Not only do some people disapprove of democracy, but they often claim that America is not, and was never intended to be, a democracy. They quote Benjamin Franklin on our form of government (“A republic, if you can keep it”) and they cite our national Pledge of Allegiance (“And to the republic for which it stands”). They will then point out that ‘democracy’ is not substantive but only procedural, a means to the ends embodied in our Constitution. Eventually, they will resort to discussing ‘the tyranny of the majority,’ and from there the conversation will only get more tedious.
I have recently offered space to a few critics of democracy; it seems only fair to let defenders and promoters of democracy have a say. The following brief summary of American democracy is from a 2021 report titled Educating for American Democracy. The report was produced by an extensive and diverse group of American educators and scholars, and was intended to encourage better civic education about, and greater civic participation in, political matters.
The report begins with a preamble:
A self-governing people must constantly attend to historical and civic education: to the process by which the rising generation owns the past, takes the helm, and charts a course toward the future. The United States is the longest-lived constitutional democracy in the world, approaching its 250th anniversary in 2026. This occasion calls for both celebration and fresh commitment to the cause of self-government for free and equal citizens in a diverse society. Education in civics and history equips members of a democratic society to understand, appreciate, nurture and, where necessary, improve their political system and civil society: to make our union “more perfect,” as the U.S. Constitution says. This education must be designed to enable and enhance the capacity for self-government from the level of the individual, the family, and the neighborhood to the state, the nation, and even the world.
The word “civic” denotes the virtues, assets, and activities that a free people need to govern themselves well. When civic education succeeds, all people are prepared and motivated to participate effectively in civic life. They acquire and share the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for effective participation. Equity also is essential. High-quality education must be delivered to all; our form of government necessarily invests in all young people the chance to become civic and political leaders.
Yet civic and history education has eroded in the United States over the past 50 years, and opportunities to learn these subjects are inequitably distributed. Across the same time period, partisan and philosophical polarization has increased. A recent surge in voter participation has been accompanied by dangerous degrees of misinformation and tension, even rising to violence. Dangerously low proportions of the public understand and trust our democratic institutions. Majorities are functionally illiterate on our constitutional principles and forms. The relative neglect of civic education in the past half-century is one important cause of our civic and political dysfunction.
It is easier to say what American government is not (it is not a monarchy or a dictatorship) than what, precisely, it is. The report’s authors take up the challenge:
The United States was called both a republic and a democracy when it was founded in the late eighteenth century. “Republic” is the only word used in the U.S. Constitution to refer to our form of government, when the United States pledges that it will “guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government”.
Yet Alexander Hamilton described the new constitution in the New York ratification debates as a “representative democracy.” The framers did not all share one definition of “republic” or make a consistent distinction between republics and democracies. Both James Madison and Thomas Jefferson emphasized that the word “republic” covered a very wide range of governments. Jefferson explained to John Taylor in 1816 that he used the word to “mean a government by its citizens in mass, acting directly and personally, according to rules established by the majority.” Here Jefferson defined “republic” to mean what many today would call a direct democracy.
In recent decades, political theorists have used the word “republic” in specific (but debated) ways—for example, to name systems in which civic virtue is strongly emphasized, majority rule is fundamental but also limited by durable structures of government, or certain forms of liberty are paramount. A democracy is widely defined as a political system in which ultimate power lies with the whole people and in which all citizens share power equally at decisive moments, such as during elections. Both concepts convey popular sovereignty—but the former emphasizes the importance of institutions and structure and the latter the importance of participation, electoral and otherwise. The former term tends to be held up by those who celebrate liberty; the latter by those who celebrate equality.
The Declaration of Independence, however, makes clear self-government depends on both liberty and equality. It is, after all, the work of free and equal citizens. It requires both order and participation. The phrase “constitutional democracy” honors both sides of the debates. The system that the framers (and especially the Federalists) created had some aspects that were republican and some that were democratic, both in their own vocabulary and in modern parlance. The decision to deploy representation rather than mechanisms of direct democracy was and is seen as “republican.” The decision to elect the president from the people as a whole, even if through an electoral college, was seen as democratic.
Over time, that process of election has become increasingly democratic. Between 1776 and 1807, some women had the right to vote and used it, but then that right was revoked. In 1800, a substantial majority of American men were not permitted to vote. Voting rights first began to expand significantly during the Jacksonian era, such that by 1840, most free white men could cast ballots. In the wake of the Civil War, the passage of the 15th Amendment (1870) guaranteed all men, including freed slaves, the right to vote in federal and state elections. The formal disenfranchisement of women at the national level ended only in 1920. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 enshrined the general principle of one person, one vote, removing many barriers to African American voting; the 26th amendment (1971) extended the franchise to 18-year-olds. These and other voting reforms over the last 150 years have made the United States much more democratic than it was at its founding.
The culture of the United States has also grown increasingly democratic, with wider commitment to the ideal that everyone can and must have a voice in governing. Institutions such as universal schooling and the mass news media sustain this ideal. Alexis de Tocqueville’s ‘Democracy in America’ (1835/1840) described the American governments (state and federal) as constitutional republics, but discerned that by the Jacksonian era, America’s predominant political culture had become democratic. He chose the title of his classic work with an eye to the tension between our complex forms of representative government largely devoted to sustaining liberty and political equality, and our broader demand for social equality and direct empowerment.
Twentieth-century American leaders strongly and frequently endorsed democracy, and they referred to the United States as a democracy. For example, on the 40th anniversary of D-Day, President Ronald Reagan emphasized that the Second World War had been fought for democracy, saying, “One’s country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.” President Barack Obama emphasized the connection between democracy and citizen participation: “Democracy was never meant to be transactional—you give me your vote; I make everything better. It requires an active and informed citizenry.”
The United States, of course, also remains a republic. If that word has had one consistent core over its more than 2,000-year history, it means a government that belongs to the public (‘res publica’ means “the public’s affair”), not to a monarch, a specific class, or a foreign power. The United States is thus a republic organized as a constitutional democracy.
Our form of government, call it what you will, has held up for 235 years. It’s messy, it’s noisy, it’s annoying, it’s imperfect, and what it produces, as often as not, is nothing to brag about. Still, until we come up with something better, it’s what we’ve got; let’s keep doing our best to make it work.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Educating-for-American-Democracy-Report-Excellence-in-History-and-Civics-for-All-Learners.pdf
Recent Comments