Democracy in America

I remember my first exposure to democracy. It was 2005, and I was a young kid on a cold winter day in a New Jersey elementary school. George W. Bush was running for his second term and my school was running a mock election. I remember being excited as this was quite intriguing to me. When I was younger, I realized I was intrigued because it was a special occasion and I was young and naive. But, as I grow older, I have become increasingly interested by American democracy. As my knowledge on the subject of American government expands, it becomes obvious why American citizens are known for being immensely prideful of their country.

To begin, one may ask “What exactly is democracy?”. Well, we all know it’s a system of government that is ruled by the people. With a government being ruled by the people, it creates a landscape destined for pooled knowledge. Pooled knowledge, meaning the taking of equal opinion of everyone, highlights individual worth and equality within a country, which is a main stem of American pride. In addition, utilizing pooled knowledge yields the most right decision- what the people want is the right decision. Even though this decision may not alway be a good one, it is still the fair and equal way to make decisions on such a large scale. With the right decisions being made, legitimacy and quality of officials elected increases which leads to a more stable as well as long lasting government.

But what exactly ensures this equality? Democracy ensures it’s equality through the amalgam of popular sovereignty, political equality, and political liberty. All three of these components maintain stability in American government, as well as equality. For instance, popular sovereignty, also known as the sovereignty of the people rule, maintains the citizens voice in who runs the state as well as the government, through representatives whom they elect. This assures that the people’s voices will be heard when it comes to decisions being made where they call home. Popular sovereignty also highlights the next tool used to insure equality in American democracy: political equality. Political equality insures that each person carries equal weight in the government’s eyes. This is important for the sake of the citizens, in order to oppress no one due to their social, economic, racial, etc. status. Even more protection to citizens is granted to them through political liberty. Political liberty protects the people’s right to speak up against anything that they feel is wrong in the way they are being governed. This grants each and every citizen the protection to voice their opinion even if they are not a government official. We have recently seen political liberty utilized in the news in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Alt-right rally in this city demonstrated this group’s right to free speech. However, the outcry from many different sources, opposing this worldview shows that society can balance itself to reach equality through the rights guaranteed by the defining concept of political liberty. The equality that supplements democracy leaves copious amounts of room for freedom and political advancement.

The American democracy is truly an amazing thing. It allows for the citizens to be free while being sufficiently governed and utilizes equality in order to reach a right decision. The democracy ran in America is a very fair and stable way to run a government, and having it implemented where I call home is very reassuring.

4 Responses to "Democracy in America"

Omar Ibrahim says:

September 6, 2017 at 10:02 pm

Democracy evolves with the development of the United States and it will continue to grow. My question is how well has it evolved to this day? You bring up the idea of “Pooled Knowledge”, and how people will continue to make the “right” decision but not the optimal one, which leads me to wonder about the minority who don’t think the decision is “right”. As the Democracy grows, is there added pressure on the people to have their decision be the “right” one and the “best” one? Is there also an argument to be made that there are many influences such as, media, politicians, family, religion, ethics, etc. that change the perception of the “right” decision in a case by case basis. Another point is the problem of “Political Equality”, and “Political Liberty”. Where it may not be seen as equal in everybody’s viewpoint. By unequal I mean the certain systematic oppression of people due to socio-economic status, race, sexuality, gender, and other means of identification. This leads to the distrust of the Democratic system and what you call reassuring might leave people very skeptical of the institution. Yet, it is a system that has been relatively successful for about two and a half centuries. On the other hand, the question begs to be asked, how can this institution improve to leave people as doubtful and worry free as possible?
Emily Dunbar says:

September 8, 2017 at 10:33 pm

You say that democracy creates equality, as you said through things like popular sovereignty and political liberty which is very true however the racial and economical inequalities that exist through out the country undermine the effects of democracy. Democracy is the key to the success of the United States and the world itself would not be the same without America and the way we know it. However, every citizen is not economically equal, they do not have equal opportunities to high levels of education. Also people that are wealthy have more impact on governmental decisions, they have more say because they are more knowledgeable. Also they can afford to contribute to campaigns and lobbying groups which increases their say in the government. The more money, the more say you have in government according to The New York Times’ Paul Krugman. These inequalities can destroy the whole idea behind democracy and the United States as we know it. We need to preserve democracy by creating a better distribution of wealth among the citizens, so there is not a huge gap between the super wealthy and the middle and lower classes.
Colby Ritten says:

September 10, 2017 at 10:01 pm

Great post man, very informational. Learning about the democracy we have today is interesting but it makes me question a couple of things about all of us being politically equal. You mentioned that Pooled knowledge highlights individual worth and equality within a country and utilizing pooled knowledge yields the most right decision but what if the majority is in favor for the wrong decision. How do you think our society today would handle that? Or do you think our society is mature enough to always make the right decision? Another thing that stumped me is that in our recent election our president won by the electoral vote but not the popular. How does this happen if we are all politically equal? I think that having a democracy is a great thing to have but in some instances it seems like there is no equality.
Grant Golden says:

September 17, 2017 at 5:55 pm

This is a great post as i consider myself one of those Americans that is very prideful in what this country has and what we believe in. Unfortunately, especially as of late, we have seen some holes in this equality that we claim to have. In the last three to four years we have seen multiple incidents of minorities being mistreated and continuously nothing being done about it. We have seen a huge economical gap that has left the lower socioeconomic class with unequal opportunities. Even though i believe our democracy is great and am very proud of it, we have to find a way to fix these wrongdoings. If things like this continue then there will be nothing more to be proud of as our system would fail to do what it is intended. That will be easier said than done for sure but I think it is possible. I also believe that once we are able to fix some of these problems, patriotism for America and its democratic system will be at an all time high which is something I am personally hoping to see during my lifetime.

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