Can the US Still be Classed as a Democracy?

Looking at the legitimacy of the ‘world’s purest democracy’

The United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

There has always been controversy behind the US and its political system. For a country which claims to be the bastion of world freedom, its citizens seldom see the same policies the country claims to uphold. The idea of spreading ‘freedom’ across the globe became part of US foreign policy since the beginning of the Second World War. This then begs the question, is the US really in a position to spread freedom when many say that the country itself isn’t truly free?

To explore this proposition we must look at the metrics used to measure freedom, most importantly the metrics used to the state of the democratic system of a country. For this, we must make one thing clear. Often the argument of the US being a republic rather than a democracy is used to deflect much criticism towards the US electoral and political system. As such we must first define both terms.

Dictionary.com defines the terms as the following:

Republic: “a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.”

Democracy: “government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in…