Trisha M. Butler

This essay was written as a term paper for a Legislatures and Legislative Behavior course. “Sick Man of Democracy” is a comparative analysis of the United States constitutional federal republic with Ireland’s unitary constitutional parliamentary republic. Beyond comparing the type of governments, the paper also compares the electoral and voting systems used in each country to democratically elect their representatives.

I am fond of this paper as it ties my history degree in and required studying one of my favorite regions. The work demonstrates a competency to employ research to compare and contrast divergent political systems. It also draws on historical correlations, as politics did in the past, whereas now it focuses more heavily on statistics and economics. I strongly believe that it is necessary to acknowledge lessons learned in the past when developing policy and taking political action.