Education Policy of the Democrats
Free Speech Policy of the Democrats
Health Care Policy of the Democrats
Minimum Wage Policy of the Democrats
School Prayer Policy of the Democrats
Crime Policy of the Republicans
Drug Policy of the Republicans
Education Policy of the Republicans
Free Speech Policy of the Republicans
Health Care Policy of the Republicans
Minimum Wage Policy of the Republicans
School Prayer Policy of the Republicans
Image over Substance: An Example of Postmodern Politics: Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, commenting on Hitler's propagandistic use of the radio, note "the gigantic fact that the speech that penetrates everywhere replaces its content,"1 a formula that has been taken one step further by television: On TV, the image dominates, overpowering not only the fact of speech but also its content.
The Relation Between Civic Society and Newspapers in the Writings of Alexis de Tocqueville and Robert Putnam: The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate how Robert Putnam's findings in Making Democracy Work and in a later study he published on civic participation in the United States, "The Strange Disappearance of Civic America," support Tocqueville's views. This will be accomplished in two steps. The first will examine whether the specific views of Tocqueville regarding associations and newspapers and the relations between them are borne out in Putnam's findings. The second step will examine how Putnam's findings support Tocqueville's central hypothesis: That equality is the fundamental condition in a democracy from which others are derived. A final section of the essay will specify several normative implications that may be drawn from Putnam's findings, especially those outlined in "The Strange Disappearance of Civic America."
Habermas' Theory of Discourse Ethics: The purpose of this essay is to reveal the central distinctive elements of Jürgen Habermas' theory of discourse ethics and how his moral theory differs from those of two other prominent philosophers, Immanuel Kant and John Rawls. In unveiling the distinctive qualities of Habermas' discourse ethics, the fundamental difference between it and Kant's moral theory, upon which Habermas in part bases his thought, will be explained. Next, in exposing another distinctive element of discourse ethics, a pivotal difference between Habermas' moral theory and John Rawls' theory of justice will be elucidated.
Durkheim on Educational Systems: In Emile Durkheim's view, educational systems reflect underlying changes in society because the systems are a construct built by society, which naturally seeks to reproduce its collectively held values, beliefs, norms, and conditions through its institutions. Thus, as time unfolds, educational systems come to contain the imprint of past stages in the development of society, as each epoch leaves its imprint on the system. By uncovering these imprints and analyzing them, the development of a society can be reconstructed from the educational system.