How The Constitution Has Non-democratic Features
by Although the Constitution was created to have a Democratic government, it had numerous non-democratic features that did not give total power to the people in forming a government for the people.
James Madison was a democratic philosopher who contributed many ideas in the draft of the constitution. He believed strongly that the people had the rights to govern themselves, yet had mixed feelings toward a pure democratic government. He had concluded that throughout history, pure democracy has failed miserably and left the government with a tyrant. This was a large concern because a tyrant would destroy everything that they have worked for and would devastate the country. He did not trust the nature of people and as a result, the Constitution was drafted in a way to protect the interest of the people, but would limit their ability to control every aspects of the government.
The political system created was not very democratic in a sense. People are not the source of laws and powers. For example, they cannot pass or repeal laws. For example, although the people had the power to elect their own representative, Madison had wanted the elected representatives to use their own judgments rather than what the people wanted. This shows that although the people elect the representatives, they may not always do what the people want. This is clearly undemocratic because the voice of the government is not based on the people. In addition the government is not truly democratic because people cannot have total control over the government officials except Election Day.
James Madison was a mastermind in creating a democratic government, but could not trust the people in running a proper government. Therefore, he developed ways to make the people feel as if they are under a Democracy when their powers are severely limited.
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