Is the United States a democracy?

The Pledge of Allegiance includes the phrase: "and to the republic for which it stands." Is the United States of America a republic? I always thought it was a democracy? What's the difference between the two?

The United States is, indeed, a republic, not a democracy. Accurately defined, a democracy is a ………………. in which the people decide policy matters directly – through ………………. or by voting on ballot initiatives and referendums. A republic, on the other hand, is a system in which the people choose ………………. who, in turn, make ………………. on their behalf. The Framers of the Constitution were altogether fearful of pure democracy. Everything they read and studied taught them that pure democracies "have ever been spectacles of ………………. and contention; have ever been found ………………. 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".

By popular usage, however, the word "democracy" come to mean a form of government in which the government derives its power from the people and is ………………. to them for the use of that power. In this sense the United States might accurately be called a democracy. However, there are examples of "pure democracy" at work in the United States today that would probably trouble the ………………. if they were still alive to see them. Many states allow for policy questions to be decided directly by the people by voting on ballot initiatives or ………………..(Initiatives originate with, or are initiated by, the people while referendums originate with, or are referred to the people by, a state's legislative body.) That the Constitution does not provide for national ………………. or referendums is indicative of the Framers' opposition to such mechanisms. They were not confident that the people had the time, wisdom or ………………. to make complex decisions, such as those that are often presented on ballots on election day.

Writing of the merits of a ………………. or representative form of government, James Madison observed that one of the most important differences between a democracy and a republic is "the ………………. [in a republic] to a small number of citizens elected by the rest." The primary effect of such a scheme, Madison continued, was to:

…refine and enlarge the public views by passing them through the medium of a chosen ………………. whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to ………………. it to temporary or partial considerations. Under such a regulation it may well happen that the public voice, pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more ………………. to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves, convened for the same purpose.

Later, Madison elaborated on the importance of "refining and enlarging the public views" through a scheme of representation:

There are particular moments in public affairs when the people, stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the ………………. of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be most ready to ………………. and condemn. In these critical moments, how salutary will be the interference of some temperate and respectable body of citizens, in order to check the misguided career and to suspend the blow meditated by the people against themselves, until reason, justice and truth can regain their authority over the public mind.

In the strictest sense of the word, the system of government ………………. by the Constitution was never intended to be a "democracy." This is evident not only in the wording of the ………………. but in the Constitution itself which declares that "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government" (Article IV, Section 4). Moreover, the scheme of representation and the various ………………. for selecting representatives established by the Constitution were clearly intended to produce a republic, not a democracy.

To the extent that the United States of America has moved away from its republican roots and become more "democratic," it has strayed from the intentions of the Constitution's authors. Whether or not the trend toward more ………………. would be smiled upon by the Framers depends on the answer to another question. Are the American people today sufficiently better ………………. and otherwise equipped to be wise and prudent democratic citizens than were American citizens in the late 1700s? By all accounts, the answer to this second question is an emphatic "no."

3.4Express your ideas about the following issues concerning democracy:

· How would you define “democracy”?

· What are the inherent characteristics of a democracy?

· Which countries you think to be democratic/ non-democratic? Give your reasons.

· What does it mean to be a citizen in a democracy?

· What is the difference between a citizen and a subject?

· What is the meaning of “civil society”?

· What is the role of the state in interacting with the civil society?

· How do civil society and democracy correlate?

· Which values you think to be crucial for normal development of the civil society? Why?

UNIT 2

ELECTIONS