Essay On Democracy In America

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.

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.

About a year ago i was going into town on a sunday afternoon. I went to walmart to do some shopping. When i walked in and seen this guy asking for some change. I had asked him what it was for, and he said food. Then he had mentioned he was a veteran. He was a pretty old guy too i felt super bad, we should not treat are veterans like that so here's what i think we should do.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America...and to the republic for which it stands...one nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.” (“Is the United States a Democracy?”) The United States’ pledge is taught to children of all ages, plays an active role in the patriotism of the people, and it symbolizes the citizen’s promise to never violate the Republic of the United States of America. The founding fathers built the foundation of America on their ideological belief that the country should be a republic and that all mankind are created equally. However, over the years, America has gained the title as a democratic nation and the status quo of America being considered “the majority rule.” The present state of affairs of the American government proves to be incorrect because the United States is not a democracy. The United States has limited citizens to participate equally on various occasions, due to the emphasis the government has placed on non-democratic practices, inconsistencies, and discrimination regarding race, gender, and ethnicity.

America is a country whose emergence is contributed to many sources. More specifically, the American form of Democracy stretch back beyond the formation of the United States, having origin in ancient Greek thinking, the Enlightenment, as well as the English and their injustice, The United States owes its birth as a country to many areas of influence.

Voting has not always been as easy as it is today. It is interesting to examine how far America has progressed in its process of allowing different types of people to be able to vote. Voting was once aimed at a particular group of people, which were white males that owned their own property. Today, most people over the age of eighteen can vote, except for the mentally incompetent or people who have been convicted of major felonies in some states. The decline of voter participation has always been a debate in the public arena. According to McDonald and Popkin, it is “the most important, most familiar, most analyzed, and most conjectured trend in recent American political history (2001, 963)” The question is, how important is voter

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.

When the Framers of the Constitution met in Philadelphia, they came together with one common purpose in mind. They needed to form a fair and solid system of government that would stand the test of time; one that was both fair for the people and would not involve a monarchy. Each of these men had their own ideas on what would constitute this system, however, so many compromises had to be made. Together, the men gathered in Philadelphia created a federal system of government and drafted a constitution outlining this government. They took care in developing three branches of federal government with a system of checks and balances so that no one branch would gain too much power, thus avoiding any

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.

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

     America. What’s the first thought to come to your mind after hearing this? Democracy? Land of Rights? That would make sense. America, the land of the free. The land of opportunity. But is America really a democracy? A country for the people, by the people? To an extent, but not exactly. The people of this great country do not have unlimited rights and the freedom to do what they please. Many of the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution are being limited and slowly being taken away.

One of the more complex and broad, in scope, pieces of our studies this semester has been the research of Gerrymandering. While the essence and defining traits of Gerrymandering are simple in nature, the complexities of the effects on American democracy and the everyday lives of the citizens the nation holds are of the most intricate I have personally come across. The astonishing aspect is not in the act of gerrymandering, no, if that was the case it would be illegal or constantly trying to be debunked by the majority of the populace. The astonishing facet of this systematic disruptor is the lack of knowledge and care by the common citizen. The mere acceptance of what they think is normal is quite bewildering and gives more reason to me why our state of the union is limping at the knees like it is. I cherish the ways of a republican ran nation, I love the adrenaline of capitalism alongside economic and social mobility. Yet at my most humane self, I am a liberal at heart who cherishes the ideals of direct democracy like that of the Athenians in Greece BCE. Growing up and having a somewhat tangible aspect of voting and outcomes, I had honestly thought that we lived in a direct democracy where everyone votes and is equal, where nothing was skewed. As I have reached past years of a pubescent psyche and study into the realities of American democracy the truth is ever so troubling, not because of the actions but because of hopeful ideas that everything is not skewed and

Democracy is a form of government that is based off representing and investing in the people it governs. Democracies are meant to provide equality for all the citizens governed under it. A democracy also allows for its citizens to elect those that represent them. For example, our president is elected by the citizens of the United States. He or she is not appointed by a single person or born into presidency. The United States democracy government is said to have four separate parts to it. One element is “[a] political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections” (“What is Democracy?” 2017). This is a broad way of talking about our presidency. As citizens, the country is allowed to elect who will run the country

Democracy is defined as “a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people, and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.” It is also defined as a “state of democracy characterized by formal equality of rights at privileges.” In short terms, a democracy is ran for the people, by the people. It is primarily focused on the equality among people, and those same people are able to control who holds the power in their economy. We, the United States, run as a democracy. Though, the electoral votes are those that are only accounted for in the election, our vote

American democracy depends on an informed and educated citizenry. The least significant do a diploma of high school, the less opportunity we make for meaningful access to higher education and at least our commitment by the capacity of the next generation to be able to think for them, most likely going to lose our democracy and the American dream by demagogues.