What are the opportunities and challenges of a democracy?

In a democracy people can be what they want.  A person that lives in a box can one day, through hard work and determination, become the CEO of a major corporation the next, and vice versa.  People are able to make up their own minds and if it goes against the government, that is acceptable.  If a person or a group would like to protest a policy or a law, they can without the fear of corporal ramifications.  These are all the wonderful things of a democracy. 
No one person can make a decision in the government.  They must work together to create a working Democracy that benefits the majority of the population.  According to our textbook "The Politics of Power," "a successful working democracy requires 1.  Wide spread participation in decision making 2.  An absence of restriction on who gets to participate and on the fair terms of their participation, and 3.  Inclusive representation of the interests, values, and beliefs of citizens." (Katznelson, Kesselman and Draper 13)   Without these three things a Democracy does not work.  If any one of these things does not exist, a country cannot truly say that they are a Democracy. 
Unfortunately, even though all three requirements are met for the United States, we still have difficulty based on the huge gap between the rich and the poor.  The literate and the illiterate.   There are very few at the top of the economic food chain and many more at the bottom.  With this gap wide spread participation is not likely.  When more people are concerned with putting food on the table than how the government is run, then participation lags.  Also, with poverty come other problems such as illiteracy, low education, and poor healthcare.  These make for restrictions when it comes to participation in political affairs.  Back when slaves were freed and allowed finally to vote, they still had a difficult time because they couldn’t read.  We still face this problem today.  Also not everyone is going to be represented in the Senate and The House of Representatives.  Like my mother always said “You can’t please everyone all of the time.”  Everyone cannot be happy all of the time with what our government does.  It is impossibility and we just have to accept this as fact.  The only thing that we can hope for is that the representatives for your State does the best he/she can and follows the majority of their constituents.  These are the challenges that our government faces every day.  We are not perfect, but I am glad I live in the United States and have the right to say that.

Bibliography

Katznelson, Ira, Mark Kesselman and Alan Draper. The Politics of Power. New York: WW Norton and Company, 2011.