Democratic Deficit within the Champion of Democracy: How the United States is experiencing similar democratic failures as the European Union

Abstract: This bachelor thesis seeks to find out if the Congress, the legislative power of the United States of America, is suffering from the phenomenon of democratic deficit and what the causes of that may be. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s democracy index for 2021, the U.S. is no longer considered a full democracy but instead a flawed democracy. The U.S. Congress has been notorious for some of its democratic flaws such as the two-party system, lobbying, filibustering, etc. In order to identify the main causes of this deficit, European theories that have been used to analyze how the EU suffers from democratic deficit will be applied to the U.S. and its legislative branch. This theory using case study came to a few conclusions of how the Congress is undermining democracy. One of the more crucial claims are that Congress has become inefficient due to aspects such as the party system, the voting patterns and the increasing power of the executive branch.