Democracy Before The Civil War

More than two-hundred years ago, thirteen young nations defeated a tyrant thousands of miles away. The prize for such a victory was self-government. For the first time in human history, a nation had handed over supreme executive power to the masses. Exercising this power has become a hallmark of being an American. Even today it is thought of as one of the most patriotic acts one can undertake. The thought of a nation run by popular vote is a comfortable enough idea, but in the case of the United States, a self-governed population threatens to destroy itself and possibly the world through wasteful spending, unregulated pursuit of profits, and a blotted military budget.

When writing the Constitution, one of the most prominent arguments focused on whether America should be considered a Democracy. A large percentage of the founding fathers feared the term “Democracy” because they strongly believed that if the people had control, then there would be disorder and violence. As James Madison stated in Federalist No. 10,

     A democracy is a system of government controlled by the people, not by one certain group or individual. In the Declaration of Independence it states that “all men are created equal,” an idea which leads to the concept that all citizens should have the same rights, responsibilities, and influence in the governing of their country. In writing the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson was trying to break his ties with the harsh and non-democratic rule of the British and begin a new, equal society and government for America.

The United States is no longer the democracy it stands for. Democracy stands for a government controlled by the majority of the population. The United States is no longer controlled by the majority. America is controlled by the powerful corporations and rich elite. The combination of an uninformed, disinterested public, a flawed election process, and an economy controlled by 1% of the population have all led to the formation of the American Oligarchy.

As a result of the North’s victory in the civil war and the reconstruction period that followed, African-Americans were seemingly on the verge of being able to enjoy the freedom of no longer being slaves. During the reconstruction era, important pieces of legislature were written in order to protect the rights of the newly freed men. Those pieces of legislature were essentially trying to somehow transform former slave into free productive members of society. However, a number of disgruntled southerners took it as their duty to prevent African-American from being free of their former masters. They saw the northerners demand as an infringement of the South traditional values. Although the

1828 was the true year America became a democracy, because finally all white men were able to vote. Prior to this there were restrictions such as land and taxes thet prevented a large amount of white men from voting. In 1828 they all could which was supposembly a true democratic nation. But, it was until 1920 that woman were given this same right, and not until 1965 that there was a law in place that prohibited the refusal of voters based on skin color, which truly gave African Americans the security to vote. Now that everyone can vote, different patterns occur over all the different demographic groups in relation to public opinion, political party affiliations, and electons. These different demographic groups include, but are not limited

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.

For the most part as Americans we are glad because we are made to believe this country is a democracy.But when we say the Pledge of Allegiance, “And to the Republic, for which it stands”, the word “Republic” stands out. Not only does this stand for what we are today, but it also goes to prove our form of government. This is not the only reason the United States can not be considered a democracy, but also due to the intentions of the founding fathers and the fatal flaws the nation has such as the electoral college, and racial discrimination.

Democracy, as a form of government, is the idea of spreading political power to the people, while still supporting the “common man” rule. The idea behind democracy is to unify the people, and allow common citizens to have a say in their government. This idea erupted after the Jeffersonian era came to a close in 1800, the Jeffersonian era changed how exclusive America should now be. Andrew Jackson specifically played a major role in shifting America from a two party government, known as the articles of confederation to a democracy. In 1824 the Democratic Party had split into Jacksonian Democrats and Nationalist-Republicans, the split of parties allowed Andrew Jackson to fully share ideas, through his own democratic party. When the newly elected

In the beginning, the nation’s Founders were profoundly skeptical of direct democracy. They believed that the “follies” of direct democracy far outweighed any virtues it might possess (Politics in American pg. 76). According to an essay by Rose Wilder Lane (Lane, 1943), “George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, James Madison, and James Monroe feared democracy.” The founders believed that the Constitution left all other governmental powers to the states (Politics in American 2009 pg. 133). Our Founding Fathers never intended for America to become a democracy. Most of them had served in the American Revolution, either as soldiers in the Continental Army or as part of a legislative body. After the Revolutionary

Democracy, as most people think of it today, did not exist during the first few decades of U.S. history.

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

Democracy, the availability of the citizens to vote and elect who represents them in a political setting, set upon non-hostile competition and fairly represents the views of the people was described by Abraham Lincoln as “…the government of the people, by the people, for the people.” President Barack Obama stated on February 9, 2009, “The strongest democracies flourish from frequent and lively debate, but they endure when people of every background and belief find a way to set aside smaller differences in service of a greater purpose.” The average American college student, like myself, believe these quote to be true. American Author, H.L. Mencken disagreed, stating that “Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.” Churchill was not saying that democracy is bad, he is explaining that while it is imperfect, it is far less so than the are other governmental models seen throughout the world- like dictatorships in Russia, autocracy Libya, and monarchies like Morocco. Democracy is far from perfect, but is a much more effective form of government than its modern day competitors such as dictatorships, autocracies, and true monarchies, which are ineffective due to…………(couple word summary of each here)

Since the initiation of the Third Wave of Democracy, several countries have attempted to form a democratic system of governs. We take note that not all have succeeded. At the dawn of this era, democracy was being applied to countries with no prior history of a governing body that was place by the people for the people hence success of such a system could not be guaranteed because of the innumerous variables that existed in each country. People being the highlighted factor of variance, it may become easier to understand how countries such as Pakistan and Nigeria, both countries prior to the Wave had no local governing machinery. Pakistan further endured a partition from India which resulted in not only an instant religious and

The word democracy literally means "the government of the people" (demos). Plato, of course, is using the