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Definitions. There are so many different views about the world that a definition that could seem sound to me yet, appear to be an incredibly radical to someone else. It has been 230 years since the Constitution was signed, there has probably been hundreds of definition about what democracy means.
In my opinion Democracy is a government that has been elected by the people through their chosen representatives and the people of that country are the foundation. There are many examples of the Constitution being a democratic document. For example in article 26 in the Constitution, it states that “The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of age”. This proves that the Constitution is a democratic document because the people are voting to elect their representatives, then those people generally listen and vote with the people for the government
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One example of the constitution not being a democratic document is how much the different branches rely on each other to keep them honest yet, there is not as many chances for the people to keep its government in check. While the Checks and balance system is a often applauded it causes some to question how democratic the Constitution really is. Another example of a piece of the document being questioned for its non-democratic nature is the electoral college. This is the system in place where each state gets the amount of electoral voters that they have in senators and representatives. Then those people vote on who our president is rather than the people voting on its government officials. This also is bad because it puts another layer in between the people and it’s government which means that the people have less access to not only be directly informed but, it also prevents the people from keeping the government in
In the book, “How Democratic Is the American Constitution”, Robert A. Dahl takes us deeper into the complexities of demonstration of American majority rule government were surrounded. An intriguing part of this book is the examination with different popular governments as far and wide as possible. His tables and graphs in the book are helpful for the situation. The book also given an idea of majority rules system in the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary Democracy is a form of government by the people; especially: rule of the majority(Webster). This is what the United States is represented as, and this is based on the United States Constitution from which the United states draws all legal powers. In Robert Dahls book How democratic Is the American Constitution? He challenges this idea by trying to appeal to his readers in a way that they may view the United States Constitution in a different light. Dahl does this by pointing out flaws that the Constitution has and, draws on facts based on the other democracies around the world that the United States is compared too. He points out how many democratic ideas and innovations have a occurred since the conception of the American Constitution yet it has only adopted some of those idea.
Robert Dahl's book How Democratic is the American Constitution, reminds us that the American Constitution wasn't the only possible base for a democratic system in America. In this book Dahl explains some of the democratic and undemocratic aspects of the American constitution. He also explains what should be changed to improve it.
In this excerpt from Democracy in America Alexis Tocqueville expresses his sentiments about the United States democratic government. Tocqueville believes the government's nature exists in the absolute supremacy of the majority, meaning that those citizens of the United States who are of legal age control legislation passed by the government. However, the power of the majority can exceed its limits. Tocqueville believed that the United States was a land of equality, liberty, and political wisdom. He considered it be a land where the government only served as the voice of the its citizens. He compares the government of the US to that of European systems. To him, European governments were still constricted by aristocratic privilege, the people had no hand in the formation of their government, let alone, there every day lives. He held up the American system as a successful model of what aristocratic European systems would inevitably become, systems of democracy and social equality. Although he held the American democratic system in high regards, he did have his concerns about the systems shortcomings. Tocqueville feared that the virtues he honored, such as creativity, freedom, civic participation, and taste, would be endangered by "the tyranny of the majority." In the United States the majority rules, but whose their to rule the majority. Tocqueville believed that the majority, with its unlimited power, would unavoidably turn into a tyranny. He felt that the moral beliefs of the majority would interfere with the quality of the elected legislators. The idea was that in a great number of men there was more intelligence, than in one individual, thus lacking quality in legislation. Another disadvantage of the majority was that the interests of the majority always were preferred to that of the minority. Therefore, giving the minority no chance to voice concerns.
The Articles of Confederation was the first government of the United States. The Articles had created a very weak national government. At the time the Articles were approved, they had served the will of the people. Americans had just fought a war to get freedom from a great national authority--King George III (Patterson 34). But after this government was put to use, it was evident that it was not going to keep peace between the states. The conflicts got so frequent and malicious that George Washington wondered if the “United” States should be called a Union (Patterson 35). Shays’ Rebellion finally made it evident to the public that the government needed a change.
The Constitution, which was written in 1787, is a democratic plan of government. A democracy is a government in which the people either directly or through elected representatives are in control. . One reason the Constitution is democratic is that it gives the people the rights of expression in the Bill of Rights. Another reason the Constitution is democratic is because overtime while it was being amended, there were more democratic ideas added to it, such as the abolition of slavery, voting rights, and the changes of the election of Senators. The last reason is that all elected terms have intervals in which the person is either reelected or a new person is elected for the position. Since there are so many democratic elements in the Constitution, it makes it a democratic plan of government.
