According to the federalism principle, the American government is separated by lines of policy, where the national government centralizes the views, policies, and responsibilities of the entire country. At the same time, states, no matter how large or small, populous or isolated, gets its fair say in national decisions, and that federal (national) government cannot encroach on these rights. The democratic principle, however, stipulates that the people are the source of the power, not political parties, benefactors, patrons, or even their representatives, who could simply go unelected once their terms end and the dissatisfied people are ready for change. The problem that this presents, however, prevents individual citizens' voices, or the voices of the general public, the democratic principle supports, from the vote in policy and governmental decisions that it is entitled to by the federalism principle. A paradoxical tension arises that nature can only regulate by violating one of the principles, democratic or federalist. So, unfairly, democracy is undermined in the name of efficient government, primarily because of the Electoral College, which embodies the American precedent that federalist comes before democracy when it should be the other way around. .
The unequal distribution of democracy, due to the process of electing presidents through the Electoral College, is seen to run parallel with the unequal distribution of representation of the people in the Electoral College. The reason there is a constitutional mandate that the populations of each state and district be recorded and factored into representation in the House is so that the public could be accurately reflected in the federalist body. This stipulation makes perfect sense, and provides perfect results, but only when implemented correctly. An accurate reflection of the public can only be seen when democracy is supported by federalism when the number of representatives in legislatures like the Electoral College reflect the people and the states.