Should the U.S. still be considered a democracy at this point?
It sure doesn't feel like one
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I read some academic study the other day which analysed a study of US opinions on just that.
I wish now that I'd bookmarked the study, or at least written down the reference source. It was from one of the ivy league institutes.
A questionnaire was sent out to thousands of people - selected for proportional representation of all demographic types.
The results showed that irrespective of left or right values, only 3.5% of people would vote out a politician who represented their party on grounds of illegal, corrupt or incompetent behaviour while in office.
It turns out that loyalty is widely considered in the states to be far more important than integrity and honesty. The politicians have know this for quite some time, and realise that it gives them a high degree of impunity.
The analysis found that this attitude was dangerous to democracy, leading to an entrenching of party positions at the expense of responsiveness to changing needs, and leading also to gradually higher degrees of authoritarian control.
I wish now that I'd bookmarked the study, or at least written down the reference source. It was from one of the ivy league institutes.
A questionnaire was sent out to thousands of people - selected for proportional representation of all demographic types.
The results showed that irrespective of left or right values, only 3.5% of people would vote out a politician who represented their party on grounds of illegal, corrupt or incompetent behaviour while in office.
It turns out that loyalty is widely considered in the states to be far more important than integrity and honesty. The politicians have know this for quite some time, and realise that it gives them a high degree of impunity.
The analysis found that this attitude was dangerous to democracy, leading to an entrenching of party positions at the expense of responsiveness to changing needs, and leading also to gradually higher degrees of authoritarian control.