Oh this is fun when we cherry pick, isn't it?
Finally, we have an answer.
act.represent.us
Is the United States a democracy?
Yes, the United States is a democracy, since we, the people, hold the ultimate political power. We’re not a “direct democracy,” but we
are a “representative democracy.”
This is where our history education might add some confusion. We are commonly taught that democracy is a product of ancient Greece. It’s their word –
demokratia – after all. The city-state of Athens is credited with implementing a system of government of and by the people, whereby eligible citizens would congregate to make decisions. They’d make these decisions themselves (or “directly”), not through any
elected representatives.
That system of government, better understood today as
direct democracy, lives on in the United States in the form of ballot initiatives and referenda. Some states and localities afford their citizens the right to use these measures to directly enact, change, or repeal laws themselves.
More commonly, we exercise our political power in a different way: by voting in elections to choose our representatives. That’s
representative democracy.
The Constitution does not use the term “democracy.” It’s true. But as Eugene Volokh notes in the
Washington Post, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Noah Webster, Justice James Wilson and Chief Justice John Marshall
all used the word. These scholars understood representative democracy – the American variety – to be democracy all the same.
Enabling sustained minority rule at the national level is not a feature of our constitutional design, but a perversion of it.
www.theatlantic.com
‘America Is a Republic, Not a Democracy’ Is a Dangerous—And Wrong—Argument
Enabling sustained minority rule at the national level is not a feature of our constitutional design, but a perversion of it.
But enough of opinion, what does the US government itself say?
Democracy in the United States The United States is a representative democracy. This means that our government is elected by citizens. Here, citizens vote for their government officials. These officials represent the citizens’ ideas and concerns in government. Voting is one way to participate in our democracy. Citizens can also contact their officials when they want to support or change a law. Voting in an election and contacting our elected officials are two ways that Americans can participate in their democracy.
The US is a constitutional republic and representative democracy.
2. What form of government do we have in the United States?
The United States, under its Constitution, is a federal, representative, democratic republic, an indivisible union of 50 sovereign States. With the exception of town meetings, a form of pure democracy, we have at the local, state, and national levels a government which is: ‘‘federal’’ because power is shared among these three levels; ‘‘democratic’’ because the people govern themselves and have the means to control the government; and ‘‘republic’’ because the people choose elected delegates by free and secret ballot.