Is America a Democracy?
- Nicholas Ward
- Jan 19, 2022
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 6, 2022
The quiet fight to redefine democracy in the United States.
“We’re not a democracy.” – Mike Lee Republican Senator Utah
It came as a shock to many when Mike Lee proclaimed the end of three centuries of democracy on twitter.
After Lee declared this on Twitter many commentators jumped on the bandwagon of mocking the senator.
Lee’s did not come from nowhere. They are just the tip of the iceberg of America's latest election conspiracy claiming America is not, has never been, and was never intended to be a democracy.
The crux of the argument is that America is a Republic not a Democracy.
“This country is not and has never been a democracy. It’s a constitutional republic. The entire system is devised so majority rule isn’t the founding principle that decides everything.” Reddit user "katieishere92"
To be clear, America is both.
Democracy is a broad concept that covers any system wherein citizens vote. A Republic is more specific and generally refers to a type of Representative Democracy where citizens vote for representatives.
All Republics are Democracies but not all Democracies are Republics as it were.
This is not, nor has it ever been a point of contention among any poilitcal theorists
Nevertheless, various conservative groups are claiming that not only is America not a democracy, but the founding fathers were opposed to democracy.
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what they’ll have for dinner” Benjamin Franklin [sic]
Quotes such as this litter online conservative forums where this idea has built an unstoppable momentum. Unsurprisingly this isn’t a Franklin quote. Most of the quotes on these sites are either wildly out of context or completely made up.
“A representative democracy, where the right of election is well secured and… is vested in select persons, chosen really and not nominally by the people, will in my opinion be most likely to be happy, regular and durable.” Alexander Hamilton 1777. An actual quote by a founding father.
The crux of these arguments is that the founding fathers feared or objected to direct democracy, which is true.
Therefore, any effort to make America more representative are unconstitutional go against the will of the founding fathers, which is not.
This idea has grown in popularity with the movement to abolish the Electoral College. As direct presidential election is the evil of direct democracy that the founders feared.
Directly electing a representative (President or otherwise) is representative democracy not direct democracy. However, conservative netizens have little patience for challenges to their objectively wrong claims.
America along with the majority of democratic states around the world is a Representative Democracy. Where citizens elect representatives to govern.
There is only one partially direct Democracy in the world Switzerland. Where referendums are held on major government policy concurrently with their parliamentary elections.
So why the all the fuss? Why are conservatives desperately trying to redefine the word Democracy when their arguments are objectively wrong, and easily disprovable?
Is this simply a case of etymological nerds trying to redefine a word?
Government by the few for the few
Unfortunately, no.
“When the majority of the population unabashedly advocates for abhorrent policies as liberals have, yes, democracy has failed. Right now the vote is being controlled by the right people” Reddit user "jayaday"
Thanks to the Electoral College currently 24% of the American voting public control 50% of the presidential vote.
In the most extreme case, a voter in Wisconsin has 3.5 votes to every 1 vote of a person in New York.
The redefinition of democracy is part of an effort to justify the growing reality of minority rule in the US.
Despite the fact that not a single founding father ever advocated a minority of voters having a majority of voting power today many conservatives are trying to rewrite history and redefine democracy to justify rule by the minority.
Prior to 2000 only 3 elections in 250 years resulted in a President winning office without a majority of the vote.
Since 2000 it has happened twice. And it will only become more common.
“We didn’t want the popular vote we wanted the electoral vote” Donald Trump 2016
The electoral college today is failing.
The electoral college was designed for an agrarian state. People have noticed that the electoral college system was increasingly obsolete since the industrial revolution when urban population centres outgrew rural.
Up until the 1980’s both Republicans and Democrats campaigned for the abolition of the electoral college, against stiff opposition within both parties’ rural wings.
The closest the electoral college came to being abolished was in 1969 under Richard Nixon when a cross party coalition voted 338 to 70. But was filibustered in the senate by just 5 rural senators.
Starting in the 1980’s urban votes have gone almost exclusively to Democrats while Rural votes have gone almost exclusively Republican.
As this state of affairs has become more normalised the now rural Republicans staunchly defend the increasing reality of minority rule.
And this problem is only going to get worse.
In the near future 5% of the population may have complete control to rewrite the constitution.
Last year the Mississippi state legislature became the 15th Republican state to pass the , Citizens for Self-Governance resolution, calling on the federal government to hold a national convention to rewrite the constitution.
The constitutions allows that if two thirds of the states (34) pass this resolution it will give state governments control of rewriting the constitution. Why is this an issue?
Because the population of the 34 smallest state is just 30% of the national population. Giving one third of the nation two thirds of the control.
And this only gets worse.
The average voter turnout in a state election is less than 20%. Meaning that currently 20% of one third of the country or 6.6% of the nation holds the power to rewrite the constitution.
And state governments elected by less than 6% of the national population are currently half way to rewriting the constitution unchecked.
Unsurprisingly people are waking up to the terrifying reality of a future where 94% of the population have no voting power.
And various conservative groups are going on the attack to defend their increasingly disproportionate power by redefining Democracy.
Defending such blatant inequity and undemocratic practices is nearly impossible if you claim to value democracy. So, conservatives are redefining and throwing out democracy as a value.
Some conservative forums are more open than others and will quickly admit that they want conservatives to have all the power even if they are a small minority.
But most are echo chambers where false and misleading claims are passed around like gospel and even the slightest question gets you banned.
And it is all very openly in service of protecting minority rule in the United States.
Minority rule has not nor has it ever existed in the USA. Everyone from Nixon to the Founding fathers spoke of minority rule with abject trepidation.
And regardless of your opinion on this issue an undeniable fact of life today is that every election conservatives are getting more representation for fewer votes.
All because of a voting system designed when the most advanced way to travel was horseback.
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