In the textbook, Dickovick and Eastwood (2019), democratic regimes are described as ones where people individually and groups have the ability to voice and contest their ideas, as well as the opportunity to shape political life and preferred policies by winning fair elections and using the democratic process to pass legislation (p.120). Democracy has become a word that has become highly politicized and commercialized in a way, strongly diluting its true meaning in the context of political sciences. This can be seen in both, supposedly ‘democratic’ nations holding rigged elections (i.e., Russia, Venezuela); as well as countries that are meant to be the representative of democracy such as the United States, casting doubt on its own elections. In a democratic state, there are winners and losers of elections, but losers know that based on the principle of democracy they can still supporting the system and those elected to rule, while contributing to policy in other ways such as being a minority party in legislative bodies, lobbying, and referendums on major issues.
As discussed by Dickovick and Eastwood (2019), the procedural or minimal definition of democracy is a country which provides civil liberties and political rights to its citizens continuously. Political rights may include free and fair elections, that are regularly occurring, have multiple choices of candidates, and open to most citizens of the country to vote or participate in. Meanwhile, the presence of civil liberties such as freedom of speech and expression, assembly, and access to information/press are critical for a democratic healthy society. However, there are also substantive or more in-depth issues in identifying democracies. These are focused less on procedure but more on social outcomes such as social inclusion, equity/equality, accountability, public knowledge and participation, economic outcomes such as poverty. The criteria are complex, but democratic nations typically have higher indicators across the board than authoritarian states, which typically seek to limit aspects such participation, transparency of its institutions and accountability along with lower equality and participation in elections.
Dickovick and Eastwood (2019) propose several theories in regard to democratization. The one that is strongly applicable to the United States is the domestic institutional theories. The U.S. from the early days of its formation depended on creating strong democratic institutions, such as the Constitution which supports key democratic rights for citizens and describes the processes of elections, policymaking and other foundations of government, including the three branches which serve under a system of checks and balances. The domestic institutions in the US are set up inherently to prevent authoritarian rule and despite the significant power that a president may hold, they are not above the law or the Constitution as was proven only recently with the previous administration. As to the effectiveness of some of the institutions in preserving democracy in the long-term and current political climate is subjective. However, strong political institutions as they exist in the United States, are vital to upholding democracy even when there is inherent division and the people and lawmakers cannot agree on politics or direction for the country (Ura and Theriault 2021).
Another perspective relevant to the US is the cultural. Since its inception, US has strongly valued individual rights and the need to have a voice after facing oppression and unfair policies from British monarchy as its colonies having no representation. It is in the culture of the US to select forms of government based on representation and violation of democratic constitutional rights are strongly contested in the justice system.
Bibliography
Dickovick, J. Tyler, and Jonathan Eastwood. 2019. Comparative Politics (3rd ed.). New York, NY.: Oxford University Press Academic US.
Ura, Joseph Daniel, and Sean M. Theriault. 2021. “Strong political institutions can uphold democracy, even if people can’t agree on politics.” The Conversation, Web.