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Its title translates as On Democracy in America , but English translations are usually simply entitled Democracy in America. In the book, Tocqueville examines the democratic revolution that he believed had been occurring over the previous several hundred years. In , Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont were sent by the French government to study the American prison system. In his later letters Tocqueville indicates that he and Beaumont used their official business as a pretext to study American society instead. The two also briefly visited Canada, spending a few days in the summer of in what was then Lower Canada modern-day Quebec and Upper Canada modern-day Ontario. When the first edition was published, Beaumont was working on another book, Marie, ou, L'esclavage aux Etats-Unis two volumes, , a social critique and novel describing the separation of races in a moral society and the conditions of slaves in the United States. Is America A Democracy

Alasdair S. Roberts does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. For many people, the lesson from the assault on the U. Capitol on Jan. That conclusion is overstated. In fact, American democracy has always been fragile. And it might be more precise to diagnose the United States as a fragile union rather than a fragile democracy. Certainly, faith in American democracy has been battered over the last year. Polls show that 1 in 4 Americans do not recognize Joe Biden as the legitimate winner of the Is America A Democracy. The turn to violence on Capitol Hill was a disturbing attack on an important symbol of U.

But there are four other factors that should be considered to evaluate the true state of the nation.

A crisis of unity

Taking these into account, what emerges is a picture of a country that, despite its long tradition of presenting itself as exceptional, looks a lot like the other struggling democracies of the world. First, fragility is not really new. By modern definitions of the concept, the United States has only been a democracy for about 60 years. Despite constitutional guarantees, most Black Americans could not vote in important elections before the snor did they have basic civil rights. Like many other countries, the United States is still working to consolidate democratic ideals.

Similarly, the struggle to contain political violence is not new. Washington has certainly seen its share of such violence. Sincethere have been multiple bombings and shootings at the U. Capitol and the White House. Troops have been deployed to keep order in Washington four times since World War I — during riots and unrest Is America A Democracy andeconomic protests inand again in The route Is America A Democracy the Capitol to the White House passes near the spots where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated inJames Garfield was fatally shot inand Harry Truman was attacked in Political instability is also a familiar feature of economic downturns. There were similar fears about the end of democracy during the swhen the United States wrestled with inflation and unemployment, and during the Great Depression of the s.

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Of course, those fears had some justification. Many people wondered whether democratic governments could rise to new challenges. But there is evidence from historical episodes like this that democracies do eventually adapt — indeed, that they are better at adapting than non-democratic systems like the Soviet Union, which collapsed in Finally, the debate about American democracy is fixated excessively on politics at the national level.

This fixation has been aggravated by the way that the media and internet have developed over the last 30 years. Political debate focuses more and more heavily on Washington.

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But the American political system also includes 50 state governments and 90, local governments. More than half a million people in the United States occupy a popularly elected office.

Democratic practices may be imperfect, but they are extensive and not easily undone. On balance, claims about the fragility of American democracy should be taken seriously, but with a sense of proportion.

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Click might be more useful to think of the present crisis in other terms. The real difficulty confronting the country might be a fragile national union, rather than a fragile democracy. The result has been increasing rancor and gridlock in Washington. Again, this sort of division is not new to American politics.]