Democratic Theory

Full Democracy Improves the Legitimacy of Democratic Consensus. The United States from the ratification of the Constitution through the new millennium had been progressing in fits and starts towards a “full” Democracy. The fullness of a Democracy depends on a number of factors, including freedom of association, freedom of political speech, fairness of elections, government transparency, and access to the ballot. This last factor, access to the ballot, has been the area of Democracy that the United States had the worst start in. In the early days, only white propertied males could vote, accounting for only a sliver of the population at the time.

In the decades and centuries since, the franchise has expanded to theoretically include all citizens over the age of 18, with minor exceptions here and there for citizenship, age, and perceived mental acuity. Two groups of people are conspicuously denied the vote in the United States

• Incomplete access to the ballot

• Lack of economic and social rights