What is Democracy?

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About this Video

This spring a group of 5th graders became curious about the presidential elections and the idea of democracy. This video is their concept, they produced, shot, and edited it. They also helped compose and perform the music, as well as creating the artwork.

Director: Skelly Aggett-Carosella, Ivar Cloudshadow, Trevor Green, Gabe Greenberg, Noa Greenwald, Jade Hunter, Aidan McGinnis, Izaiah Read, Sienna Richert, Emma Wilson
Title of Film: What is Democracy?
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Date Uploaded: August 2nd, 2008
City: Boulder

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Great job on the video--I'm

Submitted on August 24th, 2008 by Anonymous

Great job on the video--I'm sure it was a great learning experience for the students, too.
Lois Calo

Well, we do not live in a

Submitted on August 18th, 2008 by Anonymous

Well, we do not live in a democracy at all. This is a constiturional republic with elements of democracy. Pure democracy is little more than mob rule. I wish liberals would be able to comprehend this some day.

I believe that this

Submitted on August 25th, 2008 by Anonymous

I believe that this commenter is using the ambiguous term “Pure Democracy” to refer to “Direct Democracy” (which can be akin to mob rule). While most scholars would agree that our form of Government is a Constitutional Republic, those same scholars would agree that a Constitutional Republic is a form of Democracy, although not all Democracies are a Constitutional Republics. There are of course many forms of Democracy and although our founding fathers did not refer to our country as a Democracy, our current President and the majority of politicians do. In fact our current President has spent over $500 Billion and hundred of thousands of lives to bring “Democracy” (his words) to Iraq in a form under the direction of the US lead interim government a “democratic, federal parliamentary republic” which under close inspection looks very much like a Constitutional Republic.

I’m not sure what this poster’s point is, except to make a claim that “liberals” don’t understand our governmental structure. Considering that this film was made my 5th graders and the majority of Americans (including “conservatives”) have no understanding of the nuances that he claims are so important, I feel that this poster’s comments are not germane to a discussion of this film but rather just an attack on the work of people he considers to be “liberals”.