Is America really a democracy?
I know, I’m probably opening up one hell of a can of worms on this one, but after considering some things about a book I have recently read, “On Democracy” by Robert A. Dahl (a leading author on democracy and also a professor of Political Science at Yale), I think it is a question worth really thinking about. And before anyone says “the US isn’t a democracy, it’s a republic,” that difference is negligable. The only difference real difference between a republic and a democracy is the language the word originated in; democracy is from Greek while republic is from Latin. The words are interchangeable. In the book, Dahl lists 5 key criteria for a Democratic process. These 5 criteria are: Effective Participation, Voting Equality, Enlightened Understanding, Control of the Agenda, and Inclusion of Adults. After giving these 5 points some thought over the last few days, I think in some aspects, we do well, and in others we need serious improvement. For example, looking at the concept of ‘Effec
