Democracy is an American ideal. In this series of articles, we will look at the three things required for democracy to work. We’ll start with a conceptual look at democracy, and then nail down concrete ways to implement it, fixing our broken political system.

Abraham Lincoln said it best when he referred to America as, “that government of the people, by the people, for the people.” We’ll use the structure of his quote for organization.

“For the people” to me means the country is for the welfare of the people, for what the people want, for what’s best for the people. We’ll look at how these different ways of saying it provide different perspectives. Ultimately, we’ll see how it’s best for the people to decide for themselves, not to have government, parties or politicians decide for them.

“Of the people” to me means the people are in charge. The citizen must be the boss. What does a boss do? Tells people what to do and then has them report on their results. Reporting is the essence of accountability. Officials must report to citizens on the issues that are important to them. When this happens, citizens will be able to judge them.

“By the people” to me means officials should be hired and fired by the people. This begins with a working election system, which we do not now have, mainly due to the need for huge amounts of money in politics. While we often focus on who supplies the money for politics, the basic problem is that money is required. The system of parties and primaries limits choices as well.

All of these require “the people” to function together. In this country’s first two centuries, this was impossible, but web technology makes it possible now.

In the next article we’ll begin the investigation.