How And Why Political Systems Change Essay

, Research Paper

How and Why Political Systems Change

Since the creation of mankind the world has been continually

changing. With each day, man develops, countries grow and

political systems change. A political system is an important set

of social institutions. Political systems have many functions.

Political systems create resources for education, health,

welfare, industry and foreign policy. Political systems have

changed drastically over centuries and are still changing

everyday. To understand why and how political systems change,

there are many factors. Some major factors are evolution,

revolution and economy.

A major factor and influence on why a political systems

change is due to the countries social economy. The approach in

which a country deals with certain political processes are

affected by internal divisions of income, wealth and occupation,

also by economic dependence or poverty.

There is always a positive association between economic

development and equality or income. The Linearity theory states

that economic development leads to urbanization which leads to

communication which leads to high levels of education and in

turn leads to Democracy. This theory does an excellent job in

showing how economics lead to a change in political systems.

Wealthier nations such as the United States, Japan and other

European countries often have more equitable income distributions

than poorer countries. According to Robert J. Mundt, a political

researcher, ?in advanced industrial nations the wealthiest ten

percent of households receive about one quarter of the national

income, while poorest receive forty percent and about twenty

percent get only fifteen percent of the national income; in

middle income countries like Brazil, the wealthiest ten percent

gets forty-six percent of national income and the poorest forth

percent get only eight percent.?

An example of a country that social economy influenced the

change in their political system would be the Russian Federation.

The social economy lead to the fall of Communism. The Russian

federation was a communist country believing in state owned and

centrally planned government. Years ago the communists were able

to keep up with the other big money powers of the world. But as

time went on and they tried to catch up, their economy was too

hard to control. Their products were poor quality and their

quantity was created on a need basis. There was no efficiency.

The people of Russia would have to wait years for cars,

apartments and waited hours in lines for simple things like food

and other basic necessities. The soviets began to argue with the

government. In 1991, Russia had gone through the worst of it?s

inflation and industrial problems. Eventually Russia became the

Russian Federation and there was an end to Communism.

Urbanization is another reason that political systems change

and develop. People run out of recourses on their rural lands and

are forced to flee to the bigger cities. People go to the bigger

cities hoping to find a better life for their families and

themselves. As more people go these cities, it creates more jobs.

Industry grows and the social economy also grows. Political

systems begin to create governments that work on foreign policy

and trade which creates more money. Eventually the political

systems shape their governments to look like those of the other

bigger wealthier countries in the world.

Another factor that changed many countries political systems

is that of a revolutionary change. Two countries that were

strongly influenced by the revolutionary change were Russian and

Germany. After World War I, Russians believed the revolution

lead to the collapse or imperialism and capitalism. Russia was

doing well before the war. Industry was still grown and the

people seemed to be happy. That did not last long though, the

war changed everything. When the Russian military went to war

against Germany, the tsarist government fell. As the tsarist

government fell apart so did the Russian economy. The government

found themselves stuck in a situation that they did not know what

to do. In 1917 democratic moderates over the power of the tsar.

This group hoped to make the country more modern and democratic.

But in a strange turn of events, the leader of the moderate

democratics, betrayed his western allies and made a peace

agreement with Germany. Eventually a Russian revolution created

a party with the help of Germany lead to the fall of imperialism

and capitalism. Soon after Russia became a communist country.

Revolutionary change is apparent when looking at China?s

development as a government. China and Russia?s political change

are similar in many ways. One of the biggest revolutionary

movements in China was Maoism. Maoism was created by a person

named Mao Zedong. Mao believed in strengthening and rebuilding

China and by doing so, he and his followers believed in guerrilla

warfare and in turn created a so-called revolution. Maoism

believed that it was important to listen to the peasants and

tried to propaganda to join his army. He believed heavily in

guerrilla warfare to take over the government. Mao?s acts were

unsuccessful and in 1949 Communism became China?s government.

Great Britain is a country was evolutionary change and

development not only influenced it?s own development, but also

many other countries in the world. Great Britain government is

considered the mother government. It is the oldest government in

existence. Their evolution as a government was watched and

studied by many countries. Many parts of democratic governments

such as the legislative and executive branch can be seen as early

as 1066 for Great Britain. Great Britain legislative branch was

called the Great Council and the executive branch was called the

king council. The Parliament was created early in their

government and is very similar to many countries man governmental

body. Great Britain created in 1689 Bill of Rights which gave

people their individual rights and liberties, such as freedom of

speech. Within the last few years, Great Britain has seen some

decline because if the Grand Old Party. There has been no major

change in years in their government and some researchers believe

it is effected their economy and other problems the country is

having.

The legislative branch was called the Great Council and the

executive branch was called the Kings Council. The Parliament

was created which is Great Britain?s main government body. The

Parliament can be compared to other main bodies such as the House

of Representatives in the United States or the Majilis on Iran.

In 1689, Great Britain created the Bill of Rights. The Bill of

Rights created human rights for everyone. Many countries around

the world have tried to create similar rights for their people.

Although Great Britain economy has a slight decline within the

last few years, it has proven to be one of the most stable

governments in the world.

The political attitudes vary from country to country as well

as they always change. As countries evolve, the attitude of the

people change according to what is happening. In countries that

are in a strong economic standing, the peoples? attitudes

probably will lead more toward a nationalist feeling. For

example, the people of Germany are upset because ever since that

wall separating East and West Germany had to come down, there has

been lower unemployment and fewer jobs. At first everyone was so

happy to see the wall come down and now some wish that it never

had. It is proven that the more happy the people are with their

government, the more they will participate. When more people get

involved, this leads to political change.

Sometimes a countries political system changes when the

people are not happy with the government. People get outraged

with corruption, unemployment, welfare, education, and human

rights. When the people are outraged, they have been known to

revolt against the government. Also the people support a leader

that will change the system from the way that it is being ran. An

example is in Mexico decades ago. A leader stepped up that said

he would represent the workers and the farmers. The people

immediatly fought to get this man in power, and he eventually he

was elected in to power and created the PRI, which is a political

party that remained in power for decades.

When looking at the evolution of countries and the change in

their political system, it seems as if many countries have

changed their form of government to a democratic government.

Many countries have adapted to the Western Countries? forms of

government. Within the past couple of decades, more and more

countries are slowly moving into a democratic form of government.

Democracy has not fully proven to be the answer to all country

problems but has been a step closer to helping some situations.

There are many theories that try prove the democratic countries

are less likely to have a war and more likely to be similar and

in the long run better the world economy.

China is the longest standing communist country and has no

desire to try to reform to democracy. Political scientist do not

believe that this is a good decision for China. In China,the

people have no rights, and most of the country is poor. Also you

are only allowed to practice the religion the government tells

you can. Right now in China thousands of people are thrown in

jail and killed for trying believe in the religion of their

choice.

Many researchers agree that democracy is one of the most

influential forms of government. As time change, so will the

countries of the world. It is very hard for comparative scientist

to make exact predictions on what will be the future for

political systems. Looking back on history we can expect many,

many more changes.