Democracy is the form of government that developed beginning at the end of the eighteenth century and that has proven to be one of the strongest and most flexible types of government in the world. The Cold War has ended, and the Western democracies have emerged victorious, leading nations that are for the most part economically strong, politically stable, and geared to the future rather than the past. At the same time, democracy is a form of government with a number of limitations--it is flexible, but it cannot be changed very quickly so that when it perceives a problem it is not able to change direction with any speed in order to cope. The system as it has evolved also contained a number of institutional hindrances, from the conflicts of special interest groups to a certain separation between domestic and foreign policy, economic and other policy. The lack of coordination in terms of policy is often evident and may produce unnecessary tensions in the body politic. Yet the form of democracy developed in the United States is probably the most effective and fair system of government that has yet been devised in spite of its flaws and limitations.
Democracy is a form of government that elevates the individual to a special place within society and in relation to his or her government. The government is not something that is imposed from without, nor is it something that has been inherited from generation to generation and over which the people have no controls. Instead, the government is reshaped by each generation, reshaped in election after election as the people determine who will fill a wide variety of local, state, and federal offices. The American system is not a direct democracy, for the Founding Fathers did not trust direct democracy as a form of government. For that matter, given the size and complexity of this country, direct democracy would be too unwieldy and would make it difficult for the government to operate. I...