Hacker News Reader

Is the US regarded as a "strong democracy"? Surely some can argue just how strong, especially with the effective 2-party system. It gets repeated a lot, the US being the greatest democracy and all, but that doesn't make it true per se.

View on HN

Yeah, between the entrenched 2-party system, Citizen's United, gerrymandering, voter suppression (voter-ID laws, the war-on-drugs combined with felons not being eligible to vote, etc.), the politization of the supreme court and the complete dysfunction of Congress, I'd classify the US as a 'failing' democracy. Not 'failed' mind, you but well on its way. I'd put it about 2-3 democratic dysfunctions behind Turkey and 4-6 behind Russia.

> It gets repeated a lot, the US being the greatest democracy and all

Absolutely no one is repeating that outside of the US itself

Reply on news.ycombinator.com