Responding to the Legislative Questions
This paper answers five questions on the legislative and executive branches of government. Within the answers, the paper critically analyzes the state's constitutional framework to enhance public discourse on the American democracy. The paper argues for more representative mechanisms within the system by asking whether diversity in the federal judiciary reflects the total population's diversity and whether it reflects the democratic nature of the constitution's governance approach. With significant improvements within the legislative ambit, the paper seeks to strengthen the legislative branch's influence in enacting public policies as a whole.
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The calls for term limits for legislators are based on the premise that it gives new leaders opportunities, enhances contributions of persons from all walks of life, reduces the influence of money in politics, and ensures no life tenure for legislators based on success in the first campaign. Whereas having long-serving legislators has merits such as expertise, stability, knowledge retention in institutional memory, the risk of the status quo being defended overshadows the benefits. A status quo where the legislators defend their interests is advanced due to the overreliance on donations from corporate interests that undermine campaign financing systems (Frankel, 2017). In this vein, the recent election cycles are characterized by growing anti-establishment sentiments as the populace increasingly advocates for systemic reforms to address its concerns. It became clear that anti-establishment views had partly contributed to the shocking election of Trump and growing support for his controversial policy proposals (Smith, 2020).
Other systemic reforms are needed to ensure a more level ground between the incumbents and challengers, especially a strong campaign finance regime. This should include stringent contribution limits, public funding opportunities, transparency measures, and such other regulations to mitigate corruption and undue influence of interest groups in elections. Another reform is improving election administration and technology to facilitate a simpler process for voters. Voter education and empowerment measures are necessary to ensure informed and active participation in elections (Cazort, 2017).
Discussion Question 6
Torrez et al. (2019) suggest that Americans are unaware of how political momentum will affect organizational trust and public policy efficacy. Accordingly, momentum is political in this context, and the primary stakeholders demonstrate substantial significance by virtue of having an identity that links them to a political community. In this vein, a "yes" or "no" answer would not do justice to this question since it is more contested yet increasingly relevant in the political landscape. Therefore, diversity in federal judiciary public confidence in the system directly proportion to aligned interest of the judges with the populace.
References
Cazort, T. (2017). Yes, We Need More Term Limits! The Advocate, 43(1), 61.
Frankel, C. J. M. (2017). Sacred cows make the best hamburgers: Putting term limits in their proper perspective. William & Mary Bill Rts. J., 26, 1.
Smith, J. A. (2020). Does the Left Keep Losing? Reigniting the Battle between Establishment and Anti-Establishment. Rev. Pol. 82, 877.
Torrez, G. E., Sombatpoonsiri, J., & Moore, W. J. (2019). The influence of political momentum on trust in government and public policy effectiveness. Social Science Research Network. Last accessed on September 28, 2023, at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3460772
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