Misconceptions Of Democracy In America

I think this class helped clear up a lot of things that Americans tend to have a misconception about when it comes democracy and the citizen’s role in it. Democracy is about people participating and helping with the decisions on how the country is ran, but it does not necessarily require all of the people to participate as the country has just been working with a portion of the voting eligible population participating in elections and other activities. Some other misconceptions that were also cleared up I think are just how democratic some of our government institutions and even the constitution are as we tend to very high opinions of these things. Our readings have seemed to stress quite a bit of the importance of being well informed on the …show more content…
As that who counted as a person and a citizen in the United States expanded so did who was allowed to vote and the demographic to which politicians were responsible for answering to. In the times when who could vote were limited, it is hard to say whether or not that would count as a democracy as it would not meet our standards of today but did match with the beliefs of that time. It could be argued that with not everyone participating in voting in the present day, it could be argued as to whether or not it is a democracy as well. In this case I believe it still does count because the option is still there. As a form of participation that has been given the purpose of making your voice heard on who you would want elected or how you want the government run, not voting can also be a method of making your opinion known in a way and would still count as long as no one is forcing you not to vote. That being said, that could raise a bit of debate of taking away the voting rights of those who are felons and whether it is undemocratic or part of the point at many of their other liberties/rights have also been restricted or taken