Representative Democracy Triumphs

Harrison Goodrich

Representative Democracy Triumphs

The Athenians cultivated the idea of democracy and were the first to implement it. Over time, the Athenian form of representative democracy has evolved into the direct model that our founding fathers built our country on. The direct model has been proven to be the superior way to govern because it is more efficient while still representing the views of the voters. Everyone has the right to vote in a democracy, the people have the need for a leader that most represents the ideals and values of the citizens. In theory this does not represent everyone’s views because there can be only one winner of the votes. However, mob rule is not an effective way to govern, where either the more powerful faction will triumph or the division between factions will result in no action at all.

Our current form of direct democracy is efficient and representative of voter’s views because everyone gets a vote. According to Dr. Eli Noam, direct democracy is effective 95% of the time based on his career. “95 percent of the referenda the majority decision had the same sign as total benefits; that is, the outcomes were efficient. Apparently, then, voting outcomes reflect the intensities of voters’ preferences as well as the strict number of voters.” This means that direct democracy is extremely effective. And because democracy is always evolving, minority groups are gaining more representation in our governing body today. For example, there are jewish and openly LGBTQ members in Congress today. While direct democracy is usually efficient, in reality it is far from perfect.

In the words of Professor Howard Ernst at the United States Naval Academy, gerrymandering is the biggest threat to democracy today. Career politicians and lobbyists try to manipulate the political system and party lines to their own benefit. Similar to how Hipparchus concentrated power so he had control over everything. However, everyone has only one vote, no matter the social class or political party. While some may try to manipulate those votes to gain power, democracy will prevail in the USA. There are systems in place to cast out corrupt politicians.

Overall, direct democracy is far superior in today’s world than representative democracy. While Athens invented and pioneered democracy, all groups were not represented. This was as an acceptable practice for the time period but it is doesn’t give everyone democracy. It is also inefficient to have competing factions without a central leader, action cannot be taken if opposing sides are constantly at odds. An example of this in direct democracy is when the government shut down for 35 days because a budget couldn’t be agreed upon. Direct democracy isn’t perfect but it is the best form of government available in the free world.

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