Democracy

As you learned from this chapter, the traditional theory of democracy asserts that individuals are empowered to influence government by voting and participating. Another theory—the pluralist theory—asserts that organized groups compete with one another to influence government by pressing their concerns before various institutions of government. We "test" these two theories in a way by looking at the public comments that groups and individuals submit to government agencies as the agencies are trying to decide on various rules. In this case, let's look at the public comments that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, received as it was considering establishing standards for determining the validity of urine specimens collected under the Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs. These proposed standards are intended to ensure that validity testing and reporting procedures are uniformly applied to all Federal agency urine specimens when a validity test is conducted.

Search Tips

Go to the SAMHSA's Division of Workplace Programs public comments page on drug testing and specimen validity testing http://www.drugfreeworkplace.gov/frames/frame_drugtest.htm. Briefly review the 23 comments posted on this page. Make special note of the organizations, companies, and individuals who have submitted the comments.

Questions to Ask

• Based upon your review, where do most comments come from—organizations, businesses or individuals?
• Can you determine whether or not there is competition going on between those who submitted comments? If so, what is it over?
• Does this test validate traditional or pluralist theory, or can you see evidence of both?

Why it Matters

Every day government is doing something to either expand or reduce individual rights. In this exercise you see that government is attempting to revise the standards for determining whether a urine sample is valid or not for drug testing purposes. This policy is likely to effect you personally when you graduate and start looking for a job.

Get Involved

Opportunities to make public comment, or to attend a meeting where public comment will be accepted, are often posted in the newspaper. Watch for one of these announcements and attend the meeting. If you have an opinion about the proposal, make a comment.

The Scope of Government in America

The basic function of a government is to defend its citizens, so nearly every government in the world spends part of its budget on defense. However, not all governments spend the same on defense. Let's compare military expenditures as a percentage of gross domestic product for several democratic countries with advanced economies—the United States, Canada, Japan, Finland, France, and Belgium.

Search Tips

Go to the website for the CIA's World Factbook http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/. At the main page select each country and then look under the category titled "Military." You should find an entry called "Military expenditures - percent of GDP." Jot the number down and go to the next country on the list.

Questions to Ask

• Which country spends the most on military as a percentage of gross domestic product?
• Which country spends the least on military as a percentage of gross domestic product?
• Since defense is a basic function of government we might expect the level of spending on defense to reflect the level of concern about invasion. Looking at the data, is the government that spends the most in danger of being invaded, and is the government that spends the least safe from invasion?
• If there is no relationship between threat of invasion and level of military expenditures, what in your view might explain the level of military expenditures across these six countries?

Why it Matters

What government does in a democracy is supposed to be a direct reflection of the desires of the people.