Democracy in America

Textbook definitions of democracy usually go something like this, “In a democracy the people have the power”. In the United States, that is not the case, in fact that is far from the case. One cannot say that the American government is a democracy in a true democracy every government official would be elected and in America that is not the case. In my opinion a government that calls themselves a democracy should let the people vote on every government position with even the slightest bit of power. In America, not all government positions are voted for. Pretty much every judge in the Judicial Branch of the federal government is appointed, not voted, into office. As a whole, I feel that our freedoms, as Americans, have declined in the past…

Is America Truly a Democracy? In the light of reading the passage from The Shame of the cities published in 1904, it has raised the question is America truly a democracy. Throughout history, it has seemed there has always been some sort of polluting in the voting polls. Voting is a promise of equality while at the same time, it is a great threat to the men who created our government. According to the passage written by Lincoln Steffens, he and other muckrakers pointed out that there was a…

In his work, Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville details his experience with the curious case of American democracy. Unlike most other nations that embrace the system, the United States developed it almost naturally and without much strife. There was a certain equality of conditions present about those in the New World; no one was automatically set above anyone else in social stature. All arrived to start anew, and were, with the exception of the relatively few Southern plantation…

The Democratic Evolution in America Before the year 1650, the American democracy did not yet develop into the sharing of power among all American individuals. Only the higher class of society was given the upper hand, restricting most people from being given their respective natural rights. But due to lower class oppression set by major, earlier democratic events, such as the qualifications for voting rights set by the House of Burgesses, as well as the Maryland Act of Toleration, the lower…

In his Republic, Plato makes the claim that “only philosophy can save us” (Book V, 573d). Thousands of years later, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote Democracy in America. Many scholars summarize his beliefs as, “only institutions can save us”, a direct repudiation of Plato. In this paper, I will show that, in fact, Plato’s philosophy is embedded in Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, specifically revolving around the preference for community and collectivism rather than private gain. In the Republic,…

When America was created it made many promises. The most important promise it made was the promise of democratic governance. A nation where the people has a voice and chooses who will govern them. A nation without a king or queen, with multiple parts making a government. Some people think the government has done a great job and has succeed in fulfilling this promise. However, others think the government has done a halfway job and has failed in multiple ways in creating a democratic government.…

America, the land of the free and home of the brave. Our country is so wonderful that people from all over the world long to come and live here. Our founding fathers spent years studying and forming a great government. So, which way did they go? Are we a republic, or a democracy? There are four different forms of government. There is the republic, the democracy, the dictatorship, and the anarchy. Studies show that nations attempt to start as a republic and go through the list. Republics are…

were ones that they built. Of the four, the Capitol is the most important building. The structure was essential for the colonists, people value it today, and associated with the Colonial Williamsburg motto “That the future may learn from the past”. Thus, because it housed the Virginia government, continued democracy in North America, which still stands today, and it showed us how to govern our new nation, the Capitol deserves a commemorative coin minted in its honor. The Capitol housed the…

Many people view that America does not deserve its claim of being a democratic nation due to its lack of representation of minorities and women in our government in the past and even today. What is not accurate about this view is that the representation of the people in the past is being looked at through the beliefs and values of the people currently. Times change and with that so do ideas and beliefs and what was once democratic may not be so anymore. The nation has not remained stuck in what…

Based on Aristotle’s definitions of Oligarchy and Democracy, can America be considered a true democracy? Aristotle points out several forms of government throughout his “Democracy and Oligarchy”. In this work, Aristotle focuses primarily on democracy and oligarchy and makes a strong effort through the use of definitions to distinguish between the many instances these two forms of government are able to exist in and the differences between the them. Using Aristotle’s definitions, let us diagnose…