American Democracy

The American democracy is alive, strong and functioning. However, it has taken over two hundred years. We have survived a civil war, several devastating economic upheavals, growth from a small group of sparsely populated states bordering on the Atlantic Ocean to a population of almost three hundred million and stretching three thousand miles to the Pacific Ocean, absorbed emigrant peoples from diverse countries in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia.

The original basis of the republic was thirteen colonies of England who fought for their freedom successfully. In trying to exist after the war, each colony recognized it could not exist independently, so cooperation was assumed from the beginning, but hard bargaining was part of the unifying process. The large states wanted more power, but the smaller states possessed economic advantages needed by the large states and so compromises were achieved to make the country come together and a constitution was written and adopted. Also, men involved in the establishment were men of stature, patriotism, and willing to put country again of personal or regional desires. Names, such as Washington, Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, etc. were active in the Constitutional Convention which wrote the constitution and Washington became the first President. These men are still revered today.

Thus, the people were determined to make democracy work. Remember at this period 1787-1789 and after, England represented the only functioning democracy (a King in title only) and the experiment in France a few years later resulted in disaster

The greatest test to American democracy came when the southern states in the United States succeeded from the Union over the slavery issue. President Lincoln refused to let this happen saying they didn’t have the right to leave the union and a bloody war was the result, This established the principle of one nation with all states involved.

A second period of difficulty were economic downturns, particularly in 1929-1936. With large number of people unemployed, many hungry, etc, a number of democratic countries succumbed to the pressures and became dictatorships or ruled by an elite group. The USA was able survived this period.

The United States has always had two political parties representing different points of view regarding government. Today they are called Democratic and Republican. In the last fifty years we have had Democratic administrations 25 or 30 years and Republican the balance. Over the years some politicians had tried to establish a third party but after obtaining a small number of votes have been absorbed into the established parties. Each of the two parties have groups with diverse opinions about certain issues but stay under the group’s umbrella because that is the only way their viewpoint can be listened to.

I will not go into the organization of the United States government, except to state their three pillars: executive, legislative and judicial. Each has a function and we call it “checks and balances” so that no one branch can take power by itself. And it works. The President can veto laws passed by the Congress (the legislative) and the Supreme Court (judicial} determines if the laws passed are legal under the Constitution. Of course this works because we have a two party system to keep the party in power honest and law abiding. If one party controls everything, then democracy doesn’t function property and leads to excesses. England also has a functioning two party system and their democracy is eight hundred years old. Politicians don’t like opposition but it is necessary for democracy to operate and prevent one-person or one party control.