Americ The Land Of The Free

Democracy formed in the 1700's and has opened the doors for individuals living in the United States to have a voice towards the principles established. Democracy provided freedom, representation for majority and minorities groups, and posterity.

Democracy, as it is used today, means “ the people rule.” A democracy is a form of government ruled by the people of the country through elections and representation. A democracy is really a form of republic known as a democratic republic. A republic is a government where officials elected by a small group of people that make the important decisions.

The word democracy comes from two Greek words: demos, meaning "the people," and kratein, meaning "to rule." These two words are joined together to form a democracy, literally meaning "rule by the people". Nowadays democracy could be referred as a rule of the majority. It is a system of government in which the citizens exercise power directly or choose delegates from among themselves to form a governing body, such as a parliament. The Greek system of government was maybe more like a true democracy or administered by the general population than any other ever. On the other hand, most American politicians with mindfulness and knowledge have realized that the U.S. is not a Democracy as a country, regardless of the way that most people declare it to be a Democracy. Greek and American democracy have some similarities such as the amount of nationalism and patriotism saw in the people when a lack of representation for a city-state or nation as a whole is seen, and they both vote for their political leaders.

“In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme” - Aristotle. This quote lays out the main idea behind Democracy. The idea that the people deserve equality and freedom. Equality in race, colour and religion, and freedom of speech, and will, unless it is against the will of the majority of the people. Democracy endeavors to achieve a balance in freedom of an individual, whilst not violating the majority's will. Democracy was developed in Ancient Greece. The word itself comes from the greek term ‘demokratia’ (‘demos - the people’ and ‘kratos - rule’. Democracy was first used in the Greek state, Athens. Athens used a direct form of Democracy, as people knew each other. Nowadays, there are an abundant amount of countries that are ruled under democracy, such as New Zealand, Switzerland, Ireland, and Austria.

When you think of the word democracy you think about a politics. I am not a fan of politics at all but when someone says democracy, I think of a system of government that the population votes in a candidate through elected representatives. The schooling system does a good job noftying children that their vote counts. These are the rights that everyone has to fight about because they are very important. People always fight for the right to vote and their voice to be heard. The word democracy just does not mean that citizens are only being heard it also means that the democracy needs to listen to the voice. I also think that democracy means that not only are you able to vote and your voice to be heard it means we as a democracy have a huge

The word democracy elicits different perceptions from different people. Some may see democracy as only a government ruled directly by the people, in which the people write and choose laws directly. Others may include representative democracy in which representatives are chosen by the people to write, pass, and enforce laws. It is the latter view that would best describe America. In this sense, America is not a pure democracy, and few would ever say it was founded as one. However, the question remains: Is America a democracy. Though America as a whole has few direct ways for people to participate in the writing and enforcement of most laws, I would venture to say that American government should be considered a democracy. Indeed, democratic elements pervade the American political structure. The American republic would not be what it is without the necessary democratic elements that are used in the execution of governing.

The United States is considered to have the world's greatest democracy, however, every four years when Americans go to the voting polls to select a presidential candidate, the controversy of our voting system arises. The United States voting system consists of many components and is referred to as Electoral College. The Electoral College has remained in place for the past two centuries after our founding fathers created it. Fundamentally, the Electoral College consists of 538 electors. This specific number is made up of 435 Representatives, 100 Senators, and 3 electors from the District of Columbia, who are responsible to vote for a specific presidential candidate. According to the 23rd Amendment, the District of Columbia is referred to as

Many American citizens believe that when they vote they are voting for the President, but in reality they are voting for a group of people who then vote for the President. The elected people are decided by the popular vote for each state, but the number of people each state gets to elect is determined by representation in the Senate and House of Representatives. Every state automatically gets two electors (because there is equal

The definition of democracy is a system of government in which the power vested in the people.This means that the government allows the people to make decisions Many people think that the U.S is pure democracy. However it’s proven not to be truly a democracy.

By definition, democracy is a type of political system in which all members share the same level of power, but it is also the framework for the government of multiple countries including the United States of America. Athenian democracy, created near 400 B.C. in Athens, Greece, was a direct system where participating citizens had the opportunity to vote directly on legislative and executive bills. The founding fathers of the United States took the Athenian’s idea and created the idea of “representative democracy”, where the citizens of a nation were able to elect representatives who would make decisions for them. In fact, the United States could be considered to be more of a constitutional republic than democracy, since the Athenian democracy that influenced them is not a “true democracy”. Even though differences between the two governments exist, ancient Athenians heavily influenced the Founding Fathers of the United States of America to form a democratic government, allow representatives to vote on legislation, and to provide equality and fair trials to their people.

When the Founding Fathers were piecing together our government, they did not intend to make it a true democracy. Instead, they designed it to be a republic in which the citizens are represented by electors. If it was not this way, rural areas of the country would have almost no say in the presidential election. Most states follow the winner-takes-all rule. This states that the candidate that gets the majority of votes within a state automatically gets all of the electoral votes (Ross).

With every Presidential election, the United States’ electoral college takes place. The electoral college has been around for about 200 years and it is still going strong with its intended purpose. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Democracy is defined as a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections. This definition is accurate in the way that supreme power is held by the people but also that there are two forms, direct and indirect. Direct democracy is a system of government in which members of the polity, or political organization, meet to discuss all policy decisions and then agree to abide. This is also is called true democracy. In the form everyone is equal and their votes would count. So by voting, they will be able to voice their opinion and majority rule is the majority of the people, all 320 millions people in the United States of America.

Every year Americans are given the right to vote for the people they feel will best support the government and help America. Voting is very important in the United States and without it, we wouldn’t be considered a representative republic. Americans vote by using a system named the electoral college. The Electoral College is a system where the people vote for the person they feel should win. The state tallies all of the votes made by the people living in the state and finds which candidate got the majority of votes. Then the state as a whole will vote for the candidate with the majority. Even if one candidate gets 51% of votes and the other gets 49% the candidate with 51% of the votes gets 100% of the state’s votes. The Electoral College is

America, “The Land of the Free,” or so I thought. As an American, I have always believed that everyone has a right to free speech, free thinking, and a life without racism. I thought that I was lucky to be growing up in this century, where slavery had been abolished almost completely and racism on a steady decline. I was beyond proud of all of the accomplishments that our country had made in the past thousands of years; that was until I read “Whither Now and Why,” by W.E.B DuBois. DuBois was a Negro man, who in this passage described that although Negroes would soon be lawfully equal, they would never be socially or independently equal and forced to assimilate to White American culture (DuBois, W.E.B., 135). DuBois predicted that black identity would be lost if his kind were forced to assimilate to White culture, and compared this assimilation to “racial suicide” (DuBois, W.E.B., 135) Through this passage, DuBois was not only able to describe “racial suicide” of his culture but helped to open my eyes and see that assimilation is still a huge problem in America today.

It’s hard to define something big as democracy in few short words, but president Abraham Lincoln does it best by defining democracy as a “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” (Bleicherstrasse). The Merriam Webster Dictionary barely scratches the surface of what democracy really means. It tries to define democracy as “a form of government in which people choose leaders by voting, a country ruled by democracy, an organization or situation in which everyone is treated equally and has equal rights”, but democracy is so much more than that. For a government to be considered true democracy it must support these four key elements “A political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections, the active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life, protection of the human rights of all citizens, a rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens” (Diamond, 2004). If we go by this definition of democracy than America is not consider to be true democracy.