Lexie+P

This I Believe... "Special" Draft -- What is democracy?

What exactly is democracy? This is a question that I will always come back to in my Democracy class. Before taking this course I had no interest in democracy or politics, but that has all changed now.

I used to think democracy was all about equal rights and choices, but I am slowly learning that that is not entirely the case. The dictionary definition of democracy is: "government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system", but is our country really a democracy? Is is really "for the people, by the people"? All of these questions arose when I read the definition.

If citizens really have a say as to what the government does, why do parties go behind the backs of their fellow citizens? Watergate anyone? Nixon went behind the backs of the whole country, which was clearly not a legitimate democracy at the time. I'm pretty sure he didn't discuss his plans of wiretapping or the secret slush fund he had with the public. When presidents keep secrets from the general public, that is not a democracy.

Now that I've discussed what a democracy isn't, I will discuss what it should be. A democracy should be a form a government in which people have a say in what the president decides to do. We should have a right to agree or disagree and we should have a right to give other options if we don't like the ones given.

I've learned that although we live in a democracy which is supposed to be all about choices, they are very limited. In the recent presidential campaign the parties that weren't either Democratic or Republican had little chance of winning. When given various choices, we seem to only choose choices A, B, and maybe C and completely rule out D, E, and F, claims libertarian and writer Bernard Chapin(?).

Now back to my original question, what is democracy? After thinking about it for a long time I have decided that I have no idea what democracy is and I have still a lot to learn on the subject. So until I have learned all that I need to learn about democracy, this essay will never be complete.