Is the US even a democracy?
I was asked this question on this topic by a European on tumblr. My response…
The shortest answer is that the US is best described a republic, from the perspective of technical definitions according to political science. It is a democracy to the extent that it is a “representative democracy,” not a direct democracy. But the structures that were created way back when were inherently created to maintain power in the hands of a few and out of distrust of the common citizen (and, of course, a racist, misogynistic, classist, colonialist framework of only seeing “citizen” as a white male landowner/land stealer.) I feel like the US got a reputation for a mentality of being a democracy in the late 1700s or whatever because of the Revolution against English monarchy……and then lots of folks glommed onto that w/o paying any attention to the rest of that non democratic stuff I just mentioned.
Also, it is also probably worth noting that a lot of the power that “the people” most have in the US are at the state and local levels, where our votes really can impact local policy and representation. National elections happen every 4 years, and they pull the most attention globally. But (as an example) in Texas, I actually vote multiple times most years…and I’m privileged in that I can operate in that manner because I’m able to keep showing up that much and paying attention, and researching micro local candidates and issues, and taking the time in “off cycle” elections, meaning the ones that don’t coincide w/ the Presidential election every 4 years. The Presidential election has such a strong news cycle that it mobilizes people REALLY effectively. (And when the average American is effectively mobilized, they more often vote for democrats or left leaning people, btw, everyone knows this, it’s why Republicans are most likely to engage in voter suppression).
One of the most insidious types of buried and not nearly talked about enough voter suppression in the US is the simple act of placing certain elections on “off cycle” years. For example, in Texas, we don’t vote on our scumbucket governor again until 2022. So the election that will have HISTORIC BLUE turnout (right now) will not have Greg Abbott on it…he’ll show up in 2 years, when it is very, very UNlikely that there will be the right people mobilized to boot his ass out of office. (But we’ll all still be trying to mobilize folks here, nevertheless.)
In fact, the US has more elected roles and much more frequent elections than most countries. But, again, this itself erodes “democracy” because we have WAY TOO MANY elections when you account for all the levels of government, it’s legitimately overwhelming.
Here’s a example of all of the entities with political power governing my community/life that I have voted on in my 18 years of voting across living in 2 states (Indiana, then Texas): city, township, town, county, school district, state, nation, and special districts. When I name these levels of entities, it’s important to specify: that’s just off the top of my head, and each level has multiple ELECTIONS under them.
This doesn’t even touch the layer of complexity that the 2 party system adds….and primary vs. general election format that is also present. And sometimes, those elections don’t have clear winners in the first rounds…this happens a lot in Austin because it is a VERY democrat heavy area so we will often have a few different run offs that will come AFTER main elections.
Is your head spinning after all of this? It should be. The whole system is a mess, and it really, really works against the average person in the US and really, really works to the advantage of the existing power. As I’ve recently speculated…there’s a reason that our K-12 public education systems don’t teach us all of this. There are people who benefit from how much this complexity and nonsensicalness is overwhelming to us. I only know the vast majority of this information I am rattling off SPECIFICALLY because I *happened* to pick a poli sci undergrad degree when I thought I was going to go to law school someday.
And honestly, the only reason that I’m able to keep up on it as much as I am in real time is because I am child free. If I had a different life path and made different choices and was working multiple jobs to keep food on the table for my family like so many people I know, there is SIMPLY NO WAY I could keep showing up on all the off cycle elections that I do and keep updated about state/local level elections, issues, and politicians. And even with the luxury of time I DO have to dedicate to this, it’s nowhere NEAR what is needed to really understand it all. Like I’m actually still a MAJOR NOVICE on these topics compared to someone who works in or studies political systems.
The last thing I’ll say on this topic because I def rambled on a lot more than I originally intended, but obviously, you’ve stumbled into something I feel passionate about….there could be an argument made that the number of elections and elected roles we have in the US means that we are TOTALLY SUPER DEMOCRATIC, but I’d like to underscore again that something which is accessible in theory only and completely inaccessible in practice for the average person DOES NOT COUNT AS ‘DEMOCRACY.’