The US constitution; an old yet a very important piece of our American History, still engrained in our modern society today. But when the framers came together 229 years ago to “form a more perfect union”, did they truly form a democratic republic? A democracy is defined as a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. Is the constitution today properly representing all the current people in the United States and providing us with a true democracy? The truth is, the constitution of the framers contained several shortcomings that in turn have created many problems for our modern society today making it
Upon the opening words of the Constitution, "We the People do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America," one must ask, who are these people? While the American Constitution provided its citizens with individual rights, many members were excluded. Elite framers manipulated the idea of a constitution in order to protect their economic interests and the interests of their fellow white land and slave owning men' by restricting the voices of women, slaves, indentured servants and others. Therefore, the Constitution cannot truly be considered a "democratic document." However, because it is a live document, malleable and controllably changeable according to the interest of congress, it has enabled us to make reforms overtime. Such reforms that have greatly impacted America, making us the free, independent nation that we are today.
The framers of the constitution created the Democratic Republic, these are just some of the features that define the Democratic Republic. First is that a Democratic Republic is both a republic and a democracy. Democracy is based upon the majority rule and a person’s individual rights. A Democracy protects against all powerful central governments and transfer government to regional and local levels, and is a political system for choosing who should be in office based on free,and fair elections. Also makes sure that there is a protection of human rights. Citizens get the right to vote.
In theory, the United States became a democracy when we signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. This theory is not true. The textbook defines a democracy as a system of government in which ultimate political authority is vested in the people, of course you know that this is just not so. Our system of representation, often times, fails us. Quite often, the people who represent us in our state, local, and federal governments make decisions without much regard for the desires of the American citizenry.
The United States is a constitutional democracy, a type of government characterized by limitations on government power spelled out in a written constitution. Written in 1787, the U.S. Constitution is both the oldest and shortest written constitution in the world. It serves as the supreme law of the United States.
Democracy is defined as a supreme power vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections. Therefore, I have always thought of America as democracy a place where the people elected the government official, freedom of speech and freedom of religion where just a few great things that the United States had to offer. After reading this article I have doubts about America being a democracy state, federal laws can be created by a Senator or Representative who has an idea for a new law then after the bill passes, the president sign the bill in law and this bills applies to everyone who lives in the United States, but if it was a democracy then the
Democracy is a key term that citizens live by in the United States. Everyone always discusses how in America we live in a democracy and that it is amazing. However, our country is solely based off of the Constitution. So that raises the point of does the Constitution stay consistent with democracy. There are many different ways to look at this considering that there are four models of democracy according to Hudson. A big principle in the Constitution is that it limits the powers of the federal government. In a way that lines up directly with the generic definition of a democracy. If you take a look deeper, however you will see that there is much more to democracy and much more to the Constitution. Throughout this paper, we will take a more
In other words, democracy is rule of the people, which means every person participates in the government. Democracy is a political system that was founded by Cleisthenes in the sixth century BCE, and was a system that dominated ancient Athens. According to Martin Cohen in Political Philosphy: from Plato to Mao, “in Aristotle’s ideal state it is essential that each citizen actively participate” (54), and this state may be viewed as being a democracy, since all citizens participate. Democracy, though, has been defined in different ways by other philosophers, such as Voltaire, who according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defined, but criticized Democracy as the “idiocy of the masses” or Plato who criticized democracy as an agreeable form of anarchy. After summarizing all these definitions one definition of democracy can be illustrated: democracy is a political system in which all citizens no matter what their level of education or class, actively participate in the government. A definition has been set for democracy, but what do the philosophers argue about this
What is democracy? Democracy a form of government in which the people freely elect representatives to govern them in a country, democracy guarantees free and fair elections, basic personal and political rights and independent court of law. There are two types of democracy, direct and indirect democracy. Direct democracy or pure democracy is where there is direct participate of the people; people make decisions for them instead of letting them representative make decision for them. Indirect democracy the decisions are made by the representative on behalf of the people that voted for them. All over the world people are having different views with regard to democracy and how it operates. “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried” ~ Winston Churchill, some have said democracy is the worst government form of government which I also think it’s! Due to the how it operates.