What are the undemocratic elements in the constitution, if any?

Answer 1

First, understand that by design we do not live in a democracy. We live in a Democratic Republic. That means that we vote for our leaders and they make decisions for us. In a democracy people vote on everything. We don't. We vote for some ballot initiatives and such but for the most part we only vote for our leaders.

So, the only democratic thing about the Constitution is that it calls for elections. Other than that, its a Republican (the concept, not the political party) document.

Answer 2

The one remaining "undemocratic" element of which I know is the electoral college system by which the president is elected. The founding fathers figured that the average citizen wouldn't be well-enough informed to vote directly for president, so they implemented a system instead in which the average citizen would vote for a slate of more politically-savvy "electors", and it would be these "electors" who would then vote for the candidate they thought was best suited for the job.

With today's technology, it would probably be easy to replace the electoral college system with a more straightforward countrywide majority vote, but the problem with doing this is that you would seriously shortchange the less populous states. Under the current system, each state counts for a certain number of electoral votes, so the states are weighted according to population, but there are limits to this weighting system so that the less populous states still "matter" in the election. Remove the electoral college system, and the less populous states would have a drastically reduced impact on the election, which might translate into those states' being completely ignored by presidential candidates (who are generally attentive to a states' concerns in direct proportion to the impact that state could have in the election). Given this, it seems like the electoral college will be around for a long while.

Answer 3

Strictly speaking, Article 1 of the Constitution outlies the basis for a REPUBLIC, not a DEMOCRACY. So technically, that is one element. Another is the provisions under election law for the creation of the electoral college. This is essentially a few hundred people who no one elected making descisions for the electorate. Anyone in the electoral college can vote however they please, but they get their direction from the votes cast by people, and it is obviously frowned upon when they vote against the votes of the people. This is still a fairly undemocratic approach to democracy.

Answer 4

The electoral college. This is without a doubt the most egregious undemocratic element in the Constitution. It allowed an incompetent like George W. Bush to become president over the wishes of the majority of the public who voted, because he lost the popular vote. Eventually, many of us hope that the electoral college will be eliminated. To those people who say it will leave small states powerless I say: Let them move to more populous states if they want more political clout.

Running a fairly close second to the electoral college is the allocation of senators in Congress. It is absolutely ridiculous that relatively unpopulated states like Rhode Island and Montana should have as much power in that body as much more populous states like California, Illinois, New York and Texas.

Answer 5

Problem is democracy isn't what made our nation the place the world wanted to be. Our republic with a tad of democracy is what made us a wonderful place. Pure democracy is the fuel needed for Socialism and Communism. Our Constitution speaks of our republic, I don't recall it speaking of democracy.

Answer 6

Police power of the state wherein the government can regulate freedom in order that the government will survive.

Answer 7

Great point, I'd like to know more as well

Answer 8

that's a tricky question

Answer 9

Yeah it might be correct

Answer 10

There are none.