The Tension That Exists Between Democratic Governance And

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,

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

Democracy, a form of government where significant power is vested in the people and the people exercise their power by electing representatives or exercise their power directly by themselves via assembly. The U.S. Constitution was once considered to be Democratic – however – after an examination of the 3 branches of government the U.S. Constitution has some seemingly undemocratic attributes. There are features in all 3 branches that makes the U.S. Constitution seem undemocratic. The Executive Branch is undemocratic in the presidential election, specifically the Electoral College. The Legislative Branch is undemocratic in the Senatorial and House of Representative representation of the states. Lastly, the Judicial Branch is undemocratic due to its power of Judicial Review and the appointment process of new judges. Nevertheless, despite these features, I do not believe the U.S. Constitution should be truly classified as an undemocratic government.

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.

Even though democracy was first invented in Greece, fully grew and developed in the United states. As we know democracy is the back bone for one country’s development. When the government is under the law, it is least likely abusing the country’s resources for individual use and participating in corruption. For example, Africa has different kind of good resources, but the continent is very back ward because of their corrupted and dictator governors. A constitution is a framework that legally describes the rules and procedures of a government and legally binds that government to a set of guides as it limits and empowers the government to act in the name of the people or the state. “America got a constitution

The Federalist papers instituted the several advantages of a Constitutional democracy. For instance, in a Constitutional democracy, the government is restricted by legal means so that the rights of individuals are respected (Quigley). As the Federalist No. 22 affirms, “the consent of the people” is the “pure,

Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of our nation, played a huge role in the early formation of America. Alexander Hamilton was the first Secretary of Treasury appointed by George Washington. Hamilton's perception on human nature is still very real in today’s society—driven solely by their own passions and interests. He embraced the idea of a strong centralized government. Those who are elites should rule the country as ordinary citizens of the United States are not intelligent enough to govern themselves.

This leads to “inevitable bias being introduced into our political and legal cultures” (Dyzenhaus, Moreau, and Ripstein 544). Because these judges are coming from similar backgrounds, they share perspectives that consequently lead to the suppression of those whose interests are not “adequately recognized or supported by the dominant, mainstream ideologies” (Dyzenhaus, Moreau, and Ripstein 544). It is not hard to understand why some fear a Charter that is so hard to change is violating the principles of democracy. Judges, in no sense, are in the position of moral authority nor are they experts in areas typically concerned with by the government (Dyzenhaus, Moreau, and Ripstein 543). The judiciary is the epitome of contrasting notions when it comes to self-governing, the heart of democracy. Allowing unelected judges to overrule decisions of legislators is problematic for all of society and represents the abandonment of self-government (Dyzenhaus, Moreau, and Ripstein 541).

In the era of the contemporary United States, a country that has had the longest standing democracy, we are used to thinking very highly of its system. However, throughout our history, there have been a couple of critics to the system of democracy. It comes as no surprise that democracy does have its issues. One of the first pieces of literature where democracy was mentioned and analyzed at a deeper level was The Republic by Plato. This ancient Greek philosopher did not completely agree with democracy, regardless of the fact that ancient Athens was the first civilization that gave rise to it. In fact, in a numerical list that he composes on which are the best ways of ruling, Plato puts democracy at one of the lowest levels. In order, Plato’s list of types of government from most desirable to least desirable looks like this: 1.) Republic (The ideal city) 2.) Timocracy 3.) Oligarchy 4.) Democracy 5.) Tyranny. Additionally, In The Republic, Plato tells us his beliefs and values on certain aspects of life through the eyes of Socrates. So, even though Plato himself does not appear in The Republic and instead Socrates does, nonetheless, Plato and Socrates shared the same ideology when it came to democracy. As we know, Plato did not agree with democracy. As a result, in this paper, I will explore the greatest intellectual strengths and weaknesses of Plato’s view on democracy.

In all nations of the world, there is a Constitution that is suppose to be a guide on all the aspects of life. The Constitution guarantees and protects the rights of citizens. The United States of America is one of many nations that have tried in the past to try to uphold democracy through the Constitution. The main question that has been a major area of concern is whether the Constitution upholds a “true” democracy or created more of a republic system. Although our government now is trying to become more towards a democratic system, when the Framers created the Constitution they had the intentions in building a more republican democracy. According to an article written by Alan Keyes, the word “democracy” is not even stated within the Constitution and this is because a democracy did not stand for what the Founding Fathers wanted for our constitutional government “democracy does not achieve what America’s Founders understood to be the essential purpose of constitutional government” (Keyes, 2016).

The general understanding of democracy is that it is a state of leadership where citizens of a country participate equally either directly or by representative individuals in the establishment of laws, which run the society. However, like many other forms of leadership, democracy has its cons and may not give the citizens the necessary freedoms that they think they have. Different philosophers have different insights on democracy in terms of concepts such as liberty, which they embraced. This paper will look at Benjamin Barber and Joseph Schumpeter’s idea of democracy contrasting their definition in terms of citizenship, obligation, rights and duties of each individual in the society declaring whose idea of democracy creates a compelling vision (Terchek & Conte, 2001).

Democracy is a unique type of government, and the purpose of this essay is to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses that a democratic government provides. I will detail that many components of this type of society are both strengths and weakness as each component has beneficial aspects as well as unavoidable pitfalls.

Democracy is the set of conditions under which we can come to terms of equality. The constitution game is essentially maintaining democracy and equality.

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

The word ‘constitution’ is commonly used in at least two senses in any ordinary discussion of political affairs . First of all it is used to describe the whole system of government of a country , the collection of rules which establish and regulate or govern the government . These rules are partly legal , in the sense that courts of law will recognize and apply them , and partly non-legal or extra-legal , taking the form of usages , understandings, customs , or conventions which courts do not recognise as law but which are not less effective in regulation the government that the rules of law strictly so called.