Democracy is a fluid and ever changing myriad of political ideals and ideologies. The democracy in ancient Athens is a far cry from what we know as democracy today. The democracy of the newly formed United States during the 1789 is a far cry from what we know as democracy today. The democracy in 1870 and 1920 were a far cry from what we know as democracy today. The democracy entrusted to the people in 1965 by the Voters Rights Act is the closest to what we know as democracy today, yet is a far cry from what our democracy should be. This article will focus on clearing up misconceptions about government structure, the need for the United States to adopt a multi partisan system, and why the 116th Congress of the United States stopped just short of where it should.
The idea of democracy is one in which our leaders are chosen by the people. It is the embodiment of a government that is by and for the people. However, a common misconception is the representation of the United States of America as a democracy. In truth, we are a democratic republic as stated in the first session of the 105th congress on January 21, 1997. The difference is slight, but can be seen in the very definitions of what a democracy and a republic are. A democracy is defined as “a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.” Even this definition shows the modern bias and misconception of what a democracy is. In a true democracy, as put forth by the likes of Aristotle and Plato, the people directly exercise the power of the government.
In contrast, a republic is defined as “a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law.” In a republic the powers of government are held by a group of officials, instead of every eligible person voting on every issue, trusted individuals are chosen to act as representatives of the people’s interests. The United States is considered a democratic republic mainly because of how we elect our officials, but also because of the policy decisions that show up on our ballots such as marijuana legalization or tax increases.
A coalition government is defined as “A coalition government is a government formed jointly by more than one political party. Parties may decide to form a coalition government if there is a hung parliament where no single party has a clear working majority in the House of Commons following a General Election.” Essentially, no single party can form a majority which forces cooperation among various groups. This works best in a system where proportional representation is used. In short proportional representation is the idea that the number of seats a party receives is based on the number of votes their candidate received. In this type of electoral system, districts no longer elect one representative in a first past the post system. Instead, each district will elect multiple representatives. To learn more about proportional representation we highly recommend you read FairVote’s article here.
Now that we know more about a coalition government and proportional representation let’s talk about the 116th Congress. It is the most diverse congress in US history. Coincidentally, I predict it will be the most contentious congress in US history as well. This is a good thing, we need to introduce new and diverse ideas in order to strengthen our government and our faith in that government. We need more internal party debates such as those that have sparked between House Speaker Pelosi and representative Ocasio-Cortez over the Green New Deal and PAYGO. We’ve already seen the divisions among Republicans ever since the launch of the Tea Party, now it’s the Democrats turn.
While the US has a multitude of political parties we only ever hear about two. This is a fundamental and dangerous threat to our democracy. Just like any other marketplace of ideas, our political knowledge should come from more than two polarized sources. The equivalent of bipartisanism is if our only news options were CNN and Fox. This form of censorship can be avoided only when we are willing to challenge the established system. We haven’t done this because we are afraid of the “other side” winning control. Why didn’t the Tea Party split from the GOP? Because it would split voters and lead to a victory for the Democrats. Why didn’t Senator Sanders challenge Clinton as an independent? Because it would have split the vote and guaranteed the election of President Trump. We are in the middle of a political detente. This is why we need proportional representation. It wouldn’t affect our presidential elections, however there are alternatives to the first past the post system we use. However, it would affect Congress and change it for the better.
The threat of a single party majority is now more prevalent than ever as we enter the third week of the latest government shutdown. Senate majority leader McConnell has kept his party in line, prohibiting compromise with the new House majority. Likewise Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi have made it clear that President Trump will not receive his five billion dollars for the wall. The single party majority has crippled our ability to work together. Say that there was a new Socialist party with leaders like Senator Sanders and Representative Ocasio-Cortez and a true Republican party led by moderates such as Senator Collins. I believe that this shutdown would have ended long ago, with border security funding being tabled for a further date. Our representatives in the government would be forced to work together and be free of the threat of keeping the party line. Our government would better represent its citizens and would be far more effective than the stagnant body we see today.
In short our government is stunted by one thing. Fear of the opposition. We have castrated ourselves by catering to the lowest elements of our political society in order to keep positions of power. We work against true progress in order to guarantee our reelection. We are afraid of change simply because we might not keep the status quo. We should not be. The status quo is broken and undesirable. The need for change is clear in the support for people Senator Sanders and Representative Ocasio-Cortez. We can see the people begging for change by electing the most diverse congress in history. So why haven’t we seen the change we desperately need?
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- Congressional Record. “Proceedings and Debates of the 105th Congress, First Session.” Library of Congress, Congressional Record, 21 Jan. 1997, www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/inaugurations/clinton/CREC-1997-01-21-pt1-PgS119-4.pdf.
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- FairVote. “How Proportional Representation Elections Work.” FairVote, www.fairvote.org/how_proportional_representation_elections_work.
- Foran, Clare, and Phil Mattingly. “Welcome to the New Congress. We’ve Never Seen Anything like It.” CNN, Cable News Network, 4 Jan. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/01/03/politics/new-congress-history-women-diversity/index.html.
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- Scher, Bill, et al. “Pelosi 2, Ocasio-Cortez 0.” POLITICO, POLITICO, 3 Jan. 2019, www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/01/03/pelosi-ocasio-cortez-congress-223690.
- UK Parliament. “Coalition Government – Glossary Page.” UK Parliament, www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/coalition-government/.