Myth #10: The United States is a Democracy

This is the Tenth Myth in the series: 25 Myths of the U.S. Constitution.

Note: These articles later were updated and combined into my first book: 25 Myths of the United States Constitution.

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Benjamin Franklin was asked: “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”

Ben Franklin replied: “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

Thomas Jefferson, though not at the Constitutional Convention, was very influential in the proceedings. His opinions regarding democracy were quite firm.

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.”

John Adams, the second President of the United States, felt the same about democracy, saying: “Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either [aristocracy or monarchy]. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”

Finally, a quote often wrongly attributed to Benjamin Franklin, and probably one that sprang up in the last twenty or thirty years, though the true author is unknown, explains democracy in a very clear manner: "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner."

A pure democracy is a form of government in which the vote of the populace determines all functions and matters of government. Such a form of government invests all of the power of the government into the individual voter. Once the populace realizes it can vote itself gifts from the public treasury, and subvert freedom under the guise of "for the common good," the breakdown of the system becomes imminent. What then tends to emerge is a ruling class, not unlike the few powerful elites in oligarchies of authoritarian systems, which undermines the freedom of the individual for the perceived benefit of the State.

The Founding Fathers desired to design a system that used democratic processes so that the American People would have original authority, while also dividing the voting power in such a way that in most parts of government the vote of the people influenced the system in an indirect manner. The aim was to eliminate the likelihood of a closed ruling class making all of the decisions without representation of the population present, while ensuring the typically uninformed voter did not compromise governmental authority through a purely democratic voting system. The republic created in the United States was designed to ensure the individual was the original authority, while leaving the representation in government up to those that were educated about political processes.

As per the original intent of the U.S. Constitution, the only direct election the citizens of the United States would participate in at the federal level would be their choice for Representative. The Representatives were expected to serve as a voice for the people in the House of Representatives. The U.S. Senators were appointed by the State Legislatures, not by the people. This ensured that the State Legislatures also had a voice in the federal system. However, the process in which the Senators were chosen did not completely cut the influence of the populace out of the process, for it was the citizenry that put the members of the State Legislatures in place at the State government level in the first place. The same can be said for the electors in the Electoral College. Though it is actually the electors that vote the President and Vice President into office, the choice of the electors is influenced by the vote of the people on a state by state basis.

Modern language has begun to use the word "democracy" to describe the American form of government. The modern emphasis on "democracy" has created confusion, and has encouraged a new movement in this country to gain traction that emphasizes industrial democracy, also known as "socialism." Marketed as a government of the masses, the goal of this new movement is to control all means of production, distribution, and economics through the auspices of government for the supposed ever-progressing interests of its people. The proclaimed enemy in the rising movement that claims to be a democracy is the free-market system, making the progressive political system the very anti-thesis of a republican form of government.

The Founding Fathers understood that concentrated power is a dangerous thing. The best way to control power was to divide it at all opportunities. Individual liberty hinged on individual choice, and a limited government. The United States was to be a system of self-government at the local level, and a system designed to preserve the union at the federal level. Democratic processes interweave throughout our republican form of government, while a scheme of representation, which derives its powers directly and indirectly (depending on the part of government) from the body of the people, governs at the highest levels of government. The rule of law designed to act as a restraining mechanism should the excesses of democracy, or the threat of oligarchy, rise up in the American system, was enshrined in a constitution. The Constitution was the contract between the States and the newly formed federal government in which enumerated powers were expressly granted, and from which all other federal laws were to follow. In case changes, over time, were required, an amendment process was also provided. As originally intended, no changes to the Constitution can be made without three-quarters of the States ratifying the proposed amendment. This process quite literally is a mechanism in which the States give the federal government permission to have additional authorities.

In a democracy, the "will" of the people is unchecked. In a republic, the "will" of the people, though important, cannot extend beyond the bounds of what is constitutional, or beyond the opinions of the officials in government placed there directly, or indirectly, by the democratic vote of the people. In a republic, it is also easy for the people, should the representatives not govern in a way consistent with the will of the people, to vote out their representatives and replace them with officials more apt to govern in line with the preferences of the populace.

Democracies collapse when the people begin to entrust more of their freedoms to those they elect, instead of the voting public acting as the oversight against those they elect. To guard against the rise of tyranny in such a manner, the founders put into place a series of checks and balances against the parts of government, and against the vote of the people. The three branches of government operate under a doctrine of "separation of powers," enabling checks and balances to exist between the three independent branches, while keeping in place a limited connection between them. In the same way the two houses of Congress, the House of Representatives, having its members voted in by the people, and the U.S. Senate, having its members originally appointed by the State Legislatures, served as checks against each other, while together serving as a check against the other two branches of the federal government.

In a democracy, these checks and balances, and separations of power, would not be in place. In a republic, while each part of government is independent from the other parts, the built-in system of checks and balances ensures each part of government does not abuse or usurp. These safeguards were necessary to ensure each part of government acted independently, while also having a degree of constitutional control over each other. In other words, the system of checks and balances serves to enable constitutional control in the hands of each department while preventing any usurpation of power by any part of government.

While the United States uses a democratic process to elect the members of the representative government, the American form of government is not a democracy. The American inheritance is a form of government that is limited in its scope and powers, while designed around a system of checks and balances. The authorities of the federal government are few, while the powers of the member states are many. The representation was originally intended to be put into place both by direct and indirect election.

The United States is a Constitutional Republic.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary