Democracy is, and will always be, as one of America’s past presidents Abraham Lincoln stated in his Gettysburg Address, “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” The exact definition for democracy is a system of government by the whole population of a state, typically through elected members. The original idea of democracy that America’s Founding Fathers promoted has shifted throughout the years. America was founded on the principles of freedom and liberty and many of these freedoms and liberties are being stripped away, or are at risk of being stripped away, by the American government. America is no longer a democracy, but it is an oligarchy. America is considered an oligarchy because of one reason, and that reason is that power lies in the hand of the elite wealthy. The majority of the population in America belongs to the middle class. “The preferences of most American citizens have little impact on government. Instead, the responsiveness of government is strongly tilted towards the most affluent citizens” . Those who reap the benefits are the ones creating policies. As U.S. supreme court justice, Louis Brandeis, stated, “America can have democracy or it can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but it cannot have both.” Oligarchy and democracy cannot coexist. It is true to say that since the founding of America, freedoms and rights of all who have inhabited this land have greatly increased. However, in recent years, these rights have
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.
People talk about the United States being a democracy, but what exactly is a democracy? A democracy is basically power that is given to the people and is used
Democracy is defined as “A system of government in which ultimate political authority is vested in the People.” The Declaration’s
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.
What is democracy, do we really understand the concept and the implications of the freedoms that our society enjoys. Democracy by definition is 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”.(1) The United States democracy in current times can be a difficult situation to grasp, due to the fact that we are operating off of the Constitution written over 200 years ago, and individuals modern
As said before, democracy is when branches of the government need to listen and follow all the wishes of the people. In document two, it says that the Jacksonians asked “Shall the people rule?” and they replied with “The people shall rule!” They want the government to do what the people say. Daniel Webster says that he had never seen anything like it because people came from all over to see Andrew Jackson.
Democracy, as defined in American Government: Power and Purpose, is “a system of rule that permits citizens to play a significant part in the governmental process, usually through the selection of key public officials.” In the centuries before and since its founding, the United States has indubitably had undemocratic elements. In colonial times, the thirteen colonies’ government derived most of its authority from the elites, depriving many of those residing in lower socioeconomic classes from a voice in government. During the time of the American Revolution,
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.
The United States government has fulfilled the American democracy however, there has been major fulfilments that have not been completed. The start to our democracy begin with our Enlightenment ideas which influenced our founding fathers. These ideas dealt with Natural Rights, Social Contract, and Revolution. The Natural Rights idea comes from a famous philosopher named John Locke. He basically states that every human has certain rights that are not given to them by the government and those rights that aren 't mentioned are called Natural Rights. This idea was put into effect with the 9th Amendment, this Amendment means there are other rights that may exist aside from the ones directly mentioned in the constitution, and even though they are not mention it doesn 't mean that they cannot be violated.
Government throughout history and throughout different cultures has changed from one system to another. People fight for power, and a steady government means usually means more prosperous times. When bad times come, power levels may increase, overthrows are enacted, and sometimes the system itself changes. Societies often go about this differently, and patters may be hard to find. However, one thing that history seems to show is that rich people dominant the government. Social classes have always been a part of society, and those who already have more money, education, and resources tend to be the one’s ruling over those who have less. Most people who rule are given extra resources and valuable because they rule. But the pattern that is seen throughout history shows people who already had much, getting power, instead of an average person getting to power, then becoming rich.
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
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.
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
The term “democracy” had multiple definitions, including a government that was directly governed by the people. This term was used more often during the American Revolution to inspire the struggle for independence.
Democracy in America has changed through the years. We started out a republic and in some ways we still are, but in other ways we have turned into a democracy and in some ways we have turned into a socialist country. We still have the vote and the Electoral College. That is an example of how we are still a republic. An example of how we have turned to democracy is the unions. When a union gets together and votes on something such as a strike, that is mob rule and, with the exception of making a deal, there is nothing that anyone can do. An example of how we have become more socialist is the fact that the progressives want to make everything equal and with the current President and Senate, they