Sociology Assignment | New

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

SOCIOLOGY
1
Answer to Question 2
A democratic government is set up by the democracy of a country; the same
democracy that is said to be the power in the hands of the common people of the country as it
is them who elects their choice of governance of the state. The chosen governance is
supposed to act to represent the interest of the common people and to maintain law and order
in the society. It is the duty of the selected government to make laws that address the societal
issues and strives to resolve them. However, it is strongly believed that in today's time, the
present federal governments of most modern States are failing to represent the interests of the
people as they heavily inclined towards meeting their own purpose of money-making and
propagating their own interest of being re-elected in the next election (Smith 2014). In this
regard Russell Brand, a popular public figure has strongly claimed that most modern
democratic governments are a failure in terms of representing the interest of the people who
elect them. In this paper, the perspective of Russell Brand shall be supported with respect to
the Australian federal government with the help of newspaper reports, books and articles.
Failure of most Federal Governments to Represent the Interests of the People
Majority opinion of political thinkers, jurists and politically conscious people of the
Western political system are that the western countries are not democratic anymore but they
are plutocratic (driven by money/wealth), as most of the election candidates as well as
political parties are heavily dependent upon expensive election campaigns and which political
agenda which cannot be fulfilled without the help of an enormous amount of financial
support by industrialists and financial institutions, thereby giving an hint that such political
parties, after being elected as the ruling party, are bound to aid and support the money-
makers who had helped in their election campaigns (Smith 2014). Therefore, the political
parties, one selected as the federal government, spend more time and focus on helping the

SOCIOLOGY
2
ones who had helped them winning against their competitors rather than the ones for whom
they became a political party or the greater mass who actually voted for them (Smith 2014).
Australian scenario
The comments of Russell Brand in terms of the failure of the federal government to
represent the interest of the people who cast their vote to elect them fits with the present
scenario of Australia and its government's failure to take necessary actions for the welfare of
the people. In a recent poll, the Australian public faith in politics was the lowest at 43% as
compared to another poll in 2007 where the percentage of people’s faith on the government
was 68% (Smith 2014). It was stated by many that the bipartisan support towards anti-
democratic policies like free trade agreements, persecution of asylum seekers, blindly
following the US, unmanageable ecological disasters, economic disparity, et cetera makes the
government a complete failure to address the needs of the common people, instead the
government is showing its loyalty towards the US by following it in terms of any decision
rather than making its own independent decisions (Smith 2014).
In a recent poll conducted by the Sydney Morning Herald, a coveted Australian
newspaper, majority readers were of the view that the Australian democracy was broken
because:
a) politicians were nowhere near to the real world and has always put their political party's
interest over the welfare of the nation, which could be proven by the fact that the government
has always been interested to adopt short term policy stances, as they are aware that their
future is uncertain (The Sydney Morning Herald 2018).
b) the political parties who ever has made the federal government has never decided on the
fact that whether voting should be compulsory or it should be made preferential.