English Essay

Annotated Bibliography

Books:

Moghaddam, Fathali M. “Freedom of Speech.” Freedom of Speech., American Psychological Association, 2016, pp. 109–120.

The chapter “Freedom of Speech” in the book The psychology of democracy has demonstrated how the situations are different from various countries and how the policy should change to further make effort to the freedom of speech and to remedy the disengagement and cynicism in the societies. Moghaddam states that so as to actualize democracy, the expression should be constructive and coupled with empathic listening and, in a larger context, the laws in the political campaigns need to make some changes. Meanwhile, on the other hand,  the government should be able to educate people to have the ability of empathic listening and constructive free speech. The psychology of democracy provides examples from various countries and introduces several ideas about how to further improve democracy.

Haugen, et al. Democracy. Greenhaven Press, 2012.

Through exploring from a wide range of sources, Democracy has shown how economy and democracy are correlative with each other and the factors that threaten the establishment of democracy. Haugen argues that countries around the world are striving to establish working democracies but are failing to. By taking the example of the Middle East, He has illustrated how the Muslim Brotherhood plays a role in democratic change and has discussed whether the Muslim Brotherhood is a threat to the democracy. Furthermore, Haugen states that to improve United State democracy, the progressive tax policy should be changed to proportional and be more transparent. Additionally, the improvement of democracy will make progress to the national security and the promotion of democracy in the Middle East will also benefit US interests.

Articles:

Carothers, Thomas. “Democracy.” Foreign Policy, no. 107, Summer 1997, p. 11. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=9708190374&site=ehost-live.

In the article Democracy, Thomas has discussed several ideas about democracy. He describes that the various democratic systems actually share many similarities between. The underlying liberal democratic model is the base that most societies are based on. Besides, He talks about the basic liberal democratic model for democracy and the democracies in economic reforms. Furthermore, he introduces the several threats and effects of the development the democracy such as the relationship between democracy and economic development, the military coup. Finally, by mentioning the “contagion” effects of democracy, Thomas states that democratization can only be worked out the people within the country instead of outside interferences.

Greenblatt, Alan. “Free Speech at Risk.” CQ Researcher, vol. 23, no. 16, 2013, pp. 377–400.

After the phone-hacking scandal in the British press and the eruption of Muslims worldwide violently images in Western social media, more restrictions on the free speech are formed. Free Speech at Risk points out three questions about how technology, religious sensibility, and free expression are relative and whether it is proper for the US to promote free speech abroad. It argues that free speech is beginning to conflict with other values in the country such as security and protection of children. Besides, Free Speech at Risk describes the background and current situations of free speech by exploring the Britain phone-hacking scandal, the history of free expression rights, information explosion and government secrets etc. It is able to illustrate the pros and cons of the free speech right and apply them to real-life situations.