It's a Constitutional What?
Twice in the last two months, I have heard the term, “Constitutional Democracy.” First was in the movie, Wreck-It-Ralph, and second was when our president stated in a speech concerning Syria. It bothered me, because I know that the United States is a Constitutional Republic and not ruled by the majority or a single authoritarian figure.
Constitutional democracy is a system of government based on popular sovereignty in which the structures, powers, and limits of government are set forth in a constitution. Out of that definition, two words stood out; “popular sovereignty.” I looked up popular sovereignty and read it meant the authority of government created and sustained by the consent of its people. In reality this means a party or a dictator can claim it represents the will of people. An American Revolution was fought toward freeing themselves from a dictator named King George III. King George claimed sovereignty over all of England and America and placed unfair taxes and regulations of the colonists.
Our Founding Fathers were strong advocates of republican values. Republicanism is defined as governing a society or state as a republic, where head of state is appointed through elections. James Madison, our fourth president stated that a democracy becomes weaker as it gets larger and more violent as different factions form. Additionally, he stated that a republic gets stronger as it grows and combats any factions present.
United States is a republic because the people choose representatives to make policy decisions for us. Republicanism stresses liberty, unalienable rights, and individualism.
Alexis de Tocqueville stated that, “Democracy can produce a tyranny of the majority.” The strongest point to made about republicanism is people have unalienable rights that cannot be voted away by a majority of voters.
To be clear, I am not writing about political parties. This is not about the R or the D at the end of an elected officials name. I am writing about a political philosophy. So was I shocked and disappointed when I heard Vanellope in Wreck-It-Ralph say she wanted to establish a Constitutional Democracy in her game world? Yes, and no. I did not understand why the writers had to slip in political theory in a children’s movie. However, I am not surprised that progressive Hollywood has, over time, tried to change history little by little.
Some might call me crazy for making that last statement, but when that term was used by the President of United States in his recent speech about Syria, I believed there was something to it. Was it an honest mistake? Or is it a gradual changing of our history for those who do not know any better?”
