Democracy.

We hear the word time and time again. President Obama reminded us of the importance of a commitment to democracy in his latest inaugural address:

“Each time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution. We affirm the promise of our democracy. We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional – what makes us American – is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago.”

All this talk is great, but just what is democracy?  Does the U.S. actually qualify as such or is it still only a promise? In this post, we’ll take a look at whether or not we can truly call the U.S. a democracy, and what that means for individual citizens.

Assessing Democracy: Do We Have It?
What is a democracy? A quick Google search defines it as “a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.”

Though we call them “representatives,” do they really represent us? Do they know which policies we favor and which ones we do not? If so, why is there gridlock in Congress?  Can’t they just carry out the will of the people? Or do elections just tell us which candidate’s policies we like the least? Either way, the power remains in the hands of the two largest parties with agendas far removed from a democratic process.

If a prerequisite to democracy is free and fair elections, the U.S. already has a problem. We need to consider rulings like Citizens United, in which the Supreme Court determined corporate influence and private money have free reign to drive our elections. Does that not diminish citizens’ voices?

The 2012 election was the priciest ever, with $4.2 billion raised this time around. How can we truly attest that we have free and fair elections when super PACs, private donors, and other monied interests have the power to determine which politicians receive money and platforms to amplify their voices? And with monied, corporate interests are backing them up, just how credible are their voices, anyway?

Becoming Informed Citizens
Other important elements we must consider when it comes to democracy are education and the media, two issues that go hand-in-hand. As a society we should, in theory, be using the public media–TV, radio, etc.–to educate. But this isn’t the case today.  Media consolidation and deregulation mean only a few companies own most media channels, limiting the diversity of content we see. See this infographic for a visual representation of which companies own which media channels.

With companies like GE, Disney, and Viacom having control over what the public sees in the media and on the news each day–and executives at those companies having tons of lobbying power in Congress–how can we be sure we’re getting the full story? While free and fair elections are a prerequisite to a democracy, an informed public is a prerequisite to free and fair elections. We need people with the education to make good decisions to elect officials we can trust. But in the media, we’re only shown two political parties–Republican and Democrat. In the 2012 election, Green party presidential candidates held their own separate debates after being denied admittance to the debates that would air on cable TV. What does this say about the stories we receive from mainstream media channels?

Asking Questions
Ask any American citizen whether or not they know the names of their representatives in Congress, and we see startlingly low numbers. Only 37 percent of Americans can directly answer who their state governor is. If Americans aren’t even sure who’s representing them, how can they feel as though their voice is actually being represented in government at all?

So if the U.S. isn’t a democracy, what is it? A plutocracy? Some form of capitalism? However we want to peg the modern U.S. government, we must ask questions when we consider the true impact of citizens’ voices.

With the rise of social media and the Internet, a possibility is forming for citizens to gather independent information and make their voices heard. If we fail to take advantage of this, we will only fall further from the true democracy the U.S. was meant to be.

(Image courtesy Scott Ableman, Flickr)