How nations scale the heights
Muhammad Abdul Hai enjoys a celebration of America
THE United States of America is the fourth largest country in the world, both in area and population. The country covers the vast space between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific. It also includes Alaska on the edge of the Arctic, and tropical Hawaii far out in the Pacific. The huge land that it contains is varied, and the long stretch of fertile soil that the country has been blessed with has made it possible to feed millions of people both inside the country and beyond.
This huge and beautiful country is unbelievably rich in resources. It has plentiful water supplies, it has great treasure stores of minerals, including coal, copper, iron, natural gas and oil. Above everything, America has the most valued hardworking and innovative population, which is why the world has seen many discoveries and inventions coming from this great country. In the field of science and technology, in the field of medical science and space research, America continues to play a pioneering role. Innovations and improvements on existing gadgets, tools and machineries are being brought to the world almost on a daily basis. The entire civilization owes much to it for being able to use technology in making life comfortable. The United States is still changing and expanding. Its great cities are growing both upward and outward. The towering skylines of the cities are changing frequently as Americans tear down and build. The busy factories of this country produce the greatest abundance of goods, which in turn reach almost every door of the world community. Agricultural farms are the most productive in the world. All these have contributed to the making of the nation into a super economy and also a super power. Today a minor ripple in the American economy jolts the earth, and minimum US economic progress brightens the world economy. Its impact is such that no nation can avoid being affected. No matter what a nation's preference is, American policy, especially economic and political, has to be reviewed thoroughly.
Until about three hundred years ago, what is now the United States was largely a wilderness. Europeans saw in this almost empty land a chance of building new and better lives. They brought with them different skills and ideas. They also brought the ideals of freedom and equality. They came in the thousands, leaving their European homes, and finally established a government aimed at protecting the liberty of every man. They wrote their unique constitution in amazing rhetoric, guaranteeing freedom of speech, of religion, of political belief and of press. The preamble to the constitution pronounces the basic guidelines for every individual American as to what their collective political activities should aim at. We The People, which is a collaborative production of Benjamin Ginsberg, Theodore J. Lowi and Margaret Weir, presents an in-depth discussion of the political aspirations and activities of the American people. Unlike what we see in our country, political consciousness and involvement in politics for a majority of Americans is a moral obligation. This explains why national elections in the US still remain largely free and fair, accepted readily by all parties. The work under review covers almost all that is related to the political behaviour of the American people.
Democracy, in order to be meaningful, requires that all educated people will be politically conscious, and also exercise their voting rights to make known what they really want. They can have their say in government policies through their support for a particular political party. This very support makes many an individual politically active while many others remain passive supporters. The book, while introducing American politics, tries to lay bare the nature, thoughts and feelings of people who are popularly known as democratic citizens.
Many people are eager to know about the American people's understanding and interpretation of the reasons propagated by George W. Bush for invading Iraq, and this book gives an honest but interesting account of their views which readers will surely find insightful. The book also provides enough space for a detailed discussion of such issues as the Iraq war, gay marriage, liberty, equality and so on. The book will, of course, be difficult reading for casual readers, for one needs uninterrupted attention to comprehend the details and the profound logic that is attached to them.
The book cannot be taken lightly. It does not aim at making every reader a political scientist or a political activist. But it does make a systematic effort to restore politics as a subject of a vigorous and enjoyable discourse. However one does not necessarily have to be a philosopher to understand the basic requisites of democracy. It is, therefore, expected that this book will contribute to a restoration of the art of political awareness among people across the world.
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