Respect for the individual, individuals have important rights; together, those rights are the source of all legitimate governmental authority and power. Popular rile in democracy flows from a belief that every individual has the potential for common sense, rationality, and fairness. These concepts pervade all democratic thought. It is in the writings of Thomas Jefferson, especially within the Declaration of Independence.
Equality of opportunity, the importance of the individual is reinforced by the democratic value of equality. “All men are created equal and from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and unalienable, among which are the preservation of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Reads Jefferson’s first draft of the Declaration of Independence.
Constitutional democracy is defined as a government in which those who exercise governmental powers do so as a result of winning free and relatively frequent elections and are subject to recognized, enforced limits on the power of all government officials. It is the election which makes the government democratic; it is recognized and enforced limits on power that make it constitutional. The United States has chosen a representative government, which is defined as a government that derives its powers indirectly from the people, who elect those who will govern. There for a democracy would be unable to function unless the people are equal and free. Fareed Zakaria expands on this idea. “Improving on Saddam’s rule will be easy. But democracy will take hard work. Don’t believe oil riches will make it easier. And above all, don’t rush it.”
The U.S. government may be considered legitimate in some aspects, and illegitimate in others. Because voting is class-biased, it may not be classified as a completely legitimate process. Although in theory the American system calls for one vote per person, the low rate of turnout results in the upper and middle classes ultimately choosing candidates for the entire nation. Class is determined by income and education, and differing levels of these two factors can help explain why class bias occurs. For example, because educated people tend to understand politics more, they are more likely to vote. People with high income and education also have more resources, and poor people tend to have low political efficacy. Turnout, therefore, is low and, since the early 1960s, has been declining overall.
The "winner-take-all" system in elections may be criticized for being undemocratic because the proportion of people agreeing with a particular candidate on a certain issue may not be adequately represented under this system. For example, a candidate who gets 40 percent of the vote, as long as he gets more votes than any other candidate, can be elected—even though sixty percent of the voters voted against him.
Political parties in America are weak due to the anti-party, anti-organization, and anti-politics cultural prejudices of the Classical Liberals. Because in the U.S. there is no national discipline to force citizens into identifying with a political party, partisan identification tends to be an informal psychological commitment to a party. This informality allows people to be apathetic if they wish, willingly giving up their input into the political process. Though this apathy is the result of greater freedom in America than in other countries, it ultimately decreases citizens’ incentive to express their opinions about issues, therefore making democracy less legitimate.
Private interests distort public policy making because, when making decisions, politicians must take account of campaign contributors. An interest may be any involvement in anything that affects the economic, social, or emotional well-being of a person. When interests become organized into groups, then politicians may become biased due to their influences. Special interests buy favors from congressmen and presidents through political action committees (PACs), devices by which groups like corporations, professional associations, trade unions, investment banking groups can pool their money and give up to $10,000 per election to each House and Senate candidate. Consequently, those people who do not become organized into interest groups are likely to be underrepresented financially. This leads to further inequality and, therefore, greater illegitimacy in the democratic system.
The election process of Congress is legitimate because Senators and Representatives are elected directly by the people. Power in Congress is usually determined by the seniority system. In the majority party, the party which controls Congress, the person who has served the longest has the most power. The problem with the seniority system is that power is not based on elections or on who is most qualified to be in a position of authority. Congress is also complicated because, while it is good at serving particular individual interests, it is bad at serving the general interest due to its fragmented structure of committees and sub-committees.
The manner in which Supreme Court Justices are elected is not democratic because they are appointed by the President for lifelong terms, rather than in regularly scheduled elections. There is a non-political myth that the only thing that Judges do is apply rules neutrally. In actuality, they interpret laws and the Constitution using their power of judicial review, the power explicitly given to them in Marbury v. Madison.
Though it has been termed the imperial judiciary by some, the courts are the weakest branch of government because they depend upon the compliance of the other branches for enforcement of the laws.
Policy making may be considered democratic to an extent. The public tends to get its way about 60% of the time. Because one of the key legitimating factors of government is a connection between what it does and what the public wants, policy making can be considered 60% legitimate. Furthermore, most of what the federal government does never reaches the public. Public opinion polls represent the small percentage of issues that people have heard about.
Though the individual workings of the American government may not be particularly democratic, it must be somewhat legitimate overall because without legitimacy, government fails. However, the people who run for and win public office are not necessarily the most intelligent, best informed, wealthiest, or most successful business or professional people. At all levels of the political system, it is the most politically ambitious people who are willing to sacrifice time, family and private life, and energy and effort for the power and celebrity that comes with public office. The legitimacy of the United States government is limited, but in a system of government which was designed not to work, complete democracy is most likely impossible.
