Is America really a "Democracy"?

[Dorian Cornelius Jasper]

But in America its more of a Pick the best face for TV to tell you stuffacracy.

This concept most experts call a "Republic." And many political scientists will point out that yes the USA is properly a Republic, not necessarily a True Democracy.

In conclusion: Yes, you're right. And we know. Though your impression that the President has unlimited power is actually really way off. His power only seems unlimited if the Senate backs him up. If the Senate opposes him then he's destined to enter history as "One of the Ineffectual Ones. You know the kind."

This is because all that Presidents get away with is due to whether or not the other branches of government will let him. Hence the system of checks and balances. Executive = President. Representative = Congress. Judicial = Supreme Court.

Simple high school stuff, really.

 

[Church256]

And this only applies to America... why?

I mean, fuck, in Britain, Gordon Brown didn't even get voted in, they just put him there. That's a bigger slap to the face of democracy if you ask me.

And he gets to pick when he has a general election. I hate our politicians.

Although he has to have one by a certain time right?

Would a true democracy me that hard? I mean we could put some sort of secure station in every Town, Area or street in some cities. Where every week it has what the governments doing and you can have your say and it actually means something. Is this so god damned hard?

I mean a building with some computers connected to an isolated network and all these computer have all the information needed to make a decision on the subject. At the end of the week the votes are tallied up and whatever it is is decided and put into action.

 

[Shaoken]

The founding fathers were against a pure democracy, hence they made a republic. I think it was Jefferson who said that Democracy was just the Tyrany of the majority.

 

[metagaia]

And this only applies to America... why?

I mean, fuck, in Britain, Gordon Brown didn't even get voted in, they just put him there. That's a bigger slap to the face of democracy if you ask me.

And he gets to pick when he has a general election. I hate our politicians.

Although he has to have one by a certain time right?

Would a true democracy me that hard? I mean we could put some sort of secure station in every Town, Area or street in some cities. Where every week it has what the governments doing and you can have your say and it actually means something. Is this so god damned hard?

I mean a building with some computers connected to an isolated network and all these computer have all the information needed to make a decision on the subject. At the end of the week the votes are tallied up and whatever it is is decided and put into action.

Latest it can be held is 03/06/10, which as usual is a Thursday.

With regards to the difficulties of true democrasy, the problem would not be implmenting it. Nowadays it would be easier than ever, especially with the internet. The problem would then be that we would have no safeguard from mass hysteria.

As a populace, even if every person is acting rationally from an individual point of view, it's all too easy to end up being part of a reactionary crowd that ends up baying for blood. The current system (in theory) is designed to protect us from that, letting the politicians take the blame for necessary but initially unpopular decisions. The populace will then realise, before the next election, than the person making the decision had more information and foresight, and was this correct.

That is the theory of course...

 

[lizards]

because it is a representitive democracy

apparently you didnt look to hard to find the answer before posting

 

[Shaoken]

Would a true democracy me that hard? I mean we could put some sort of secure station in every Town, Area or street in some cities. Where every week it has what the governments doing and you can have your say and it actually means something. Is this so god damned hard?

I mean a building with some computers connected to an isolated network and all these computer have all the information needed to make a decision on the subject. At the end of the week the votes are tallied up and whatever it is is decided and put into action.

Again; a true democracy would only wind up creating a tyranny of the masses. Look at Propisition 8 in California; 52% vote against Gay Marriage, and that's enough to overrule the 48% that was for it. Now picture that being able to happen with no restrictions. The majority don't want Islam reconsisded as a religion? It happens. Taxes abolished? Majority rules buddy. Combine that with the fact that most people don't even know the facts behind most of the hot issues (instead prefering to believe what someone else tells them about it) and you'll have a system that will collapse rather quickly.

And that's not to mention what a pain in the ass that system would be to set up and maintain, not to mention prevent anyone from hacking into it. Most people wouldn't care enough to vote on every single issue, and that system would make politicions obsoluete; if bills are voted on by the populace why elect politicions? There job is to represent the people, but in your model the people are directly involved in the law making system.

The reason there are no pure democracies is because it's a bad idea at best, horrible execution being the norm.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

It's been said before but:

It's a republic not a democracy.

 

[Ph33nix]

Ive been pondering this following the elections of 08 and found that in practice America can not TRULY be considered a democracy. Sure you vote for a guy to tell you what to do and that's all fine and dandy but once you do you have no control over him he can do whatever he pleases. You can ask him to do something but he doesn't have to. Most legislative decisions passed are completely out of your jurisdiction, and the majority of Americans couldn't tell you what more then 2 or 3 of those decisions are. Further more come election season a large number of people don't put much thought into the vote and some don't even vote at all. A real democracy would involve the general public voting on all issues and ideas and a central government carrying out said ideas. But in America its more of a Pick the best face for TV to tell you stuffacracy.

