The Genius of Our Democratic Republic

The idea of democracy, as brought to us by the Greeks and as instituted in the United States in the 1700’s, has brought to this country much wealth and prosperity. Our democratic republic, combined with capitalism, has been responsible for the creation of the last remaining superpower in the world and a wealth creation process unseen before in history. I would like to examine the characteristics of this combination in an effort to determine why it was so effective.

Democracy is a system of government which allows the citizenry to have a say in its own rule. In the ancient city states of Greece, the community would vote on all matters with regard to the state. This required the citizenry to be engaged in the issues of the day. Because the community was relatively small compared to countries today, this was accomplished with relative ease. With the formation of countries that cover enormous land masses and a have great many more people than ancient Greece, there came three new problems:

1. Communications with the populous so that they could understand the issues;
2. Diversity of geography; and
3. Diversity of culture.

Over the years, the United States has handled the first problem very well. It has managed to keep a free press which, though not unbiased, is at least diverse enough that one can get an array of opinions by reviewing various sources. Even with the advent of television, cable and the internet, we have continued to keep the public educated as to the issues of the day. As is true with other types of media, the internet, of course, carries with it the problem of conveying false information, but on a much larger scale. Despite this, however, the U.S. has done quite well on the dissemination of information and communications front.

The issue of geographic diversity was handled very well from the beginning. By having many state and local governments, the local issues of property rights and domestic concerns such as education remained local issues. This hierarchy of governance allowed for greater efficiency in that local issues can be voted on at the local level. Inter-town or county issues can be dealt with at the state level and inter-state issues could be dealt with at the federal level. In this way, the number of issues a citizen would have to consider would be limited to his local issues, state issues and federal issues. He would not have to consider the local issues of a person in another state or township.

The problem of cultural diversity, for the most part, has been handled well by the United States up until now, with a few exceptions. With freedom of religion, firmly grounded in the Constitution, citizens could maintain their religious and cultural identity no matter their place of origin. The fact that there are 50 states and each state’s laws are different, allow a person to vote with their feet. That is to say, if they don’t like the laws of the state they are in, they can move to one with laws more in keeping with there preferences.

The fact that the country is made up of 50 independent states also has a couple of added bonuses:

• It provides a training ground for our leaders as they move from local to state to federal leadership positions;
• It promotes competition between the states, which in turn, keep, state taxes low and promotes commerce.

Joseph L. Conigliaro

http://www.pippoproducts.com