American leaders often speak as if our country is the world’s prime exemplar, and prime proponent, of democracy. The public differs.
Today, in the minds of our citizens (ignoring, for the moment, our government’s actions), America suffers from a democratic deficit. …
In a survey our firm conducted this summer, we asked respondents how democratically the county was being governed on a 10-point scale, with 10 signifying it was “completely democratic” and 1 “not at all democratic.” Adding together the higher end of the scale (7s, 8s, 9s and 10s), just 38 percent of Americans were convinced that the U.S. is behaving as a democracy. CONT.
Mark Mellman (Mellman Group), The Hill