[phon]

wget http://www.usconstitution.net/const.txt; grep "democracy" const.txt | wc -l

The United States is a Federal Republic that has become progressively more democratic over time. As originally set out in the United States Constitution (ratified in 1788), the only part of the federal government that was to be directly elected was the House of Representatives. The direct election of Senators did not become the law of the land until the 20th century while the Supreme Court and, technically, the Presidency are still not directly elected. These controls were put in place to buffer the entire system from popular fads and hysterias.

[knewter]

This, a thousand times. Of course the US doesn't look as democratic as some would like. It was explicitly set out to NOT be democratic.

The fact that we're now trying to "spread democracy" abroad is anathema.

[Androsynth]

Thats not entirely true. The first 70 years of US history is about half the country wanting a democracy (Jefferson, Madison, the Democratic party) and half wanting a more centralized govt (Washington, Hamilton, The Federalist party, The Republican party). In fact the US Civil War was a war between a republic government and a democratic government. The issue was decided fairly definitively when the republican country won the war.

By the time the democrat party recovered from the war, they had changed significantly. By the early 20th century, both parties were de facto republicans, but they distinguished themselves along class barriers rather than government types.