The US is ranked as a 'Flawed Democracy', what needs to change?

[Shadow1980]

Abolish private funding of election campaigns
Institute strict limits on lobbying (no gifts, meals, or other favors of any kind for candidates or elected officials)
Abolish single-member House districts and implement proportional representation
Make ranked-choice voting the standard
Abolish the Electoral College
Reform or abolish the Senate
Term limits for SCOTUS judges


The first four of these could be implemented by federal legislation. However, the last three would require constitutional amendments to implement, so they're unlikely to ever happen the way our politics currently are, but they should still be goals to work toward.

JackHandy said:

It's not a flawed democracy, it's a flawed republic. But even so, it's the flaws that make it what it is and allow it to change and grow and bend its way along. So I don't think anything needs to change. There has always been periods of social and political upheaval in the US. We're in one right now. Soon, it'll be over and things will carry on as usual.

As others have pointed out, the thing that makes a nation a republic is that its head of state is a president or some other similar elected official rather than a monarch. In fact, anti-monarchism is the defining characteristic of republicanism. But being a republic doesn't guarantee a nation is a democracy, i.e., a nation where representatives in government are chosen by the people through free and fair elections ("democracy" in modern parlance usually being shorthand for "representative democracy"). Plenty of republics are authoritarian regimes, while some democracies still have monarchs.

Here's a handy visual guide:

Aside from nations where the current government has no legitimate constitutional basis (i.e., military juntas and transitional governments), nearly every country on Earth can be fit into one of the four quadrants.

Last edited by Shadow1980 - on 28 October 2022