【big fish】 习作1.6 Issue079 by rachelwang712

rachelwang712UID: 2757860

Issue No.079


"Major policy decisions should always be left to politicians and other government experts, who are more informed and thus have better judgment and perspective than do members of the general public."

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提纲：
1人人有自由知道自己tax去了哪里，对于关乎公共利益的事情更应有自由进行表决
2公众可能在专业素养上不如政治家和专家，但是这样是意味着他们更应该被教育，被提供通俗但公平的政策解读，而不是被排除在政策执行外
3诚然一些重大的专业性极高的决策需要专家而非公众，但是仍要保证他们不滥用权利，以及公众知情权

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It has been advocated, mainly by politicians that the general public is not qualified in their knowledge to make major policy decisions, which, thus have to be up to them and government experts. However, from my perspective, the claim, after carefully examination, lacks cogency. Actually, the general public have to and will be able to participate in policy making process and at least, they need to be informed.

To begin with, everyone is entitled to voice their opinions as to anything concerning the public interest which of course regards their personal interest as well. The basic ideal democracy pursues is freedom of every person. Aristotle believes, and I paraphrase, the underlying principle of democracy is freedom, since only in a democracy the citizens can have a share in freedom. Usually a government is established and maintained when people agree to let a more powerful institute carry out major policies more effectively. For instance, people pay taxes so that the social welfare can be improved with all the money. But taxpayers have every right to decide and know where their money is spent on. So are general public who have freedom to take part in policy making to make their interest and public interest are not abused.

Furthermore, education, in its broader sense, is effective in bridging the knowledge gap between politicians, government experts and general public. More often than not, public is less informed simply because the government is hiding from them. A government, with all its power and might, is able to wall up information flow to its public, thus making them ignorant to where major policies issued by government damage their interest. But once educated, the public can be as informed as experts. Sometimes, media plays the role of educator. As Joseph Pulitzer describes his ideal for newspaper to inform public,“Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.” Provided critical insight into social problems, general public is expected to take on the best judgement concerning their own interest, one that may be much better than what is determined by a small number of elites. Therefore, people should be educated about the social issues policies aim to address thoroughly so that they can take on their own share of freedom and responsibility to make the decision rather than be simply excluded from the whole process.

Admittedly, time to time, there appear some highly specialized issues, requiring a great amount of know-how and expertise, to be handled. And the public, however they are educated about these, can never master. In consequence, these policy decisions have to be left to experts. Albeit on this occasion, never can adequate information be concealed from general public. Were people inhibited from learning about what the experts are doing with their interest, very likely, government would abuse its right and sacrificed the mass interest for its own. It is, as a result, highly recommended that information transparency is guarded from any power attempting to damage it.

To sum up, the belief that general public is less able to be relied on major public decisions for lacking enough information and knowledge is misleading. In fact, people have freedom he is born with to participate in the policy designing process and they should be educated, rather than excluded, to qualify in this role. Also, even if they don't take initiative to make, they have to be informed of the whole process.

greekyUID: 2605662

逻辑主线的问题不大，就是有的地方思维还是有点国产化了。 有一点欣赏的就是你的语言，呵呵 很不错啊 不过有的地方用的词组太牵强了，不够地道~~~ 相信时间不久这种情况肯定会减少的