order of change no matter the challenges it faces. They are the system which does not witness much of coup, impeachments and other internal shakeups. These political systems are usually seen as models in governance and it does not only extend to democracy but monarchies, military regimes, and others, even the authoritarian and totalitarian systems.

After 1868, in the period of the restoration regime under the Meiji emperor, Japan succeeded, without major political breakdowns, in building an industrial state and developing commercial structures that transformed traditional Japanese society. This achievement was based on the development of centralized patterns of political control and the growth of a type of authoritarianism involving the rule of a military elite (Heslop, 1999).

Since the stability of a political system is not majorly as a result of external challenges, it is believed that the most important factor of political stability is the ability of citizens to obey the laws of the land. Obedience to the law constitutes political behavior just as much as contesting elections do. for, whether intended or not, the effect of obedience to the law is to uphold the authority of those who make decisions about what the law should be and how it should be enforced (Ake, 1975).

A stable political system like the government, hardly changes its main goals and the policies maintaining those common goals and ideals are often maintained and this is the case of the United States of America, where even when people don’t understand what it truly means, people often believe that the best dream to live in the entire world, is the ‘America Dream’. After the American Revolution, the U.S. founders were interested in forming a government that would be well ordered to prevent chaos and instability (Magstadt, 2017).

The United States Institute of Peace defined Stable Governance as “an end state where the state provides essential services and serves as a responsible steward of state resources; government officials are held accountable through political and legal processes; and the population can participate in governance through civil society organizations, an independent media, and political parties. Stable governance is the mechanism through which the basic human needs of the population are largely met, respect for minority rights is assured, conflicts are managed peacefully through inclusive political processes, and competition for power occurs nonviolently”

With this United States model, it is obvious why the USA is prided as a stable government. With rule of law prevailing over the rule of men, wealth and other issues that are often considered in some less stable counties. Another amazing thing about the United State government and their bid to balance power is that they ensure power is well separated among the tiers of government who then ensure that personal liberties of the citizens such as freedom of religion, speech, the press, personal privacy and the right to due process are maintained and they all make the citizens feel they are part of the country. This translates to obedience from the citizens and lack of internal chaos and revolts.

The government is a balance exceedingly fine, and well tested, that has survived world wars, a civil war, the red menace, and the terrorism scare since 9/11, without failing, but only being improved, as necessary (Kupperberg, 2018). Aside from the confidence in the government, the United States citizens also believe they are secured because of their strong military which is ever ready to defend them against any internal or external forces.

US government is as stable as it is because all of its activities are in accordance with their constitution which gives more power to the citizens and limits the government.  The first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, has one outstanding characteristic, all of the amendments limit the power of government (Kupperberg, 2018).

The military, political and economic power the United States command today in the international community would not have been possible if an external force can easily shake the government and the fear of losing such stability is the reason for the high level of probe into the interference of Russia in the 2016 election that brought Donald Trump to power.

REFERENCES

Alan Heslop (1999). Stable political systems - Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/political-system/Stable-political-systems

Claude Ake (1975). A Definition of Political Stability pp. 271-283 - Comparative Politics Vol. 7,

No. 2   pp. 271-283