The U.S. - a Legitimate Democracy?
The U.S. - a Legitimate Democracy?In any system which claims to be democratic, a question of its
legitimacy remains. A truly democratic political system has certain
characteristics which prove its legitimacy with their existence. One
essential characteristic of a legitimate democracy is that it allows
people to freely make choices without government intervention. Another
necessary characteristic which legitimates government is that every
vote must count equally: one vote for every person. For this equality
to occur, all people must be subject to the same laws, have equal
civil rights, and be allowed to freely express their ideas. Minority
rights are also crucial in a legitimate democracy. No matter how
unpopular their views, all people should enjoy the freedoms of speech,
press and assembly. Public policy should be made publicly, not
secretly, and regularly scheduled elections should be held. Since
"legitimacy" may be defined as "the feeling or opinion the people have
that government is based upon morally defensible principles and that
they should therefore obey it," then there must necessarily be a
connection between what the people want and what the government is
doing if legitimacy is to occur.
The U.S. government may be considered legitimate in some
aspects, and illegitimate in others. Because voting is class-biased,
it may not be classified as a completely legitimate process. Although
in theory the American system calls for one vote per person, the low
rate of turnout results in the upper and middle classes ultimately
choosing candidates for the entire nation. Class is determined by
income and education, and differing levels of these two factors can
help explain why class bias occurs. For example, because educated
people tend to understand politics more, they are more likely to vote.
People with high income and education also have more resources, and
poor people tend to have low political efficacy (feelings of low
self-worth). Turnout, therefore, is low and, since the early 1960s,
has been declining overall. The "winner-take-all" system in elections
may be criticized for being undemocratic because the proportion of
people agreeing with a particular candidate on a certain issue may not
be adequately represented under this system. For example, "a candidate
who gets 40 percent of the vote, as long as he gets more votes than
any other candidate, can be elected�even though sixty percent of the
voters voted against him"(Lind, 314).
Political parties in America are weak due to the anti-party,
anti-organization, and anti-politics cultural prejudices of the
Classical Liberals. Because in the U.S. there is no national
discipline to force citizens into identifying with a political party,
partisan identification tends to be an informal psychological
commitment to a party. This informality allows people to be apathetic
if they wish, willingly giving up their input into the political
process. Though this apathy is the result of greater freedom in
America than in other countries, it ultimately decreases citizens�
incentive to express their opinions about issues, therefore...
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