The Essay Topic: How Democratic Is the American Constitution? Robert A. Dahl ask

The Essay Topic:
How Democratic Is the American Constitution? Robert A. Dahl asked this just over twenty years ago. America’s government didn’t seem perfect then, but it seemed far less troubled than it does today. In the book Dahl argues (1) that a system of government should ensure political equality and (2) that in several ways, the U.S. Constitution doesn’t do so. Is Dahl right about political equality? Are his judgments persuasive, even today, about why our Constitution doesn’t ensure it?
Please answer these questions in a coherent and thoughtful essay.
Your essay should be thesis driven, and its length should be about 1500 to 2000 words. You should support your thesis with evidence and reasoning, and you should also show an awareness of class sessions, discussion sections, and the full range of readings assigned on democracy.
A Background Note:
The essay topic asks you to answer two separate questions. Political philosophers and political scientists disagree about how to answer them; you should do your best. You should understand that American politics was becoming divided by the time Dahl wrote this book. We’d just had a bitterly contested election between George W. Bush and Al
Gore. Still, no one was imagining Donald Trump as a possible president. We’d never had an attempted coup, and we’d never deposed a Speaker of the House. You might—but might not—find these questions useful as you develop evidence:
• What did past writers, from Aristotle to John Adams, think about political equality?
• Does Dahl give enough emphasis—or too much emphasis—to money in our politics?
• Democracy seems to work well in several Nordic countries. Are they relevant to us?