The hallmark of Democracy is representation. I think another interesting question that just came to mind, and that I am sure has been debated, is whether or not you can arrive at Socialism or Communism through Democracy. My gut is that it is possible to have a Socialist Democracy, but not a Communist Democracy. Back to the task at hand, it is easy for us to say, when comparing us to China or other authoritarian governments, that representation clearly stands out the victor and many scholars tackled this issue throughout the 20th century. Nowadays, I think the better question is do we have representation? Or, more to the point, do we have enough representation? Our “original model” came out of the ancient city-states. My memory isn’t what it once was, but I believe city-states consisted of roughly 10,000 people. Let’s pretend there was only one representative per city-state. So, the representation was 1 in 10,000. In reality, it was much higher. In 1910 America, the average size of a congressional district was already at 210K. So, representation sat at 1 in 210,000. In 2010, the average congressional district was 710,000. 2020 will likely see it push toward, if not upward of, 800K. So, we know live in a nation-state based on a governance model of 1 in 10,000 that is pushing a representation ratios of 1 in 800,000. So, I think we need to ask the question, do we truly have a representational democracy? Is 1 in 800,000 demonstrably better than, let’s say, an authoritarian China? Â
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