American Democracy: the Ideal Style of Government

American Democracy From a distance, American Democracy seems to be the ideal style of government. In fact, most Americans would probably tell you they are lucky to live in America because of the style of government. America and its government were built on a set of beliefs and principles that make it unique. Over the more than 200 years since the U.S. Constitution was written many amendments have been made to keep up with the changes in society. However, there are also many challenges facing the framers of the Constitution, which still face American Democracy today. The main intention of the framers of the U.S. Constitution was to develop a balanced government. They all believed that America needed a balanced government, which “set power against power to prevent anyone faction from becoming too powerful,” (Edwards III, Wattenberg, & Lineberry, 2008 p.38). In order to achieve this, the founders created a system of checks, balances, and separation of powers. With this system of checks and balances, no one faction could take over the entire government; making it nearly impossible for it to become too powerful. The system was created so that change happened slowly over time. With creating a new form of government, came a list of challenges for the framers to overcome. Just as the framers of the Constitution faced challenges in creating the Constitution, today’s American Democracy also has many challenges. One challenge to democracy is increased technical expertise. Originally it was thought that the average person had the ability to make political decisions, while the government had the power to enact those decisions. Now America has experts on everything, making it difficult for the average citizen to make informed decisions (Edwards III, Wattenberg, & Lineberry, 2008 p.19). Average citizens need to be better informed of the issues that America faces. Limited participation in government is another challenge that threatens American Democracy.

References: Edwards III, G. C., Wattenberg, M. P., & Lineberry, R. L. (2008). Government in America (9th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.. Equal Rights Amendment Task Force. (2010). The Equal Rights Amendment. Retrieved from http://www.equalrightamendment.org/ Mann, T. E. (2010). Brookings Podcast: Corporate Spending in Elections. Retrieved from http://www.brookings.edu National Science Foundation. (1997). False Identification: New Research Seeks to Inoculate Eyewitnesses Against Errors. Retrieved from http://www.nsf.gov Satin, M. (2006). Repairing American Democracy: Changing the rules is not enough! Radical Middle Newsletter, 1(96), 1. Retrieved from http://www.radicalmiddle.com/x_hill.htm Smith, H. (2010). Will They or Won 't They? Retrieved from http://rockthevote.com