Is everything we know about American democracy true?

American democracy is often seen as one of the gold standards of self-governance, the beacon of freedom every nation around the world aspires to be. Many politicians present its sacred principles, all textbooks celebrate its origins, and American citizens take pride in participating in what many consider the greatest democratic experiment in human history.

But the reality is more complicated than all of these patriotic proclamations. Many of the beliefs about American democracy are based on myths that have persisted for generations. These myths have obscured the messy, often undemocratic foundations of our political system.

Here are some common myths about American democracy that continue to shape our national conversation, despite evidence to the contrary.

Voting has always been the heart of American democracy

The reality: For most of American history, the majority of adults couldn’t vote at all.

We were always told that voting is what makes democracy the best ruling system, and even more, that America has always been committed to making the right to vote universal. Indeed, voting rights have expanded over time, but this whole story buries deep down how exclusionary American democracy was for most of its history.

Back in the days when the Constitution was established, only white male property owners could vote. This was roughly 6% of the population! Women, enslaved people, Native Americans, and poor white men were all excluded.

Then there was the 15th Amendment, which was supposed to finally let all people vote regardless of  “race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” but the states from the South used many unfair tactics, such as poll taxes, literacy tests, and outright violence, to prevent Black Americans from voting for at least one more century.

Rather than being a settled principle from our founding, voting rights have been hard-won through centuries of struggle against those who preferred a more limited democracy.

The Constitution is a democratic document

The reality: The Constitution contains numerous anti-democratic features that persist today.

Most Americans view the Constitution as the embodiment of all the democratic principles and the “Bible” of American democracy. What is interesting is that many of its features were specifically designed to limit popular control over government.

One good example is the Electoral College. This system has “sabotaged” the popular vote in 2000 and 2016. The Senate gives disproportionate power to less populous states. The 26 smallest states, representing just 18% of the population, control half the Senate. The Supreme Court serves for life and isn’t accountable to voters at all.

Also, the amendment process is messy and gives veto power to a small minority of states. With only 13 states, 4% of the whole population of the US, a constitutional amendment supported by the other 96% of Americans can be blocked. This doesn’t sound democratic at all.

When the American democracy and the country were founded, these things made sense, but now they create a system where minority interests can consistently override majority will.

The Founding Fathers created a pure democracy

The reality: America’s founders were deeply skeptical of democracy as most people understand it today.

When people think about the Founding Fathers, they imagine the visionary democrats who managed to make America and the American democracy what it is today. This is a nice story that fits perfectly into the mythology of the country, but it ignores what the founders actually wrote and said about democracy.

James Madison, often called the “Father of the Constitution,” was scared of pure democracy because he considered that it could have led to mob rule. Alexander Hamilton was even more blunt, and he declared that democracy was “nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.”

The Founding Fathers designed the Constitution with a lot of safeguards that had a role during that time but definitely blocked direct democracy. The Electoral College ensures that presidents aren’t chosen by a simple popular vote. The Senate gives equal representation to all states regardless of population, meaning a voter in Wyoming has roughly 68 times more influence than a voter in California.

America invented modern democracy

The reality: Democratic ideas and practices developed simultaneously across many cultures and time periods.

Many people, at least many Americans, believe that America is the nation that managed to develop democracy and transform it into a model for the world. This is a myth about American democracy that minimizes the impact of other civilizations.

Athens in ancient times had a more participative type of direct democracy than anything we had in early America. The Iroquois Confederacy and other Native American cultures had advanced ways of creating consensus and representational governance that changed how colonists thought about democracy.

Also, many specific ideas that shaped the Constitution came from around the world. The Founding Fathers followed many of the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau. The concept of separation of powers came from France, while ideas about federalism drew on Swiss and Dutch examples.

In short, American democracy is a blend of concepts from all around the world. This is not a bad thing, but it’s better for people to be aware of these facts.

American democracy is constantly improving

The reality: Democratic progress isn’t inevitable, and American democracy has experienced significant backsliding.

The whole history of American democracy revolves around the idea that democracy is constantly evolving and becomes closer and closer to the pure form of democracy as the one imagined in books.

From the abolition of slavery to women’s suffrage to civil rights, this story suggests that America naturally evolves toward more perfect democratic ideals. But there were also some periods of democratic retreat that many sources forget to mention.

The end of Reconstruction saw Black Americans systematically lose their right to vote and the start of Jim Crow segregation. This was a significant step back from the democratic advances of the 1860s. During the Red Scares of the 1920s and 1950s, many people were punished for having unpopular ideas, and political opposition was silenced.

Many experts today say that American democracy is going through another period of decline. Extreme political gerrymandering has made it hard for most legislative seats to be competitive. Many Americans have had a tougher time voting because of efforts to suppress voters.

American democracy is more complicated than you might think; there is more to the surface than meets the eye, and not even the greatest scholars can confidently say that they know everything about it.

This is a political current that is constantly evolving, bringing with it good and not-so-good changes. These things are normal, and the only thing we can do for now is witness what happens. Now, this doesn’t mean we can’t take action as citizens of this country when something is unfair.

Understanding these myths can help us focus on the real work of strengthening democratic institutions and expanding democratic participation. Being aware of them, we can acknowledge democracy’s limitations while working to address them.

If you want to read more about this, check out this book: Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point

You should also read more about: The 7 Roles of Government: Are Changes on the Horizon?