The Role Of Democracy In America

Democracy, since its dawn of time, in America, has been challenged; Many political scientists argue that democracy is hanging by a thread due to the lack of overall civic engagement or political involvement in younger generations. In order for there to be a successful democracy there are certain principles that must be met in order to reap the benefits of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Through the analysis of the foundations of a sound democracy, in comparison to ‘Democracy in America: how is it doing?” to display exigency for a democracy to empower all people. In this paper, I intend to summarize “Democracy in America: how is it doing” to then compare to the key components of a successful democracy to overall show the exigency

These surveys show that many Americans are becoming less and less civically engaged. There was a survey conducted that asked political scientists to rate the importance of 19 characteristics democratic government and found that the bulk of respondents said, “the united states fully or mostly met half of the democratic standards, and fell short on half” (Miller and Quealy). Overall, the United States is doing well on the second and third most essential elements of a democracy while the other one-third of the country said, “did not meet or only partly meet these standards” (Miller and Quealy). As more surveys went out as President Trump solidified his presidency, Miller and Quealy, found that about “half of respondents expressed skepticism that congress and the constitution were able to effectively limit executive power”. Although there are many aspects of democracy that America succeeds in, President Trump’s presidency is challenging previous notions and norms of a

The word democracy comes from the Greek word demos, meaning the people. There are two types of Democracy that were created to govern free states; both involving the power being within the hands of the people. The first form of democracy is a Direct Democracy, and according to (Author and section of the book), is a form of political decision in which politics are decided by the people rather than their representatives (Greenberg and page, pg). On the contrary, the other form of democracy is Representative Democracy, which is what America has. A Representative Democracy (also referred as a “Republic”) is a form of indirect democracy, in which the people rule through elected representatives. (Greenberg and page, pg). In order for a sustainable representative democracy there needs to be 3 benchmarks that are met as a minimum requirement for the future of its [democracy’s] success. The 3 benchmarks are as follows: First, Popular sovereignty, defined as people being the ultimate source of government authority (Greenberg and page, pg). Second, Political Liberty, which is the principle that all citizens in a democracy are protected from government interference (Greenberg and page, pg). Last, Political Equality, the principle that each person carries equal weight in the conduct of the public business. These benchmarks are