An online news article within the last twelve months

Article Title: Problems of Democracy

Author: Edeh Samuel Chukwuemeka ChMC
Website Link: https://bscholarly.com/criticisms-of-democracy/
Website Date: January 2021

Democracy is a system of government where adult citizens share the supreme

power directly or through their elected representatives (Edeh Samuel
Chukwuemeka, 2021). It is based on popular consent; and drives its power on
public opinion, thereby permitting freedom of speech and ideas. Due to this,
democracy is popularly regarded as the best form of government (Rittenberg &
Tregarthen, 2009). However, it also has its own flaws as highlighted in the
news article aforementioned. Such flaws include the following:

i. Imposition of election candidates- Careful analysis of democracy

indicates that leaders are imposed form different parties. Consequently,
people choose their leaders from those that are made available to them
by the political party. Therefore, the actual freedom to elect anyone does
not exist but rest with the political parties (Chukwuemeka, 2021). An
example given is the United States that has only two parties from which
voters can make their choices, and those do not have preferred
candidates from any of the two parties have to reshape and refocus their
choices to the candidates from the two parties.

ii. It encourages party politics that may not be at the best interest of
citizens- Political parties do everything within their means to have their
candidates win elections, with the expectations that when they win, then
the political party and members will benefits such in terms of the
appointments to various senior positions. This compromises democracy
because when the candidates are elected, they put the interests of their
parties or members forefront at the expense of interest of citizens
(Chukwuemeka, 2021).

iii. Power struggle- In most countries even the developed countries, political
parties to struggle to win the elections through all means, some which
are extremely dirty such as rigging and other criminal activities. It is no
 doubt that some even fund thuggery, violence, vandalism and other sort
of dirty games to intimidate and win against their competitors.
iv. Inadequate political education- Many voters especially in the developing
countries do not really understand the issues and policies at stake,
therefore, some end up selling their votes to the politicians who dish out
a lot of money. This contributes to bad governance.
v. It breeds enmity- This is because with democracy, it is easy to know
which region did not support the incumbent and which one did. This in
turn may breed enmity even between clans or tribes and the incumbent
may treat the other groups that he or she deems an enemy by providing
inadequate service delivery, lack of appointment of leaders from their
regions to government positions, and even use of state machinery to
further injustices to them.

vi. Slow decision making- The whole process of democracy is slow, as it

requires a lot of consultations and approvals before any law is passed.
Besides, there are always lobby groups that always stand to block the
passing of a certain law. This in turn slows policy-making process.

vii. Strict compliance with the rule of law- There are some critical matters
that may need leadership instincts or experts full implementation,
however, democracy does not give space for that. This may sometimes be
disadvantageous in policy-

How the financial markets influence the government’s action

Financial markets provide finances for companies so that they can invest, hire
or grow, and even pay its taxes to the government. With this money, the
government is able to make decisions on projects to undertake such as
building infrastructures, provision of other social amenities, or other
investment projects.
One topic that I learned in this microeconomics course so far that I did
not know before

The topic that I realized I had no prior knowledge on was the “Labor markets
and Economic Inequality” which is unit 6 (Rittenberg & Tregarthen, 2009). I
really struggled studying this topic because almost everything was new and the
calculations were confusing. I had to dedicate a lot of time learning about the
Lorenz curve, labor markets and income, and finally, the poverty trap, which
was the most challenging especially the learning journal part. I actually
struggled with Poverty trap to the last hour and I had to send an email
notifying that I would be late in submitting my Learning Journal 6; this
happened after I had realized in the last hour that my previous calculations
were wrong and it would be better to notify and redo the assignment than send
poor quality.

However, I am grateful that I was able to grasp the concept and even explain to
my peers how calculations are done.

Benefits for me obtaining knowledge in microeconomics

Microeconomics is a branch of economics that studies the behavior of
individual agents such as households, workers, and businesses in the economy
and how decisions are made based on the allocation of limited resources
(Rittenberg & Tregarthen, 2009).

Like most of other people, I have a limited amount of time and money. I cannot
buy or do everything I want; therefore, I have to make calculated
microeconomic decisions on how to use my limited resources to maximize on
my personal satisfaction. Microeconomics helps me to understand consumer
behavior and the level of satisfaction of the people in the economy. With the
knowledge of utility, demand, and supply, I can find it easy to price and adjust the
price of my products to achieve maximum profit, which is key to business success.

Economics also helps me study and understand the practical working

decisions of the economic and the conditions of the economic welfare. The
entire economy is complex and complicated for any nonprofessional to analyze.
However, studying microeconomics enables me to comprehend the economic
system, such as the need to pay taxes, reasons why the government controls some
sectors or puts minimum wages. In addition, with the help of microeconomics, I
can now understand the standard of living and the condition of welfare of the
people, and analyze the factors that determine their welfare such as poverty trap.

Economics gives me domestic and international perspective. By analyzing both

historic and current world economic corporations, I am able to gain useful
insights into how different cultures, societies, businesses, and governments
interact; and the need for such interactions in terms of mutual benefits and the
positive externalities.

Microeconomics also enable me to understand and champion for economic and

social welfare through making optimum utilization of resources, thereby
lowering wastage.

Finally, knowledge in microeconomics will be vital in my job search- the ability

to understand complex economic concepts and situations, terminologies, tools
for economic analysis, and models will be valuable when searching for a new
job especially for the jobs requiring economics skill-sets such as modelling,
analytics and general knowledge.

References
Edeh Samuel Chukwuemeka, C. (2021, January 16). Criticisms of democracy: 9 major

Criticisms of a democratic system of government. Retrieved May 25, 2021, from

Bscholarly.com website: https://bscholarly.com/criticisms-of-democracy/

Rittenberg, L. & Tregarthan, L. (2009). Principles of Economics. New York. Flat

World Knowledge. Retrieved September 25, 2020, from
https://catalog.latworldknowledge.com/catalog/editions/rittenberge-
principles-of-economics-1-0