The United States is often referred to as the “World’s oldest democracy”. So why don’t we see the American-style system elsewhere? Perhaps the reason is that since the nation’s ratification of the Constitution in 1788, the world has had time to evaluate the US system and determined there are alternatives for expressing the will of the people that are more fair, moral and efficient.
Indeed, the rise of Donald Trump would not have been possible if America were a well-functioning democracy. The following is just a sample (in no particular order) of undemocratic characteristics of America’s government.
Fair elections?
A fair election means that the process is transparent and impartial. Americans have no right to fair elections for Congress – or for other state and local offices, even though election results should reflect the shared political and economic interests of the voters.
Quick primer on US voting: America has a bicameral legislature, Congress, comprising the House of Representatives (435 voting members) and the Senate (100 senators). Under what is colloquially referred to as the “Elections Clause of the Constitution” (Article 1, Section 4), each state legislature has the authority to set its own voting laws and to regulate Congressional elections. That includes constructing districts, geographic divisions of the state from which a member of the House is elected. (For state and local elections, the number of districts is typically higher.)
The number of Congressional districts in each state depends on its population, whereas every state votes for two senators (more on that later). Voters are assigned a district that typically has several polling places (libraries, schools or other buildings to cast a ballot) when elections are held, and states allow mail-in ballots although several require a valid excuse for not showing up on election day.
States use various entities to draw those districts, such as the state legislatures or commissions that are politically appointed, advisory or independent. Why the different methods? Because drawing of districts has huge implications for who wins and what laws are passed.
There are strong incentives to manipulate the construction of electoral maps for political advantage, known as “gerrymandering”. It’s a way to cheat. With gerrymandering, certain political parties and incumbents are heavily favoured purely because the maps are biased.
For example, a longtime favourite of southern states has been to pack Black voters into a single district regardless of how they are distributed throughout a state. According to the Gerrymandering Project at Princeton University(which also evaluates state-level elections), 16 states received a grade of “poor or failing” in their biennial redistricting report card. The upshot is, that while Americans have a right to vote when elections are held, the elections themselves can be unfair.
Each US state has two senators
The number of residents in US states ranges from a low of 600,000 (Wyoming) to a high of 39 million (California). Yet both states – all states – have two senators. Seven states are so small that the the entire state is one Congressional district, so they have a single representative in the House. Those very small states tend to elect Republicans.
That means currently half of senators (the Republicans) represent about 44% of the US population instead of closer to 50%. Republican senators haven’t represented a majority of US voters for 20 years. What’s the big deal? Each senator is powerful enough to stop legislation moving though that chamber – and ultimately through Congress – and to block important nominations for government agencies. Giving equal power to all states in the Senate results in a small-state bias and is a gross violation of the “one person one vote” principle.
The Department of Justice is not independent
Americans rely on the Department of Justice to enforce federal laws. On the Department’s website it states, “The Justice Department’s mission is to uphold the rule of law, keep our country safe, and protect civil rights.” There have been attempts, some more faithful than others, by past presidential administrations to allow the Department to pursue crimes in a way that is free from pressure or influence from the White House.
The current Department leadership, however, doesn’t bother to hide that it is working directly for the President. Trump is using the Department of Justice (and the FBI) to whitewash American history and to exact revenge on perceived enemies such as former FBI head James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James (court cases which have been fruitless thus far).
Pam Bondi is a steadfast Trump loyalist, and her performance as Attorney General has been egregious. Her blatant falsehoods and failures are so shocking that the American Bar Association, the country’s largest professional organisation for attorneys, has publicly condemned her behaviour (and she barred her employees from attending their events).
Bondi has fired many hardworking senior staff because of her perception that they were not dedicated to Trump. The Department’s crackdown on undocumented people has been barbaric. Her idea of protecting civil rights (see the mission statement above) is dismissing ongoing investigations of racial and gender equity violations by police departments, jails, banks and voting authorities. Bondi has unleashed a golden age for discrimination, fraud and white-collar crime.
Tip of the iceberg
There are many other undemocratic features of the American system: no monetary restrictions on contributions by wealthy donors, corporations and special interest groups to political campaigns; a cap on the number of representatives in the House; election of the president through the Electoral College instead of by popular vote; winner-take-all style elections; lifetime appointments for Supreme Court justices; presidential pardons; media concentration that has, among other things, resulted in the absence of factual news resources that most Americans can use.
Yet the most damning failure of the American system today is the simultaneous corruption or ineptitude, or both, of our three branches of government.
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