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From: mokhtar@ubc-vision.UUCP (Farzin Mokhtarian)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: American Foreign Policy
Message-ID: <41@ubc-vision.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-Jan-86 00:14:28 EST
Article-I.D.: ubc-visi.41
Posted: Thu Jan  9 00:14:28 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 9-Jan-86 04:24:16 EST
Organization: UBC Computational Vision Lab, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
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Subject: Re: American Foreign Policy

>                                    Didn't you notice the chaotic in-fighting
> within the Administration over just about all significant foreign policy 
> questions? Think about how much worse it would be if Congress were responsible
> for even a part of these decisions. 

I am not saying that the process would be quicker. But quick decision making is
not necessarily better. Even if there were important time constraints involved,
the congress and the administration could both be told that a decision has to
be made by  time t. If  congress  still failed  to make up its mind, take the
decision made by the administration. 
  
> The answer to your question is:
>	   America is a *representative* democracy.  The *US Constitution* says
>	   that the Executive branch is responsible for relations with other
>	   countries, with the Legislative branch overseeing.  President Reagan
>	   is our elected representative to other nations.  Therefore, the
>	   United States is a representative democracy, both on the inside and
>	   on the outside.
>
>     Mike Lewis @ Purdue

OK, America is a *representative* democracy. But this is open to interpretation.
When it comes to an important foreign policy decision, can a single person (no
matter how  intelligent  and informed) realistically represent a large nation?
  
The meaning of "with the Legislative branch overseeing" is vague. Just how
much of a say does it have?
  
   Farzin Mokhtarian

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