The Importance Of Democracy In The United States

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The United States is not a direct democracy and was never intended to be a democracy, it is a Constitutional republic. A pure, direct democracy is a political system in which the majority has absolute power by means of democratic elections. Democracy should be defined by the use of popular sovereignty, majority rule, availability of quality information, broad participation in the political process, political equality, and political liberty. The majority, if persuaded to do so, can elect a decision that would take away their God-given rights and leave them in a totalitarian government, against the wishes of the minority.
The self rule of ordinary people is not what is practiced the United States Government, the use of elected representatives …show more content…

Each state is given the same representation, regardless of the size or population. All states have an equal say, but not all citizens. Filibusters are one of the reasons the Senate is undemocratic. Filibusters act as a way to prevent the majority vote from being passed, going against the ideals of Democracy.
Anyone who would argue that the United States is a democracy would likely state that the House of Representatives is a form of self rule because of the election process and the representation in proportion to population of the states. However, this has not been true historically.
At the time of slavery every slave was only considered to be ⅗ of a man. In a country that was built on the belief that “all men are created equal,” this practice did not reflect those ideals. White, land-owning men, do not reflect the demographics of the nation at large. However, slaves not being fairly counted in the census was more beneficial when considering the background information of the …show more content…

Everything they read and studied taught them that pure democracies, "have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths," (Federalist No. 10). It was always meant to be a republic. A story is often told about Benjamin Franklin answering a question as he exited the Constitutional Convention. He was asked by the citizens what sort of government the delegates had created. He replied, “A republic, if you can keep

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