The Oldest Democracy

civic minute

Mon May 18, 2026

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Something feels broken. You vote, but it doesn't seem to matter. Your representative doesn't listen to you. Elections feel like they're decided before they start. And no matter who wins, nothing really changes.

You're not imagining it.

The United States is one of the oldest democracies on earth. That's something to be proud of. But it also means we're running on some of the oldest machinery. Nearly every democracy that came after us looked at our system — single-member districts, winner-take-all, two choices on the ballot, unlimited campaign spending — and decided they could do better. Today the vast majority of the world's democracies use some form of proportional representation, where the seats match the votes and nearly every voter helps choose someone who represents them.

We were the country that showed the world democracy was possible. We can also be the country that's willing to make it better.

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The U.S. is an outlier among democracies. Of the 36 OECD countries, just 4 (about 11%) use exclusively winner-take-all, single-member district systems. Nearly 70% use some form of proportional representation. The U.S., Canada, and the UK are the most notable holdouts. (Sightline Institute)

What is proportional representation? An electoral system that elects multiple representatives per district in proportion to how many people vote for them. If one-third of voters support a party, that party wins roughly one-third of the seats. Under winner-take-all, a candidate winning 51% gets 100% of the representation and the other 49% of voters go unrepresented. (Protect Democracy)

The evidence is strong. Political scientist Arend Lijphart compared 36 democracies over 55 years. His landmark study found proportional systems outperform winner-take-all on nearly every metric: higher voter turnout, greater legislative diversity, more social spending, and higher citizen satisfaction. Countries with PR scored higher on the UN Human Development Index. (Fair Vote Canada)

Higher voter turnout. Countries with proportional systems consistently see higher voter participation. The mechanism is straightforward: when more votes actually count toward representation, more people show up. (Protect Democracy)

The U.S. is also an outlier on campaign finance. Two-thirds of OECD countries have campaign spending limits for parties or candidates. The U.S. is one of the few that doesn't — the Supreme Court ruled mandatory limits unconstitutional in Buckley v. Valeo (1976). Most democracies also provide free broadcast airtime to candidates and publicly finance campaigns. In the U.S., TV advertising is the single largest campaign expense, and public presidential financing has been abandoned since 2008. France's Macron spent roughly $47 million on his presidential campaign; Biden spent 25 times that. Both the U.S. and Canada passed campaign finance reform laws in 1974. Canada's held up. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down spending limits two years later and has been weakening regulations ever since. (American Prospect; Brennan Center; State Department briefing)

Americans are dissatisfied. Pew Research found that 77% of Americans say the political system needs major changes or complete reform — making the U.S. an outlier among high-income nations for its level of dissatisfaction. Separately, 65% of Americans say they always or often feel exhausted when thinking about politics. (Pew Research, Spring 2025 Global Attitudes Survey; Pew Research, September 2023)

Most democracies have reformed their systems. Changing electoral systems is difficult but far from impossible. New Zealand switched from winner-take-all to proportional representation in 1993. Japan reformed its system in 1994. Most democracies have changed their electoral systems at least once. (Protect Democracy)

Further reading:

Related Civic Minute segments: How Multi-Member Districts Work (CM-14), The Geography Trap (CM-15), The Redistricting Arms Race (CM-12)

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