Current State and Future of the United States Democracy

Since the 18th century, Democracy acted as a backbone for America, playing a huge role in the development and growth of the nation. Before it became what it is today, there were many changes and additions to the system that enabled it to develop into an advanced Democracy. For instance, expanding voting rights to women and African Americans an equal participation in politics. However, recently there are concerns regarding Democracy, such as the increase of polarization, low voter turnouts, and voters’ lack of interests in politics.

With the upcoming 2020 presidential election, it is concerning and alarming to consider what could potentially happen to the progression of Democracy in the United States. According to the Aspect of Liberal Democracy in the United States 2015 and 2017 graph, there many aspects of the government that have dipped below the diagonal line which signifies the positive vs negative changes (V-Dem Institute 2018: 10). Therefore, it is interesting and concerning to how the upcoming election will affect the Democracy.

Defects with the United States Democracy

While the advanced Democracy gives citizens the right to the vote, some voters are not willing to invest their time in researching and understanding the politics and the policies. Researchers conducted surveys and tests to see how much voters know about certain political information, and it turned out that most people failed to recall specific political information such as the growth of the economy prior to the 2012 election (Brennan 2016:31). People are not interested in politics because they see little to no benefits in researching and broadening their scope on politics (Brennan 2016:30-31).

While many people feel that its their civic duty and obligation to vote, they fail to recognize the importance of researching and understanding politics. According to Dahl, one of the key points of Democracy is that “Within reasonable limits as to time, each member must have equal and effective opportunities for learning about the relevant alternative policies and their likely consequences” (Dahl 1998:37).

This shows that Democracy allows people to understand the politics prior to a mandated election. Thus, when voters are not interested in learning about the policies, it defeats the key point. Similarly, some people also believe that their single vote has no influence on an election, which does not justify them taking the time to put effort (Brennan 2016:31). A crucial point that distinguishes Democracy from many other political systems is that it gives equal opportunities for voters to decide on their leaders and representatives through elections (Dahl 1998: 37). What is crucial about this is that when voters are not interested in the politics and the government, they will not utilize the opportunities to vote.

Not only does the issue with many voters losing interest in learning about politics undermines the quality of Democracy, it contributes to another concern; voter turnouts. While a huge percentage of the US population is eligible to vote, it still faces a concern regarding voter turnouts, indicating a low participation in the government. Compared to many other Democratic countries, the US’s voter turnout is quite behind a lot of countries (DeSilver 2018: 3-4). Voter turnout is very important because it illustrates how impactful and functional Democracy is in the country. Higher voter turnouts show that the citizens are interested in participating in the political system, and that in turn will help select a leader that most likely represent the majority. With a low percentage of voter turnout, one is left to question how effective and functional the United States Democracy is.

The increase of polarization in the American Democracy has continued to grow in a toxic way. Polarization in the United States mainly stems from opposition between the Democratic and the Republican Parties, in which the two parties normally propose ideas on opposite ends from one another. Recently, the polarization has evolved from debates to disagreements that are based on personal biases. When this happens, each party focuses on criticizing each other instead of focusing on working together to come agreement. The growth of polarization is evidenced through the decision over “appropriate legal regulations for electoral registration and balloting” (Singh 2018:3). The Republic and the Democratic parties argued over whether they should increase the regulations or not with concerns over how it could affect the turnouts (Singh 2018:4). The polarization continued to grow as both parties constantly fighting back and forth over each other’s propositions.

In a more recent case, since Donald Trump became the president, he has proposed different plans and policies that not only led to major disagreement between the political parties. Even though some of the policies were not passed, the tension between the parties only grew with opposing parties questioning the liability of the thought processes. This also led to concerns about will happen in the next upcoming election, when his term is over. Robert R. Kaufman and Stephen Haggard expressed this concern by stating, “The post-Trump era, moreover, will also bear the marks of long-term damage incurred during Trump’s time in office. Trump’s ‘takeover’ of the Republican party has pushed it increasingly toward positions of intolerance and extremism, and Democrats’ defeat in 2016 has intensified divisions between the moderate and more militant wings of the party” (2019: 428).

