The challenges and opportunities of a democracy

In generalized terms Democracy's largest opportunity is that of Choice! Democracy allows for the choice of electing officials to represent the citizens fairly, equally, and substantially. In America, it also allows certain inalienable rights such as; freedom of speech, freedom to pursue one's happiness, freedom to bare arms, freedom to choose the type of job and education that you want, freedom from religious persecution, and many others. Democracy allows for it's citizens to choose to participate or not to participate in elections.

In the introduction of "The Politics of Power", the author compares America to that of the Titanic. Where of the 2228 people on board, 20% were well off and the other 80% were third class passengers with barely any provisions. Titanic's passengers were by no means equal. Third class passengers were not allowed to mingle with that of the 1st class passengers. America is said to be that very luxurious ocean liner with it's people roughly being as unequal as it was on that historic ship.

According to "The Politics of Power", there are four dimensions that indicate a true democracy. These dimensions are:
    1. Procedures: the ability of individuals and groups to make ideas known and to elect those representatives.
    2. Personnel: Proper representation of class, sex, race, ethnicity, and geographical areas
    3. Responsiveness: Elected officials should be aware of and responsive to citizens concerns.
    4. Effectiveness: Elected officials should produce results.


The challenges of a democracy are abundant. America falls short of truly meeting these dimensions. We as Americans elect our representatives to each selected committee, our officials try to produce results, and our leaders try to be responsive. However, our leaders and elected officials continually fall short of properly representing class, sex, race, ethnicity, and geographical areas. If the dimension of "Personnel" were represented the American people would be more equal. Instead an extremely large amount of its population suffers from the lack of provisions like that of the third class passengers that were aboard the Titanic. Those who cannot afford a proper education, adequate housing or health insurance, are left behind due to lack of monetary funding to acquire these necessary items.

 Americans are democratic and capitalists, but what is the problem with having some socialistic ideas in combination with capitalism? Something is truly wrong with our system when European countries and many others are doing better than us on ideals that are holding us back from achieving a true democracy such as education, more people voting, better equality between classes, and health care. I am not suggesting that everyone is supposed to be completely equal and make the same amount of money. But these items need to be more equalized.