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The Constitution makes many people think of such ideas as democracy
and freedom. When one looks closer at the Constitution, it does not seem to fulfill
these concepts. As it was written, the Constitution provides for a bicameral
government. In it, the lower house is elected through popular election, and the
higher house through appointments of the lower. A group of electors chooses the
president, not the people. Democracy is a system of government in which the people
are said to rule. Under the United States Constitution, the only federal elections
the citizens vote in are for the lower house in the legislature. This makes up
only half of a branch in a three-branched government. In this, the framers of
the Constitution show skepticism of the populace by only allowing them a direct vote for one small part of the federal government. This restricts the power the people actually have over the government. Even as democracy is limited, the rights and freedoms given to individual remain, for the most part, vague
and unstated. Few rights are defined in the Constitution itself. Not until the ratification controversy stirred did the Bill of Rights granting become drafted. Only when ratification was threatened were fundamental freedoms given to the individual. Despite common conception, the Constitution not only limits the rights of democracy, but it also limited
individual freedoms.
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