An unnamed commentator in Die Zeit on November 5:
The election result shows that in the USA, democracy is functioning properly and that a president always has to be aware that voters may punish him. Germans – and German media – look at this with horror.
Regrettably, Germans, after seventy years, still have not understood what democracy really means. Or rather, they don’t want to understand it. Even today they prefer a homogenous community under strong leadership. Our chancellor can allow herself anything because the opposition sits in her government. Decisions are not made at the ballot box but by negotiation behind closed doors among those with power. No one is disturbed by the fact that many of their decisions are pretty slippery. Especially if they involve lecturing other countries.
Eric Koch’s new book, New Beginnings, was launched on September 20. The book is available from 
While the US provides a messy populist approach, we forget that American politicians have significant elections every years, As such, they spend much time and energy chasing campaign funding and voters. Not time for thoughtful governance remains.
“The election result shows that in the USA, democracy is functioning properly” — actually, not so much. Here’s Nicholas Kristof in yesterday’s NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/opinion/nicholas-kristof-americas-political-dysfunction.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
Excerpts: “A national exit poll conducted by Edison Research found that a majority of voters disapproved of Republicans and Democrats alike, and only 20 percent trust Washington to do what’s right most or all the time.”
“One bright spot in the midterms was voter action on ballot measures. . . . So even if politicians are stalemated, voters managed to get things done. Yet we also get the national government we deserve, and that’s an indictment of all of us. . . . It was 25 years ago that I saw people massacred near Tiananmen Square for demanding political change. They risked their lives because they dreamed that democracy would improve their lives and give them greater freedom and dignity. . . . For those of us in the United States it was easy. We painlessly inherited democracy, yet I’m afraid we’ve botched it.”
And then there’s the corruption of democratic politics by Big Money. Don’t Get Me Started.
I’m not sure decisions get made at the ballot box in the US either.
The “unnamed commentator” in Die Zeit may be suffering from the “grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” syndrome. Much can be said for, and be accomplished by “unity” or consensus governments. They can help keep in check egotistical partisanship. Then again, there is greater prospect for Germany having a true national consensus that America at the moment. But lets not confuse consensus with unanimity…..
I don’t know who or what to trust or mistrust more: politicians, the electorate or democracy.
While the unnamed commentator has a ridiculously simple and inaccurate view of things, his comment raises an interesting question. How do you judge how well your democracy is working? One can assume we’re discussing ‘representative democracy’. In the US the gerrymandering is so efficient that over 90% of congressmen are re-elected every 2 years. I believe Iowa is (or was) the only one of the 50 states to have a sort of independent assessment of districts every 10 years. The rest are all decided by the politicians in power. A good example of who’s in charge of the voting was shown to the world in 2000, in Florida.
If democracy is working then the majority should be getting much of what they want, and minorities should be protected. In the US, the inequality is great and increasing. This might suggest that somehow ‘the turkeys are voting for Christmas’ - that something is wrong with the way it’s working. Funding has hit a new high in the recent election ($1.3B), with ‘dark money’ apparently being the largest share. So it may be that elections are being bought in the US.
But yes, people did have a chance to throw out politicians they didn’t like, which some say is the only real purpose of democracy.