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21st Century American 'Democracy': The Best Government that Money Can Buy
Within polarized, interest group-dominated 21st century United States life, most Americans still cling to the idea, despite abundant evidence to the contrary, that we live in a democracy. In today's America, however, that idea is more quaint than accurate. Instead, as the article suggests, America is more a pseudo-democracy than a real one, in which special interest groups (and, as their representatives, high-priced lobbyists they can afford to hire) shape national political, social, economic, health, environmental, and most, if not all, other national agendas for us (although definitely not on our behalf). Meanwhile, a destructive combination of voter apathy (especially among, but not limited to, working-class individuals and minority group members, who feel especially detached) gives us, instead of democracy, the best government money can buy.
Webster's New American Dictionary defines "democracy" as: "1: government by the people; esp: rule of the majority 2:...
138). In today's America, however, it has been a long time since democracy existed in that form. The seeds of today's decline in American democracy, however, have been visible, at least to astute observers, for a long time. For example, it has been over a century and a half since the French political observer Alexis de Tocqueville visited America in order to observe and write about American-style democracy.
Tocqueville noted then, of the early origins of the United States, and in particular, of the Puritans who founded America: "Puritanism was scarcely less a political than a religious doctrine" (Democracy in America, p. 43). Moreover, as Tocqueville observed, the earliest leaders of the new colonies, e.g., John Winthrop; Simon Bradstreet, etc., were dedicated, as was their small but resolute band of Puritan followers, to the common purpose of carving out of the American wilderness a new independent life where they could live according to (closely-entwined) political and…
Works Cited
"Democracy." Webster's New American Dictionary. New York: Merriam-
Webster, 1995, p. 138.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. New York: Signet, September
2001. 42-43.
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