Overview of Political Systems

1. Between the political systems of democracy, communism, and socialism it is quite clear that a socialist governing philosophy is best suited to the current global economic environment. While democracy is a populist system in theory—meant to represent the interests of the masses—in reality, it is all too easily corrupted by the influence of corporations and the extremely wealthy on the electoral process. Communism, with its focus on social and economic egalitarianism, also looks excellent in theory, except that all too often it devolves into totalitarianism and dictatorship when put into practice. Socialism, however, has been an unqualified success in the countries where it has been implemented properly. The best example of this would be the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. As Elizabeth Becker states, “Forget the stereotypes about Scandinavian socialism and how its high taxes and expensive public health care system are destroying private enterprise...The Nordic countries have bested some of the world's hottest economies and dominate the top ranks of the list of most competitive economies in the world in a new ranking of the best places to do business.” Clearly well-implemented socialist systems not only ensure high living standards and quality of life for all but also do not cripple or hinder businesses as many American conservatives assert. A well designed socialist system can be the best of both worlds, ensuring economic equality and basic standards of living while allowing private enterprise to flourish. For this reason, socialism should be the political system of the twenty-first century.

However, socialism could be improved in a number of small ways. One aspect of many socialist systems that can become a problem is the trouble with integrating immigrants. As Michael Causey states, according to a Norwegian diplomat “Integrating immigrants is something the United States has done better than we have in this country.” When the government offers a wide variety of benefits to citizens it can be tempting to exclude those who are new to the country. The key to improving this is a greater focus on tolerance and multicultural coherence, where the values and contributions of different ethnic and national groups are appreciated and respected. By incorporating this philosophy into their political and educational systems, many socialist countries can ensure that they treat immigrants with the same respect as they do citizens whose families have been in the country for generations.

2. This poster makes a number of inaccurate and questionable assertions. However, their most dubious statement is that one of the unfair aspects of democracy is that the rich pay a higher tax rate than the rest of the country. On the contrary, as Warren Buffet, one of the richest men in the world, has stated, “while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks...Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was...only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office.” If anything, the unfair aspect of democracy is that the rich and powerful exert such extreme control over our political system that they now pay a far lower percentage of their revenue towards taxes than the average American. This is both blatantly unfair and unsustainable and represents the biggest problem we as a country have in our political system.

3. This poster’s assertion that socialist societies fail to produce goods, and have high inflation and unemployment also does not hold up under scrutiny. As Caralee McLeish states in her interview with Elizabeth Becker, this is assertion is an example of “that old myth that social protection requires more business regulations and hurts business...In fact, we found that social protection is good for business, it takes the burden off of businesses for health care costs and ensures a well-trained and educated work force.” Quite clearly socialism does not have to result in problems for businesses, but rather encourages economic growth by providing the social climate where businesses can succeed. This misconception underlies much of the resistance to socialism in the United States, and it is high time that we as a nation begin to rethink this policy.

Works Cited

Becker, Elizabeth. "Scandinavian economies thrive despite high taxes ."The New York Times. N.p., 14 Oct. 2004. Web. 14 Feb. 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/13/business/worldbusiness/13iht-compete.html

Buffett, Warren E. "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich." The New York Times. 14 Aug. 2011. Web. 14 Feb. 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html.

Causley, Michael. "The American Health Care Paradox: Why Spending More Is Getting Us Less." Washington Independent Review of Books. N.p., 22 Nov. 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2014. http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/bookreview/the-american-health-care-paradox-why-spending-more-is-getting-us-less