How can the USA call itself a 'democracy' when there are only TWO choices of leader...democrat or republican?

Question

At least here in Canada, we end up having several choices as a leader...any party can form and try to get seats in our government. (leader of the party with the most seats gets to be prime minister) I always vote NDP, which is the third largest party in Canada.
Why do american people only get TWO choices? How democratic is that?

Answer 1

The USA is not a democracy we are a Republic.
This is a Republic
Our Nation, The United States of America, is a REPUBLIC UNDER LAW not a democracy which was anathema to our founding fathers. The Constitution is the law, not popular opinion.

A democracy is basically a 'majority rules' form of government, which is great for those who are part and parcel of the 'majority' but has the ability to deprive the minority of life, liberty and property. They can do this because all laws are determined by majority opinion which has no higher authority to answer to. A republic, on the other hand, is governed by law which cannot be changed by just any whim of the majority.

Our nation is made of 50 states each with it's own Republican form of government [a prerequisite to statehood] and governed by it's own constitution. In order to function as a whole, the states needed some form of federal government to handle matters which were beyond the scope of any one state's government; thus was born the Constitution of the United States of America. The Constitution granted clearly defined and limited powers to the Federal government in the areas of national defense, international affairs, interstate commerce and little else; the rest was left up to the individual states just as it was for the previous 150 years under their Charters from Great Britain [it was the usurpation and misuse of those powers by the King of Great Britain that eventually resulted in the war for independence].

The Declaration of Independence says that God, our creator, has given us "certain unalienable rights" among which are "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". The Constitution gives teeth to the Declaration by providing a permanent [they hoped] rule of law which would extend these blessings to many generations of our posterity.

Liberty is precious, many have died for it. Obviously in any society liberty must be limited to prevent one person's liberty from encroaching upon the liberty of another, thus the need for governments [in our case the Constitution]. When one person uses their liberty to deprive another person of his or her life, liberty or property; it is the job of government [state government under the Constitution] to mete out justice which may require a loss of liberty, property and possibly life for the offender as he or she is forced to make restitution.

The founding fathers knew very well that men are easily corrupted when given too much power as any reading of James Madison's notes on the Constitutional Convention will make very clear. In light of this they went to great pains to assure that our new federal government would stand the test of time without degenerating into tyranny of which they were sorely afraid. All states were given equal representation in the Senate regardless of population and the government was divided into three branches: executive, judicial and legislative with a design to provide checks and balances on each other so no one of them would get out of hand. It has indeed stood the test of time and, if fact, has become the model for many other constitutions worldwide.

Answer 2

Because the USA creates this illusion that our vote actually counts. We choose between Democrats and Republicans...two political parties who are in many ways all to similar to be seem as opposites in the spectrum of political views. Then, our vote doesn't really count, whether or not we vote Democrat or Republican because the presidential election was stolen.

You may say, "well now the Democrats are the majority in congress," but as I've said before...there is not much difference between the Democrats and Republicans. And anyway, the Republicans are getting way too much bad press...so they had to throw some "blue" in there.

The US is not a democracy.

By the way, there are two other political parties": the Green Party and the Independent Party. Just...they get no press.

Answer 3

Great observation! Is it really a democracy in a nation where Presidential all candidates are rich (top 1% of the population) and need to raise (from other millionaires) at least 50 million dollars to even consider running? I don't know, but that doesn't define democracy to me.

Answer 4

There are more than two choices. Republican and Democrat just happen to be the two largest and wealthiest parties. Clearly, you've never voted, or you'd be aware of at least 4 or 5 other political parties.

Answer 5

In reality, there are many parties in the US, just 2 major ones. When you think about it, the NDP (who are actually the 4th largest party in parliament) are really a fringe party at best, with no hope of ever forming the government (especially with Layton as leader).

Answer 6

First of all we are not a true democracy nor is any other country in the world a "true democracy." Second comparing Canadian political system to the US is like comparing apple and oranges.

The US has a presidential system and in our current case we have a two party system. In Canada there is a parliamentary system with multiple parties. If the US where to change to a multiparty system it would also have to change to another form of government such as a parliamentary system. Or it could also completely change its voting system by using a proportional system of voting which would require substantial changes.

Answer 7

The USA is a demorcay not a republic, and we do have more than one choice, you can vote for any thrid party you wish, I have, as I could not vote for Clinton, nor Bush as both ducked out on Nam! I voted for Liberatarian and on other occasions I have written in where Gov. races are concerned Mickey Mouse

Answer 8

The US is completly different. We have a parlamentary system. Besides, multiple parties leads to minority goverments,like how most of Europe is right now. So leaders become afraid to act globally becuase they may trigger an election if not supported by domestic issues.

Answer 9

The dems and republicans are the two biggest parties. There's also the green party, remember Ralph Nader? the Independent, the Constitutional, the Socialist party. So as you can see we have much more then two choices, its just the dems and repubs are the biggest and most popular parties.

Answer 10

The USA is a representative republic, not a democracy. We have many parties - republican, democrat, libertarian, green, reform, socialist, communist, just to name a few.