Importance Of Democracy In The United States

With the United States’s reputation as the government of the people, for the people, and by the people, exactly how strong is our country’s government? When I conducted my ten interviews, the majority, eight students, stated the importance of democracy, however, none were sure of its security. Despite the several distinct patterns and similarities in many of the interviewees’ answers, not a single student answered identically to another. One student completely disregarded democracy while another believed democracy is the best form of government, regardless of how well it works in the United States. The data I gathered may not reflect the thoughts of all or even most of the youths in this country, but there does seem to be a general consensus
Yet, more than half of those same students showed uncertainty about the actual effectiveness of the current government, which I found quite odd. How can one find something important if one is not sure of how helpful it can be? For instance, Jessica, one of the students interviewed, agreed with the reasoning that democracy is important due to its opportunities for people to speak. However, she later on discusses how the immigrants, the poor, and the youth have more limited voices or opportunities in our current state of democracy. Interestingly, even though each of the eight share a similar sentiment about democracy, most, if not all, vary in their reasonings as to why it is important. One student, Christian, as opposed to all the others, disregarded democracy as an idealistic form of government that the United States does not even have. Even though he did disagree with the majority, his later reflection on the effectiveness of the government does resonate with quite a few others. This led me to wonder how much the students actually knew about democracy. Each person seemed to have a varying view of what democracy is or how it even
Just as how the students had varying reasons behind stating the importance of democracy, students have varying reasons for the issues behind the electoral process as well. Kunal, a transfer student, mentions that, “the electoral college functions the way that it should,” however, due to other processes, such as the primaries, also limits the potential of better nominees or campaigners for presidency. During the time of the primaries or any form of campaigners, people without an informed background on the politicians may be easily swayed by advertisements or campaigns. Another interviewee, Wendy, believes that prioritizing the electoral process over the popular vote is a flaw, while Christian probes at the idea that this process is not very democratic at all. While the people voting in the electoral college are representatives of the states, history has shown that there have been a number of times when the electoral college did not reflect the popular decision, or rather, the desires of the country. Vanessa, a current freshman, elaborates on this idea, noting that many states are known to be steered towards one party, while others are swing states. Despite several differing thoughts, I come back to the same conclusion with everyone. There seems to be enough flaws in the system for every person to recognize that the electoral process