Do you people think the formal structure of the federal government?

Question

..makes our democracy better? or worse? what do you think about it period?

Answer 1

While the Constitution was being framed there were two sides, the Federalists and Anti-Federalists.

The Anti-Federalists believed that the government should be a loose confederation of states, much like the Articles of Confederation voices...although the confederation is not strong towards external enemies and trade.
Federalists, on the other hand, believed in a strong central government. The central government would have authority to impose taxes and defend the nation. (Granted, that a standing army was not created)

The Federal government is indeed strong, and according to Federalist Paper 51, the government indeed has authority the ability to check and balance the three branches. The executive, judicial and legislative branch are able to check each other.

I would argue that it makes the government and country better. I am in favor of a strong central authority (of course, this being said post-Civil War, when state's rights were diminished tremendously). Although, there has been cases that the Executive branch oversteps its boundaries, as documented in the book " The Imperial Presidency" by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

The time period is very interesting, and Gordon S. Wood does an excellent job in the book "The American Revolution." That book does a grand job, discussing society, politics and strategy.

Answer 2

The structure is fine. People are corrupt.

The key point is that we are not a democracy. We live in a representative republic that was founded on democratic prinicples. There is a difference. There are no true democracies. A true democracy would require all individuals to vote for all matters. The US is obviously too large for that to work.

Answer 3

The original intent of our government was not to be actively involved in the lives of its people. This Republic was rigidly designed to only accomplish those things that are essential, intentionally making it difficult to act so as to temper the passions of the people. (That's straight out of the Federalist Papers)

The U.S. government, while serving for the good of the people, was never designed to do everything for them.

Answer 4

It's as good a structure as any & has served us well for more than 2 centuries. If it aint broke don't fix it.