Democracy

What do you think of when you hear the word democracy? I can tell you what I think of. I think of our country. Our history. How we took bits and pieces of other countries governments and molded them all into one type that we use. I also think of how lucky we are to be able to choose those people who set the rules and regulations for us. I am going to tell you what I think a strong democracy is and the measures that I personally would take or the measures that I think would make a strong democracy.

To me, strong democracy is when you have all eligible voters voting. After all, democracy is a government that is “for the people, by the people, and representing the people”. How can it be representing the people like its supposed to when almost half of the eligible voters are not getting out and voting. Secondly, I believe that a strong democracy also comes from the people that were elected and chosen, actually listening to what the people that they are representing have to say. A strong democracy does not have a representative saying, “they want this, but I don’t agree, but I was elected, not them, so I will vote how I want”. That just doesn’t work. The third thing that I believe that a strong democracy is a level democracy. A strong democracy is one that has more than just one main party. They have to have people using the checks and balances like the ones that are in place in our country.

If I was able to make changes to democracy, I would think about ending the two party rule we have in this country. More than just Republicans and Democrats would be running and winning. I think that in order to have a democracy that is very effective and really represents the people, would have many parties with different agendas running the country, that way it would be harder to get laws and bills passed. You might say that if its harder, then nothing is going to get done. But if its harder that means that more people have to be in support of the bill or law in order for it to be passed, and if more