Even the famous Alexis de Tocqueville recognized the prejudices in American democracy but noted its greatness as well; "I confess that in America I saw more than America; I sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or hope from its progress" (http://www.c-span.org/alexis/). Roger Sherman, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, said the people "should have as little to do as may be with the government" (Government in America, 12). Although the early government of America seemed to be an elitist theory of government, it was still a democracy in the simplest form; democracy is just a method for making political decisions, and it did just that. As times changed and the nation progressed, the definition of democracy has transformed into the term we often link with the term "freedom". To me, the idea that Americans had the ability to make change is a great display of the freedom and democracy we had. As soon as the Constitution was ratified, the Bill of Right was added during the First Congress in 1789. Although this did not take a lot of power away from the elite class, it did give more power to the people, therefore, moving it away from an elitist style of democracy. The struggle for equality pushed the elite class theory out of the way and was the building blocks for America to move to a more pluralist theory of democracy. The pluralist theory of democracy is that politics and government is mainly competition among groups, each one pressing for its own preferred policies. In the struggle for equality many new amendments were added to the Constitution which leveled the playing field for Americans. The monumental 13th amendment which put an end to slavery began the long journey down the road to equality. Achieving that amendment was a display of the lengths people would go to in the name of equality and the other ideals America was founded upon.
