The Foundation of Normative Moral Theory
The works of Aristotle and Plato are the foundation of normative moral theory. They both argued that politics and ethics are inextricably linked and that a government's success should be measured in terms of its capacity to protect its citizens' moral rights. This philosophy is inherently a criticism ideology because it is based on what "out to be." According to the model's claims, the aim of politics should be to improve the lives of people. It is concerned with the government's norms and policies and how they compare to the moral values of society.
Criticisms of the Voting System in the United States
The normative philosophy asserts that elections should be used as a tool for advancing democracy (Powell and Vanberg 389). The voting system of the United States has long come under scrutiny; that it does not entirely represent the interest of the ordinary citizen. According to Skinner, the individual votes do not count (237). Ideally, each vote cast by the citizen is irrelevant. The reason is that the Electoral College can vote differently from the collective state vote. Democracy should represent the will of the majority in the society, but this is not always the case with the United States' voting system, where the minority has a significant chance to win. The 2016 presidential elections in the country were a perfect manifestation of this claim.
The Complexities and Inequities of the American Political System
The normative theory also advocates for the betterment of the life of the citizen. Apparently, the election system of the United States has been criticized as a rather complex one, where not many people understand how it operates. The adverse effects of this complexity are the low voter turnout that has for long been experienced in the country since many individuals do not get excited about voting for the president. Besides, some areas carry more votes than others. The unfair sway means that presidential candidates focus on these areas at the expense of those that are worth fewer votes.
The federal system of the United States is known to encourage inequities in various states. For instance, the funding of education is not uniform across the country. Taxes and healthcare programs vary across the states. This continues to widen the existing gaps between social classes in America; there are states that only high-income earners can live in, while others are left for the low-income households. The normative theory of politics opposes this social segregation because it does not adhere to the ethical standards of the society.
Discrimination and Biased Application of the Law
Besides, statistics have shown that the minority groups such as the African Americans and the Hispanic youth have fallen victims to unfair treatment by the security agencies. For example, in California, over 59 percent of the juveniles that were arrested were either blacks or of the Hispanic origin. About 64 percent of them were put in secure detention centers, while approximately 69 percent were placed in secured correctional centers in 2015 (Kozyreva 227). This is an open indication of discrimination and biased application of the law. According to the normative philosophy of politics, citizens should be treated equally without any discrimination by race, gender, ethnicity, and political ideology.
Assessment of the American Political System
So, if the American political system is weighed against the assertions of the normative theory, it is worth noting that most of the practices, especially the electoral system, do not meet the conventional moral standards of the society. For instance, the fact that the minority can at times win an election at the expense of the majority sums it all. A government that is chosen by only a few people arguably does not represent the interests of the rest.
Works Cited
Kozyreva, Ol'ga Vladimirovna. "The Phenomenon of Social Institution and Its Theoretical Definition." Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast 6 (2015): 214-223.
Powell Jr, G. Bingham, and Georg S. Vanberg. "Election Laws, Disproportionality and Median Correspondence: Implications for Two Visions of Democracy." British Journal of Political Science 30.3 (2000): 383-411.
Skinner, Quentin. "Surveying the Foundations: A Retrospect and Reassessment." Rethinking the Foundations of Modern Political Thought (2006): 236-61.
