The U.S. Political System

Democracy is a complicated and ancient concept. The idea of people participating equally in self-rule antedates recorded human history and may be as old as human society itself (Lewellen, 1983, pp. 18-29). The idea of democratic representation offered the mechanism to solve the dilemma of organizing democratic government over a large territory. The American and French revolutionaries intended to make democracy work through popularly elected assemblies: state legislatures in the United States and the National Assembly in France. The introduction of the concept of democratic representation in practice and theory opened the way for the modern conception of democracy (Cooke, 1967, pp. 56-65).

Along with the idea of representation, political ideas in the philosophy called liberalism were influential in th

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about politics, which leaves the day-to-day operations of the government in the hands of a political elite: party leaders, officeholders, "notables", and the media. Moreover, some citizens seem to have more interest in politics and greater resources for contact with political leaders. This is described by the Pluralists as the model of competitive elections. To the Pluralists, elections provide an opportunity for even apathetic and passive citizens to choose their political leaders. Since Pluralists assume that the political elite will make actual policy decisions, the role of democratic citizens lies primarily and almost exclusively in their capacity to choose among alternative political leaders. As Joseph Schumpeter put it in a famous definition of democracy: The democratic method is that institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for the people's vote (Schumpeter, 1950, p. 269). The Pluralists assume political apathy to be a natural inclination of most people. Unless political affairs directly affect people's immediate interest, most prefer to focus on their private concerns. This theory led political activists and p
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Approximate Word count = 1855
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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