Care este cea mai veche democratie din lume? Din reflex, veti spune: SUA, desigur. Sigur?

Cautarea mea a inceput acolo unde a inceput si USA: “We the People“. Constitutia incepe cu

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Nu se spune nimic despre democratie per se, dar se enumera justitia, ordinea interioara, bunastarea si fericirea drept scopuri ale acestui document. Las cititorului, ca exercitiu, gasirea cuvantului “democratie” in constitutia SUA.

Ati ghicit, nu exista.

Am inceput sa caut care este sistemul politic al SUA. Prima informatie a venit de la Wikipedia:

The United States is the world’s oldest surviving federation. It is a constitutional republic and representative democracy, “in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law”.

BBC ne spune:

The US is a federal republic of 50 states. The framers of the Constitution, drafted in 1787, wanted to block any individual or group from gaining too much control, so they established a government of separate institutions that share powers.

Iar Encyclopedia Britannica ne spune, mai pe larg, acelasi lucru:

The Constitution of the United States, written to redress the deficiencies of the country’s first constitution, the Articles of Confederation (1781–89), defines a federal system of government in which certain powers are delegated to the national government and others are reserved to the states. The national government consists of executive, legislative, and judicial branches that are designed to ensure, through separation of powers and through checks and balances, that no one branch of government is able to subordinate the other two branches. All three branches are interrelated, each with overlapping yet quite distinct authority.

Deci, DA, SUA este o democratie reprezentativa, caracterizata de votul universal, de separarea puterilor in stat si de respectarea drepturilor individuale – The Bill of Rights (primele 10 amendamente ale constitutiei).

– va urma –