LV1 Notion Seats And Forms Of Power

We are going to study today the notion Seats and forms of power. The power is the ability or capacity to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events but it often leads to conflict between those possessing the power and those who don't. We can set the following problematic: “To what extent freedom limits democracy? And to what extent democracy limits freedom?”

To answer this question we are going to study, first of all how democracy can limit freedom through the documents about the witch hunt, the pictures on the red scare, and the extract from Eitel’s trial. In a second part we will see that freedom can also limit democracy, we will illustrate this point with the anti-gun poster, the Oral Comprehensions about the shooting range accident and the view of the NRA

I. Democracy limits freedom

Documents: Co which hunt, pictures red scare, Eitel’s trial

Indeed, we can see that democracy sometimes limits one’s freedom. For instance, we can see this during the second red scare. Indeed, during this period, the rights of citizen’s being suspected of communism were suspended. The red scare is the promotion of fear of a potential rise of communism or radical leftism, used by anti-leftist proponents. As we can observe on the pictures, this era was full of fear, suspicion, scapegoating etc… if a citizen was suspected of being a member of the communist party or a spy for USSR, his basic rights were suspended and they were put on trial. Furthermore, these trials were often rigged and proofs were invented. And we can see in the document Eitel’s trial, the freedom of speech and thoughts presented in the first amendment of the constitution is ignored by commission in charge of judging the defendant. Here Eitel skillfully dodges the tricky questions by answering with humor. Yet not everybody had an ease to speak out loud, and some like the Rosenberg couple were sentenced to death. Finally, this red care was also called the witch hunt, in reference to the Salem witch hunt that occurred in 1692.

This shows how democracy in the US can sometimes limit freedom of the citizens. However, it can occasionally be freedom that limits democracy.

II. Freedom limits democracy

Documents: anti-gun poster, Co the view of the NRA, Film: Bowling for columbine, Co shooting range accident

Indeed, freedom can occasionally restrain democracy. For instance, in the US it’s a constitutional right to possess a gun. However, this right becomes more and more challenged. In fact, associations like “Violence policy center” or “Moms demand action” are in favor of gun control. As we can observe on the anti-gun poster, USA is one of the countries with the highest number of gun murder in a year. Moreover, more and more Americans are in favor of gun control. People are becoming aware of the danger of guns. Even so, the government can not vote any laws in favor of gun control because, a part of the population defend their constitutional right to have a gun. In fact the US government is under the pressure of lobbies and associations like the NRA (National Rifle Association). They consider that they have the right to protect themselves and their families. For them it’s not the guns that kill people, but it’s

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