Do We Have a Democracy?

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: a government in which the supreme power is held by the people" (p. 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 religious convictions (Tocqueville).

What made these early Americans so different from 21st century ones was (1) the relatively tiny size and homogeneity of their group, and (2) their commitment to a single common cause (Tocqueville). Further, John Winthrop's "A Model of Christian Charity" (1630), originally delivered as a sermon onboard the Arbella bound for the New World, suggests how "every man might have need of the other, and from hence they might all be knit more nearly together in the bonds of brotherly affection" (p. 215). However, as America has expanded over time and space, individual citizens have become more distant from and indifferent toward one another; more spread out geographically, and perhaps too autonomous, to the point of near total self-interest.