The United States of America falls short of a legitimate democracy. In any structure which claims to be a democracy, a question of it authenticity remains. A truly democratic political system has certain characteristics which prove its legitimacy with their existence. One essential characteristic of a legitimate democracy is that it permits people to freely make decisions without government interference. This characteristic is beginning to diminish in the United States; an example of such is the Lawrence & Garner v. Texas case, this case involved the state of Texas prohibiting sodomy. The Supreme Court found this law unconstitutional and the two men who filed the lawsuit Lawrence and Garner won their case. .
An additional essential characteristic which legitimates government is that every vote must count equally: one vote for every person. For this fairness to transpire, all people must be subject to the same laws, have equal civil rights, and be allowed to freely express their ideas. Minority rights are also important in a legitimate democracy. Despite how ostracized their views, all people should enjoy the freedoms of speech, press and assembly. Public policy should be made publicly, not in secret, and recurrently scheduled elections should be held. While "legitimacy" may be defined as "the feeling or opinion the people have that government is based upon morally defensible principles and that they should therefore obey it," then there must be a correlation between what the people want and what the government is doing if legitimacy is to take place. .
The U.S. government may be considered legitimate in some aspects, and illegitimate in others. Since voting is class-biased, it is not classified as an entirely legitimate process. However, in theory the American system calls for one vote per person, the low rate of numbers results in the upper and middle classes ultimately choosing candidates for the whole country.