Discuss

no we are a republic we say we are a republic in our constitution declaration of independence pledge of allegiance.

 

[Zer_]

A real democracy would involve the general public voting on all issues and ideas

That kind of system would not work. There are many matters that are simply to complex for the public to understand and only certain people who know what they are doing (or at least come close to know what they are doing, lol!) should be given the power to have a say on what to do in such matters.

Heh, that's ironic since the govt doesn't know what they are doing either. And when they have scientists telling them to do something they either ignore it or censor it.

 

[j0z]

I will repeat what most other people have already said.
America is not a democracy. It is a republic.
Simple as that.

 

[Standby]

And this only applies to America... why?

I mean, fuck, in Britain, Gordon Brown didn't even get voted in, they just put him there. That's a bigger slap to the face of democracy if you ask me.

Also, please people, saying "It's a republic, not a democracy" doesn't mean anything. America is a democratic republic, just like the UK is a democratic monarchy.

Except in the UK, you vote for you're preferred party, as opposed to an individual, and it just so happens that Mr. Brown was next in line to lead Labour after Tony was sure he'd ran them far enough into the ground.

 

[darthzew]

We are, according to Wikipedia, a federal constitutional republic.

 

[Del-Toro]

It's a democracy in that the people get to choose who they want to tell them what to do, which is still far above hereditary monarchy in terms of it's populist aspects. The closest we've ever had to democratic practice was Athens (I know women ect. couldn't vote but that was a different time with a different mindset just hear me out) where those who were eligible would gather at the forum or whatever and vote on issues and proposals of the day, that's democratic.

 

[Xx7 elevenxX]

USA's Democracy is not absolute, it is more like a republic, but it is very unique. I think the democracy is very small part of what we do.In my opinion my 1 vote dose not matter. With thousands of people just in my district voting I make very little impact. I belive that the states should be either split into sections, and if you win it you get 1 electoral vote, not say 5 want Obama and 6 want McCain, why should Obama not get some? Or, and this idea is worse but IMO better than what we have, lump all votes in a state together. At least then it wqould be a one deicing vote insted of say 4 districts wanting one ting and 5 wanting anither.

 

[GamerPhate]

We are not a democracy, we are a plutocracy, which is a society that the rich control everything. The companies hire lobbiests to pander the senators and representatives into swaying laws into their favor.

 

[pantsoffdanceoff]

We don't even elect our president democratically. More people wanted Al Gore than Bush, Al Gore got more votes. But due to some fucked up shenanigans, Bush won. How is that the will of the people [b/]regardless[/b] of who you liked more?

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

All life is lead by those with power. If everyone in America wanted one thing, and they rallied together, the government would give them that thing provided it was in their power. This central point could let you call it a democracy of sorts. To be fair, know that's not what your saying, your talking specifically about the politics and what gets done in the country. To that I say yuor somewhat right and somewhat wrong. What makes America a "democracy" is the fact that there is any voting at all. It could be a monarchy or a dictatorship. Be thankful it isn't. Thay being said Canada,my country, is also a "democracy", but you know what happens here? Nothing. Every government we have is a minority rahter than a majority. This means the decisions of the Prime Minister and his political party have to pass through the judgement of the other parties before any action is taking. To me this seems rather ironic, obviously the parties won't agree with each other, if they did they wouldn't be seperate parties. So how do they expect anything to get accomplished?!

But I digress, back to America and your origional question. My short answer: yes and no.

 

[MercenaryCanary]

No. It's a Republic.

 

[Mordwyl]

We don't even elect our president democratically. More people wanted Al Gore than Bush, Al Gore got more votes. But due to some fucked up shenanigans, Bush won. How is that the will of the people [b/]regardless[/b] of who you liked more?

That sounds similar to the situation with Italy where Berlusconi stayed in his position as the PM a little too long.

Whichever you want to call your government is merely a facade to hide the fact your country is run by an oligarchy which left a man who can't speak properly to save himself lead for eight bloody years leading from a massive economic surplus to a deficit.

 

[Irishhoodlum]

It's a Republic, but Democracy is part of our Republic. And it's a part that pretty much everyone likes; it's got great PR. Therefore everyone from Politicians to Parties like to throw the word around to forward their agendas. And that's why it's what you'll hear our government being called most often.

If everyone voted on every single law it would takes ages (longer than it already does) for anything to get done. And really I'd rather not have whoever-had-time show up to vote for law 538 determine it's fate just because he felt like it, not because he's -oh I don't know- qualified to know anything about it, or anything. At least senators and justices have a fairly good idea of the of their laws, and what they'll do.

Not that any of that is relevant, because the biggest laws that affect you are the ones passed by your local administration. And while 1 vote may not matter in a Presidential election, it does have a slightly bigger affect on your county or town elections.