3 ms·

Please enlighten us on how it's not a functioning democracy.

• Retric 9y ago
  Millions of law abiding Americans are denied representation because they live in DC or territory's, but not states etc. Look at single party congressional races. America is not even a representative democracy and has not been one for a very long time. PS: I can point to similar posts under the Obama presidency if you think this is about who is in office. America like China holds elections, but is not a democracy.
  • deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
• dijit 9y ago
  I mean, it's a functioning democracy in that there are elections. But there is a very serious class divide and it's pronounced in the upper echelons. It is widely known that governments and policy is bought and paid for. The idea is, if you're rich enough you can lobby for what you want. Functionally this is bribery with some extra steps. I would refer to the US as either a pendulum swing of administrations that attempt to cancel each other out at best and inverse totalitarianism[0] at worst. But I certainly wouldn't hold it up as the pinnacle of democracy. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
• Veratyr 9y ago
  http://wws.princeton.edu/system/files/research/documents/Gilens_Testing%20Theories%20of%20American%20Politics.pdf http://wws.princeton.edu/system/files/research/documents/Gil... There is next to no correlation between the will of the people and the chance of their preferred policy being enacted. There's a very strong correlation between the will of the elites and their preferred policy being enacted. The US is only nominally a democracy, it is functionally an oligarchy.