Models of Democracy

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the American political system by explaining the three major models of democracy and examining which of these the United States comes closest to. These forms of democracy are participatory democracy, liberal-representative democracy and pluralist democracy.

From the Paper:

"In the United States this form of democracy would hardly be possible. The country is physically too large, and the population is too many for everyone to participate in politics. If 50% of the voting-age population in the United States were given 10 seconds to have their voice heard, the meeting would not be concluded for approximately 285,854 hours. That is more than 32 years; at that rate a good deal of people would have died before they were ever given their chance to speak (According to the Federal Election Commission the Voting age population at the time of the 2000 presidential election was approximately 215,815,000). It is understandable that if politics took up that much time then most people would not want to participate at all. In November of 2000 approximately 51.3% of the voting age population actually voted. That means that over 100,000,000 people that were eligible to vote did not. A great deal of the population has become apathetic when it comes to politics today. There is also a good amount of people that believe most of the population is not competent enough to be given the responsibility to take part in politics. In the United States a tiny percentage of the population, a group of elites that make their life and their living out of politics make most of the important political decisions. Most politicians of today do not like the idea of direct democracy; they would be nothing with out the separation of government and people."

More papers on Models of Democracy:

• Analytical Essay # 148725 : "Implications of Democracy in Ecuador"
• Research Paper # 128788 : "The Essence of Democracy"
• Essay # 10983 : "Madisonian Model of American Government"

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