The Framers' Coup
The 55 men who drafted our Constitution were not fond of democracy.
Eleven short years after the Declaration of Independence was written and adopted by the Continental Congress, fifty-five delegates from twelve of the thirteen “Free and Independent States” that had been created by the Declaration of Independence met in Philadelphia and drafted a new document – the Constitution of the United States – to replace the Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union.
The delegates who gathered at the Federal Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 had been given specific instructions to do nothing more than revise the Articles of Confederation. One of the first things they decided to do was to ignore those instructions and draft an entirely new document. They also decided to take a vow of secrecy. Not a word spoken in the room where they were meeting was to be shared with the public or the press. Speaking candidly, the delegates were free to express their true feelings as they debated what form the new government should take. Most of fifty-five men who drafted our Constitution were not fond of democracy. This quote from Elbridge Gerry (the namesake of “gerrymandering”) is typical of the tenor of their remarks.
In An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution, historian Charles Beard, compiled a brief overview of the political views of all fifty-five delegates. Relying on primary source materials, especially quotations from James Madison’s Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention and other materials included in The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, Beard concluded that there were only four delegates who spoke out in favor of democracy and nineteen delegates who spoke out strongly against democracy. And nearly all of the remaining delegates voted consistently with those antidemocratic delegates.
The union forged by our Constitution was certainly a stronger union. It made us one nation instead of thirteen. It replaced the “firm league of friendship” of thirteen sovereign independent states created by the Articles of Confederation, with a powerful national government. The individual states retained some powers but were no longer sovereign. The government created was far from a perfect union. None of the elements of a “perfect Democracy”, as identified by John Locke, were included in the government created by our Constitution.
The Framers of our Constitution were masters of illusion. They created the illusion of democracy. It’s time for us to make America a true democracy.
Defining Democracy
In his essay “Politics and the English Language”, George Orwell makes the point that "the great enemy of clear language is insincerity”, resulting from “a gap between one's real and one's declared aims”. In that context, with regard to democracy, he says:
"The words democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice, have each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another. In the case of a word like democracy, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic, we are praising it: consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using that word if it were tied down to any one meaning. Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way."
Orwell is correct. The term “democracy” has been abused and used dishonestly to the point that it has “several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another”. However, attempts to define democracy are not “resisted from all sides” – only by the defenders of other kinds of regimes – the false friends of democracy.
For anyone who is sincere and feels no need to hide their real aims, defining “democracy” is a simple matter. The word is derived from the Greek word demokratia, which was formed from two other Greek words: demos (meaning “the people”) and kratia (which means “have power”). A democratic government, therefore, is one in which the people have power. There is another Greek word – kratos (which means “rule”) – that is also applicable. A democracy is a government in which the people rule.
George Orwell
Democracy is the only legitimate form of government.
Being better than “all those other forms” of government “that have been tried from time to time” is a very low bar for democracy to clear. All the other forms have been based on various combinations of force, fear, and fraud. Democracy is the only legitimate form of government. As John Locke pointed out in his Second Treatise of Government: “The consent of the people…is the only lawful basis for government.”