Examples will be adduced to prove that the American polity is deficient in most of the aforementioned conditions.
United States, Britain and Canada are the only three democracies that have not implemented some variation of proportional representation but have clung to the First-Past-The-Post system, a majoritarian system, in which only a plurality is needed in each voting district to determine the outcome. Choosing elected representatives on the basis of the popular vote is irrelevant in this system not only misrepresenting the number of members from each party but also rendering it virtually impossible for smaller parties to gain any ground in the elected chambers of government.
In the United States, presidential elections are further complicated by the use of the Electoral College which enhances the possibility of the winner having fewer popular votes than the loser. Four times in presidential elections including Bush and Gore, the winner did not have the most votes.
American election campaigns are incapable of informing the public about the real stances of candidates on all the issues and revealing the true character and integrity of the candidates. Candidates base their messages on polling and focus groups and deliver their messages through carefully worded speeches, rehearsed debate sound bites and manipulative advertising.
In many European countries paid advertising has been banned due to the overriding manipulative nature of a thirty second ad designed by public relations and advertising experts who are only interested in selling a product rather than informing the public. The negative ad against Goldwater in 1960 or the Swift Boat ads against Kerry in 2004, to mention only a tiny fraction of the deceitful ads run during elections, are case in point.
Many democracies have also banned donations by any groups such as corporations and unions and as a matter of fact, the ideal method for funding elections would be based on a fair formula by which the government would either provide all the money or a balanced combination of government funding and individual donations with strict limits.
In 2012, many pundits are predicting a total expenditure of $5 billion for all campaigns, the major source of which are wealthy benefactors or corporations. In addition, spuriously independent PACs are raising large sums of money from the same two sources.
It is impossible to govern with only the public interest in mind when candidates are beholden to the people who funded their victory.
For example, in France, advertising is free and distributed on an equal basis to all candidates negating the advantage enjoyed by those with greater wealth. As well, candidates are reimbursed for 50% of their campaign expenses if they meet certain conditions.
In Germany, parties receive government funds for campaigns and campaign advertising is limited to just a few spots on TV and radio.
All campaign financing is paid for by the government in Sweden.
To function effectively, a democracy must offer the voters a clear, distinctive and significant choice among parties. In the U.S., there is a two party system in which both parties are beholden to corporate donors and in addition, there is very little distinction in ideology between the Republicans and Democrats. Both parties embrace neoliberalism, free markets, to a large extent minimum government intervention in the economy and a very militant foreign policy.
Most European countries have either a labor or socialist party offering a real choice from other parties and even a liberal party would be anathema to American voters due to the political culture in which they live.
Canada has the New Democratic Party (NDP) which despite its inability to win elections at the federal level has had an enormous impact on policy especially during minority governments. In 1974, the NDP pressured a minority Liberal government to implement the Canadian Health Care Act giving Canada a single-payer system which according to WHO and the OECD is far superior to the privatized American system. As a matter of fact, WHO ranks the U.S. system as low as 37 th in assessing the quality and fairness of healthcare.
In theory at least, the American system treats all voters as equal allowing each only one vote. On the other hand, the same egalitarian principle does not apply to political influence since donations and lobbying heavily skew political influence toward large corporations who on occasion practically draft legislation.
In 2011, a total of $3.3 billion was spent on lobbying by 12,633 lobbyists translating into $6,168,000 spent on each member of the House and Senate on average and 23.6 lobbyists per each member of both Houses. There is no question about the extraordinary power of lobbyists to strongly influence legislation.
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