Democracy Is A True Democracy

Democracy is a “system of government in which political authority vested in the people” (Ch. 1, Pg. 4). Democracy is by far the most challenging form of government, for perhaps both politicians and the people. The term democracy comes from a Greek term which in short means “rule by the people”. The antique democracies in ancient cities, such as Rome and Athens, represent precursors of modern democracies. Like modern democracy, the need for organized rule arose in the midst of power abuse. The democracy we abide by today was created in the 17th century during the Age of Enlightenment, by philosophers such as John Locke, Voltaire… These philosophers created the foundation for our modern democracy. These essential elements such as the separation

     Democracy is defined as “A system of government in which ultimate political authority is vested in the People.” The Declaration’s

America has been acknowledged as being one of the world’s leading democracies, but to continue implementing the use of the Electoral College creates some distortion to that title. The out of date system does not accurately portray democracy. Theoretically, a democracy is government system that is ruled by the people. In reality, an individual’s vote may not matter depending on the state they reside in. Robert Dahl, a Democratic Theorist stated, “every member must have an equal and effective opportunity to vote, and all votes must be counted as equal.” Political equality is important to the distribution of power. Even if a person is wealthy and of power their vote should be counted the same as someone in poverty.

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.

The Electoral College does not create the democracy that the framers were so adamant about creating. With the Electoral College the Electors look at the results of the popular vote in their state but even then they decide whether or not to follow it. Even though the electoral college hasn’t matched the popular vote only 5 times in history, having the college does not give the authentic

Citizens might vote for the president however they don’t truly get to choose who wins. The system thinks that people cannot choose the president so they need a group of elite specialist to choose one for them. This clearly proves that we don’t even have to opportunity to be in the process in choosing our own president. Before hearing about this during the discussions in class, I did not know about how the Electoral College worked and it was very disappointing to see how it actually worked. It’s not true democracy without letting your citizens know how the system actually works and it’s astonishing to see the reality of it. For example, Plato’s tale on “The Allegory of the Cave”, the shadow of the cave symbolizes how people can have a sense of what is happening but they can’t truly see what is happening behind the doors. We think that we are looking at reality and when we finally see what is happening, it will

A democracy is not democratic if the people feel as though their opinions do not matter. The existing Electoral College system oppresses the people by making them believe their votes do not count. A democratic government should not allow the popular vote in a presidential election to be overshadowed by electoral votes. For example, some larger states with more electoral votes tend to side with either the Republican or Democratic party; therefore, if republicans who live within a heavily democratic state, such as Massachusetts or California, then they feel their votes are irrelevant. In recent elections, the voter turnout hovered around 60% (FairVote, www.fairvote.org). Specifically in this past 2016 election, 131,375,500 voters out of an eligible 218,959,000 completed their civic duty and utilized their ability to vote (Voting Turnout Statistics, Statistic Brain, www.statisticbrain.com). The fact that eligible voters do not feel obliged to use the right so graciously given to them by those who fought for their right to vote proves that there is a flaw in the system. This flaw is the winner-take-all clause. A state that is almost fifty-fifty in the popular vote with one party pulling ahead should not award every single electoral vote to that one candidate. This system allows for a nation to be divided, and only one side to heavily prevail. A proposed solution to

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.

A democracy is a system of government by the majority of the population or all the eligible members of a state, which is mainly through elected representatives. Citizens or elect representatives have the power to take it upon themselves to from a governing body, such as a parliament. Democracy is not working as originally intended. In the past, women, African Americans, and Native Americans could not vote, only white males could. The president was actually supposed to be chosen by men of the Electoral College, which is the people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president. Not by the Electoral College approving the will of the people. Senators were supposed to be appointed

Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines democracy "as a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by the people" (www.merriam-webster.com). But the one big problem is that "We the people" are not exercising their "supreme power" to determine the U.S. government. Less than half of the eligible electorate showed up at the polls for the 1996 U.S. presidential election. While lower turnout has marred previous presidential elections, 1996's voter turnout dipped below 50 percent for the first time in more than 30 years. It appears that the people's increasing cynicism about politicians that they lie to get elected and the perception that people have no respect or confidence in the

These people can exercise their power in different ways, directly or through elected officials. Democracy is a system of rule by laws, not by individuals. It is a means for the people to choose their leaders and hold them responsible for their conduct in office and for the policies they enact. In a democratic system, each citizen has certain fundamental rights that can not be taken away. Also, citizens in a democracy have a responsibility to keep up with current public issues, watch how their representatives are using their power to respond to these issues, and to voice their own opinions (Diamond, 01/21/04). Essentially, a democracy is a principal-agent relationship between the people of a country and the representatives they elect, respectively. In a principal-agent relationship, the principal delegates a responsibility to an agent who in turn takes

Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Democracy allows eligible citizens to participate equally—either directly or through elected representatives—in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. It encompasses social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination.

one essential conviction, expressed in the word democracy itself: that power should be in the hands of the people. Although democracy today has been slightly inefficient in this idea, with the wealthy, elite class challenging this right, “it nevertheless claims for itself a fundamental validity that no other kind of society shares….” To completely understand the structure of democracy, one must return to the roots of the practice itself, and examine the origins in ancient Greece, the expansion in the Roman Empire, and how these practices combined make what we recognize as today’s democratic government.

Theoretically, democracy is a stable form of government where power is in the hands of the people. In a democracy, people have the liberty to elect officials that best represent their interests, and political institutions exist as a result: Benjamin Constant argues in The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns that “true modern liberty is

Moreover, instating the right to choose also facilitates the incentive for people to speak out against an unruly leader. When a large mass of civilians disagrees or is concerned with a party’s implementation of policies, they can extract their title from them. Just because a party is elected, does not mean that they will remain in power for the entire duration originally allotted to them. The presence of foreseeable change is crucial to a societies degree of satisfaction associated with their current governmental system. Alteration gives democracy the upper hand. For example, in Spain in 1982, when Prime Minister Leopolodo Calvo Sotelo completely terminated the party that supported what the people wanted, the people in office forcibly made him resign.