Opportunities and Challenges of Democracy

After reading from the book I soon realized that there are many challenges to democracy that I had never considered. I especially identified with Dahl's research with regard to legal equality and class inequality. In exempla, Dahl said that "in a system where nearly every adult may vote but where knowledge , wealth, social position, access to officials, and other resources are unequally distributed, who actually governs?" (Draper 11-12) I found this argument very compelling; that although we may all have the same rights to vote and participate in our political system we do not all have equal experiences or advantages that makes our participation equal.

For instance one of the greatest disparities in our country at the moment is that of the disparity in income that exists. " Since December 2007 more than six million Americans have been pushed below the official poverty line." (Mason) If citizens do not have the same resources and advantages as others and yet we are all casting the same vote; how can you argue that we are all making informed voting decisions? When "less than one-sixteenth of the taxpayers owned one-third of the city's property." and "one family out of four had an income three times the city average; most of the families in the poorest ward earned under $2000 per year." (Draper 11) I believe that when casting a vote you should be as informed as possible and given the fact that our free market society has driven to the end of the middle class I'm not sure that we are all given the same information when casting a vote.

I think that the opportunity that democracy offers that is most important is the concept of widespread decision making. A political system that allows each citizen the opportunity to participate in widespread decision is truly a government of the people. When every person has a voice then, theoretically everyone will exercise that voice and be represented. I think that this is one of the most important values of a democracy. When everyone is not granted the same opportunities then I do not believe that democracy is working to its best potential. For instance, "unemployment did not affect all groups equally. Few affluent, educated Americans experienced job loss. " (Draper 54) When each group is not equally affected by wains throughout the country then each group cannot join together when exercising widespread decision making.

Lastly, I think that equal distribution of all resources in a democracy is so difficult to achieve that it may also hamper the actual way that a democracy works.

I believe that all of this begs the "critical" question: Is democracy a theoretical  concept?

Draper, Alan. The Politics of Power a Critical Introduction to American Government. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2011.

Mason, Paul. "America's new poor: the end of the middle-class dream." The Guardian. Editor. October 12, 2010. January 27, 2011. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/oct/12/end-of-the-middle-class-american-dream>.