This comment shows growing division between the political parties under Trump’s presidency could potentially continue to grow to a point that may potentially drag the US down from advanced Democracy to liberal Democracy which illustrates an erosion in Democracy. There are also concerns regarding the system of checks and balances such that Trump has fired and replaced many members of the administration with people who are close to him, including some of his family members. This leads to a speculation of whether the president is really held accountable on all his actions. While other branches of the government have the ability to impeach him, questionable reliable people in his administration are and this raises concerns regarding the system of checks and balances (Roberts 2019:152). The increase in polarization in the United States is very concerning because it is a big factor that will affect the erosion of the government.

While Democracy in the United States is facing specific defects as mentioned above, it is unlikely to fall behind the requirements of a polyarchy. A crucial element of Democracy is that it allows people to vote for their leaders or representatives. While the US democracy is facing low number of voter turnouts and concerns regarding voter’s interests in politics, the voting system still exists in every single state. Robert Dahl specifies six main criteria of a polyarchy: “Elected Representatives, Free, Fair, and Frequent Election, Freedom of expression, Alternative information, Associated autonomy, and Inclusive citizenship” (Dahl 1998: 92).

There are many elements the Democracy in the United States shares with the requirements of a polyarchy defined by Robert Dahl. People who are eligible to vote still have the rights to vote for their representatives and leaders. Furthermore, they have access to various sources of information if they so choose to research about policies and candidates. It is important to note that the defects mention above focus on issues cause by various groups of people, rather than restrictions impose by the government. Therefore, the United States Democracy will not be reduced to a critical point below the line that defines polyarchy.

Enforcing the importance of political knowledge

While Democracy offers equal opportunities to people to participate in the government and the future of the United States, it is important to make sure that those who participate in voting are educated and knowledgeable on the various policies, candidates, and laws. One way to make sure that those participated take the time to research about politics is to create a knowledge test administered at the voting sites. The knowledge test can contain various information that tests voters to see whether they are able to identify certain facts, rules, and policies. According to the ANES data, well-informed voters tend to have a completely different views from those who are less informed, whose is described as “Become more hawkish about intervention as well as in favor of protectionism, abortion restrictions, harsh penalties for crime, doing nothing to fix the debt, and so forth” (Brennan 1998:34).

Therefore, a knowledge test will also help to filter voters who lack little to few knowledge on policies and who can’t evaluate specific decisions. While some may argue that people are well-informed are subjected to potential biases, it is important to note that their decisions and thoughts are based on their research, knowledge, and experience (Brennan 1998:43). With the research that they have and some biases, they will come up with decisions which certainly is better than decisions that made purely from biases. With the introduction of knowledge test, it will encourage voters to put in the effort to learn and broaden their perspectives and this will help to elect representatives or leaders who can benefit the majority.

Even though Democracy has been the backbone of the United States for hundreds of years, there are some defects that have been amplified by the recent election. Since Trump’s presidency, polarization seems to be increasing as the tension between the Republicans and the Democrats increases. At the same time, the United States is quite behind many other Democratic countries in term of voter turnouts. This can be attributed to some Americans losing interest in the politics or that they no longer believe that their votes have any impact on the future of their country. A key part of Democracy is allowing people a fair and equal chance to vote, but if a large amount people don’t feel an urge to vote, it illustrates a missed opportunity.

To encourage more people to vote, candidates should find ways to show that they care about their supporters and emphasized how impactful their votes are in the future of the country. Since voting is a factor in determining the future of the country, each voter should at least get an overview of the policies regarding various candidates, and get a better understanding of politics through an administered knowledge test. With the upcoming 2020 election, it certainly concerning to consider what will continue to happen to the US Democracy in term of the possibility of democratic erosion.

“In compliance with the Honor Code, I acknowledge that I visited the Writing Workshop for help in writing this paper.”