new issue essay.....please critique

[dicapino]

Government officials should rely on their own judgment rather than unquestioningly carry out the will of the people they serve.

 

 

 

Should government officials rely only on their personal judgement or listen to the will of the people? While some people argue that politicians should consider only their judgement on issues that affect national security and the economy, others argue that democratic ideals make governments amenable to public opinion. I believe governments should both be inclined to public opinion and follow their own judgement on certain issues.

 

 

Firstly, democratic ideals make government amenable to public opinion. A democratic government is one by the people and for the people, as such, politicians should consider public will in their decision making. When government tend to impose their own judgement over public opinion, they lose their legitimacy of being democratic and slowly thread a path that leads to despotism; furthermore, such decisions are sometimes wrong and the aftermath of such intransigency is catastrophic. For example, Hitler imposed his own judgement on Germans and was antithetic to public sentiment against going to war, his decision was wrong and the calamity of World War two is immeasurable. A less egregious case is George Bush taking the United States to war in Iraq on the suspicion of WMDs, while the American public were hostile to this action and till this day no such weapons have been seen in the Middle-East.

 

 

 

On the other hand important questions are created. Should officials consider public will when it comes to matters of national security? One thing is certain, on issues of national security, there is no need for public opinion and officials have more information than the public. Government has an obligation of guarranting the safety of its citizen and with the sufficient information available they should make prompt decisions on what action to take. For example,  the United States in its war against terrorism, has used drone strikes in Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan, to squatter many terrorist plot against its home soil, even when some section of the American public are against  its actions, on the long run the judgement of officials that ordered these actions is keeping the American public safe. Furthermore, take the example of the Greek bailout plan during the recession, the IMF released funds with assurances from the Greeks they would cut spending- meaning many citizens were to lose jobs. This lead to wide scale protests, but the government had better information that if these measures were not taken, it might not be able to run the country.

 

 

 

In conclusion, government own judgement is important on certain issues and also public opinion must also be considered. If citizens are to enjoy the dividends of democracy, government must try to balance between considering their own judgement and public opinion.