When one thinks of the American system of government what often flashes through their mind is a sort of patriotic image of a society in which the people have say through the ability to elect their leaders. The “land of the free” as many called it for years America has been seen as the bastion of freedom around the world. Yet, despite the popular imagery of America as a land of freedom, its system of government is really far more complex and far more difficult to label then simply calling it democracy. Indeed, when looking through the lens of Marx and Durkheim the American political system is something far more complex then the popular imagery and ideology would dictate.

To start our analysis, we must first look at the American political system. The political system of the United States is something so large and vast that to analyze it in its entirety would be a monumental task. As a result, this analysis will look at two specific aspects of that system: the vote and the two party systems. As a result, the data on the most recent presidential election will be used to help illustrate the points and positions of the two social theories which will be discussed in this analysis. According to the Center for the study 126 million people voted in the 2012 election, in which 62,611,250 people cast their votes for the victor, sitting president and Democrat Barak Obama, while 59,134,475 people cast their votes for the republican challenger, Mitt Romney, these figures originating from Politico.com While all of this may just seem like dry statistics, when looked at through the lens of two social theorists they, as well as the overall concepts of the two party system and the vote can tell us much information.

We now turn our attention to our first theorist, Karl Marx. Karl Marx was a man born during a time in which capitalism had little restrictions placed upon it. Child labor, horrific work hours, pollution and poverty where everyday things during the time in which Marx did his work and as a result Marx saw everything through the lens of class struggles. To him, history moved in a dialectical way in ...

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