Democracy: Direct Democracy In The United States

America has a history of trying to find the governmental system that has the perfect balance between the people and the government. Many mistakenly believe that the Constitution is based off of the Ancient Greek’s idea of democracy, in which people voted themselves on issues pertaining to their government (Samons 1). While the founding fathers did use a kind of democracy, it was a representative rather than pure democracy. The American government does, however, use direct democracy in certain states, for better or worse. The theory behind direct democracy seems to fit what the American people want exactly. The people have a direct say on things that will affect their government, such as amendments and laws (Reilly 6). In America, people use initiatives, recalls, and referenda to make their opinions heard by the government. This is a good thing in the eyes of many Americans because it means the people have more of a voice in the government then they usually would have. It also means that the government has
They can have a very narrow view, which can sometimes hinder society as a whole more than it can help (Samons 51). A majority of society does not have the training to think through all the implications and consequences of an initiative. The three strikes law in California is a good example of this. People pushed this initiative through because it sounded like a good idea, like it would keep criminals off the streets, and thought no further than that. However, most of the people being affected were small time criminals getting caught for minor offences. It lead to overcrowding in jail, which cost more money, and the law has since been amended multiple times. The average person who signed the petition for that initiative was not thinking about the long term. A politician would have seen such ramifications before even proposing such a law and most likely have a somewhat viable solution ready to deal with