American Democracy Characteristics

OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to analyze a series of sources related to the causes and effects of exploration and answer questions.

Representative Democracy – the citizens choose a smaller group to represent them, make laws, and govern on their behalf, but the people remain the source of the government’s authority.

There is no doubt that the United States of America is a democracy, but how democratic are some of the components of our system of government? For example, the Electoral College is used when selecting the president of The United States, but the founders developed the Electoral College based on a theory of how it should work with no practical, real-world example of how it realistically works. Based on the three core principles of democracy which are popular sovereignty, political equality, and political freedom, the Electoral College falls short when assessed using these democratic values.

Prior to the American Revolution the 13 colonies took some steps towards a democratic government but remained undemocratic in various ways. Many steps were taken towards a democratic government, and the same amount of steps and some greater were taken towards a undemocratic government through conflict in different social classes, and limited rights.

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.

A representative democracy is where certain groups are represented by a number of people who were elected by the public (that meet the voting requirements) based off of their prospering abilities to help make big decisions for the country. Our constitution proves this fact according to this quote: “The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states, and that the electors shall have the qualifications requisite for the electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature.” quoted from document five. The definition of Democracy is: A form of government that allows most citizens of a state or a country to influence decisions based off of a popular vote. Another form of democracy is a Direct Democracy. A Direct Democracy is a form of government where all big and small decisions are strictly in the hands of the citizens of the public. Even though that Direct Democracy is different than Representative Democracy, they both have some similarities. For instance, in Document Three it states that “When settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the laws”. In our constitution, it says all men should be treated as

The United States does not have a direct democracy, it is a Republic. Our form of government was created by the founding fathers of America. The founding fathers were educated and scholarly men they were the political leaders of the colonies. These men developed their own ideas about what government should be which influenced the writing of the US constitution. They used their knowledge of past governments and political philosophy to shape the history and government in the United States. Some founders were Thomas Jefferson, author of The Declaration of Independence. George Washington who led the army against the British in the Revolutionary War and who eventually became the first president. James Madison was known for being the father of the constitution because he contributed the most in it, he included the Virginia Plan and The Bill of Rights. Direct Democracy was used by the Greeks in Athens influenced the founders to write the US Constitution in 1788.

The United States is a government run by the people and for the people. The whole population may participate in governing through the device of having a much smaller number of people act on their behalf. In a pluralistic

In today's society people elect representatives because those representatives defend people ideas and have solutions to people needs. The fact of been able to elect any representative make our society a democracy because we are free to elect who we want and everyone has the opportunity to express their opinion by voting for a representative. Also this voting process is do every certain time and representatives can be reelected a certain amount of time, giving the opportunity to everyone to be a representative. Furthermore, people have also options to change a representative during his/her tern if the representative does not show competence and responsibility at his/her job.

For better or worse man has no choice but to live in society, but yet to live in society individuals are involved in multiple situations that lead to conflicts and disputes. Democracy is the only viable political framework and satisfactory for a society to move in harmony. Democracy allows us to find additional solutions that reflect the multitude of interests that exist in society. The authors of the books The Struggle for Democracy mention“ Some political thinkers think that democracy is the form of government that best protects human right because it is the only one based on a recognition of the intrinsic worth and equality or human beings.” (4) Democracy is good for the growth of a nation, through democracy people have been able to manifest in a peaceful way their needs, making agreements and disagreements, from my point of view, between this and other facts have led the United States to be a great nation. Democracy is a way to govern the people of a nation where every citizen agrees to the way the government governs the people. In other words, the people is part of the democracy. But, it has been with the help of the important factors that United States has achieve a fair political democracy. Next, you will find the three main features of Representative democracy of United States (Popular Sovereignty, Political Equality and Political Liberty)

Democracy is a form of government which dominates the western world. In democracy, every person is given equal input into matters of the state, although this does happen to varying degrees. There exist many different types of democracy. Absolute or direct democracy occurs when each citizen personally participates in all decision-making processes. This system is difficult to maintain due to the vast number of people and the necessity for all people to be informed, logical, and educated when making many decisions. This form of democracy has not existed in significant sized populations. Representative democracy is a type of government in which the people elect government officials to make decisions concerning the state. The two most prevalent types of representative democracy are democratic republics and parliamentary democracies. In a democratic republic, such as the United States or Canada, the people elect both their representatives in government and their head of state. In a parliamentary democracy, such as the United Kingdom or Australia, the people elect their representatives and their representatives elect their head of state.

America is viewed as the beacon of the world; the shining city on a hill. Multiple factors contribute to this characterization. To many, a key factor to that characterization comes from our liberal form of democracy. In American Difference, the authors highlight six key characteristics of a liberal democracy; representative and limited government, regular and competitive elections, rule of law, multiple channels for political participation, limited state control over the economy, and protection of civil rights and liberties. The United States fits many, if not all, of these characteristics in one way or another.

Voting equality means that when it is time that a decision on policy be made, each member must have an equal and effective opportunity to vote on a policy, with all votes being considered equal. Along with effective participation, voting equality is essential in constituting a democracy. For voting to be effective and equal, not only do citizens have to have reasonable access to voting locations, but they must also physically turn up and vote, something that does not always happen in practise. For instance, in the 2012 Presidential Election, 123,714,407 eligible citizens voted compared to 131,142,144 votes cast in the 2008 election (McDonald, 2012). That means there was a decrease in voter turnout of 3.4 percentage points from 2008 (61.6%) to 2012 (58.2%) (Andrews et al., 2012), prompting questions as to why 7,427,737 less voters participated. When a mere 58% of your country’s population chooses not to vote in the

Representative government is grounded in the Constitution. The Constitution was created to protect citizens from factious groups through the establishment of an extended republic intended to “diminish the chances that any one faction will gain majority” (Kamark & Nye 29). However, it is still possible that citizens, as the majority, will tyrannize each other (25).

It has also been suggested that a basic feature of democracy is the capacity of eligible voters to participate freely and fully in the life of their society.[14] With its emphasis on notions of social contract and the collective will of the eligible voters, democracy can also be characterized as a form of political collectivism because it is defined as a form of government in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives.[15]