Jul
1
Is America a Democracy?
“I sought there [in America] an image of democracy itself, its tendencies, its character, its prejudices, its passions; I wanted to know democracy, if only to know at least what we must hope or fear from it.” — Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
I’m no political historian, but if I had to guess, I’d say Tocqueville was referring to the application of the basic democratic principles in America that differentiated it from the systems of monarchy, oligarchy, and aristocracy found throughout Europe and elsewhere. Democracy, after all, literally means “rule by the people”, as opposed to rule by one or more elites. But, of course, words can have different meanings in different contexts.
Every so often, I read a meme or other pronouncement by someone that the United States of America is a “democracy”. Others will counter that, no, it isn’t — it’s a _______. So, who’s correct? Well, it depends…
When I see someone making the “America is a democracy!” assertion, they are often upset about the outcome of a close election or some legislation or policy ruling that goes against what (they think) is the will/desires of the majority of the population. In other words, they are in effect, and in this instance, pushing for “majority rule”. This is what is known as a “pure democracy” (aka “direct democracy”), e.g., as seen in ancient Athens. The problem is that the United States is not, nor has it ever been, a pure democracy.
Recognizing the potential for “tyranny of the majority”, James Madison wrote in Federalist Paper No. 10:
“[A] pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person, can admit no cure for the mischiefs of faction. A common passion or interest will be felt by a majority, and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party. Hence it is, that democracies 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.”
[Note: Do you think it would get better with a large number of citizens (like now), or worse?]
Rather — and this should be obvious to anyone who paid attention in civics class (assuming they still teach that) — the United States of America was founded as a “representative democracy” (aka “indirect democracy” or “representative republic“). In this system, citizens elect representatives from among themselves, who then form a government to make the big decisions (i.e., re laws and policies). Most modern, Western-style democracies are of this type.
A version of the representative democracy is the “constitutional democracy” (aka “constitutional republic“), whereby a constitution — i.e., often one or more formal documents expressing a set of fundamental principles or established precedents — “limits the majority and protects the minority, usually through the enjoyment by all of certain individual rights, e.g. freedom of speech, or freedom of association.” Allow me to expand a bit on this, including throwing a few more related terms at you, by citing a helpful section from Wikipedia:
“Liberal democracy is a liberal political ideology and a form of government in which representative democracy operates under the principles of classical liberalism. Also called western democracy, it is characterised by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into different branches of government, the rule of law in everyday life as part of an open society and the equal protection of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties and political freedoms for all people. To define the system in practice, liberal democracies often draw upon a constitution, either formally written or uncodified, to delineate the powers of government and enshrine the social contract….
A liberal democracy may take various constitutional forms: it may be a constitutional monarchy (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, the United Kingdom) or a republic (France, India, Italy, Ireland, the United States). It may have a parliamentary system (Australia, Canada, India, Israel, Ireland, Italy, the United Kingdom), a presidential system (Indonesia, the United States) or a semi-presidential system (France, Romania).”
Note that the term “republic” has come up three times now in reference to this general type of government. It simply reflects an alternate approach to classifying the differences. A true republic (which is not guaranteed merely by the word appearing in a nation’s official name, e.g., People’s Republic of China or Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) refers to “a system of government which derives its power from the people rather than from another basis, such as heredity or divine right.” So, technically, a “republic” could be used of either a direct or indirect democracy, though usually it is the latter.
“Most often a republic is a single sovereign state, but there are also sub-sovereign state entities that are referred to as republics, or that have governments that are described as ‘republican’ in nature.”
Without going into too much detail, there is perhaps one other aspect we need to look at, and that is America’s federalist power structure. As should be apparent from the name, the United States of America is actually a union of 50 “sub-sovereign state entities” (plus a few other things). Each state maintains a degree of independence, while sharing sovereignty with the U.S. federal government — in other words, a vertical separation of powers. The original 13 states formed a confederacy under the Articles of Confederation (created 1777, ratified 1781), but after the war it became apparent that the union would require a stronger central government in order to survive, mostly for matters of trade and defense. Thus, the Articles were replaced by the United States Constitution (1789), which established what is sometimes referred to as a federal republic. This is a federation of states, guaranteed (by Article IV of the Constitution) each to have a republican form of government.
[Note: There are also socialist republics (e.g., the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)), religious democracies (e.g., the Old Swiss Confederacy), and various other types and sub-types of government, as defined by different aspects and emphases and/or by who is doing the defining. (Start here, if you’re curious.) But, those are really beyond the scope of this article.]
So, in a discussion of whether or not the USA is a “democracy”, the answer is both “no” and “yes”. Using “democracy” by itself is probably not a good idea, assuming one is not in fact advocating for a pure democracy. Many of us who balk at the idea or assumption of a pure democracy prefer to use “representative republic”, “constitutional republic”, or “federal republic” to identify the form of America’s government. But, we also need to remember that terms like “representative democracy”, “constitutional democracy”, and “liberal democracy” are also valid. If we fail to be precise in our definition or use of terms, due to either ignorance or laziness, then we’ll just keep screaming past each other.
P.S. Happy (Upcoming) Independence Day!
