Gilded Age: A Democracy Case Study

Most Americans, when asked, would probably say that we live in a democracy of some variety. In a 2003 Gallup poll that surveyed 1008 Americans, 70% said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the way democracy words in the country (Gallup 2003). Historically, apart from the multi-decade interlude known as the Gilded Age, the system of governance in the United States could most aptly be described as a democratic republic. Under a democratic republic, ordinary citizens elect representatives to support their interests in government. But is that still the case? Recently, a number of academics have made the argument that the United States is no longer necessarily a democratic republic, but is more similar to a plutocracy, or a government structure in which the wealthiest citizens control key government activities. In this paper, I will make the argument that the United States has devolved from a democratic republic into a quasi-democratic representative plutocracy, …show more content…
However, despite multiple Congressional attempts to complete these objectives, the amendment never ended up being passed and Buckley v. Valeo still remains as a landmark decision in American jurisprudence. Buckley has particular significance, in addition to being the first Supreme Court case in which campaign finance was addressed, as being the first case in which the Supreme Court asserted two notions that it has largely carried through to recent decisions: (1) the Court rejected the protection and promotion of fairness and equality in campaigns as a purpose for limiting campaign finance spending, and (2) the Court held that money was a protected form of speech under the 1st amendment. These decisions adopted by the Court for the first time in Buckley have largely steered Supreme Court decisions in related cases ever