Compared with other democracies, the United States has a very decentralized structure of government. The Framers of the U.S. Constitution were extremely wary of the potential dangers of concentrating power in any single political institution, and so deliberately undertook to divide authority among different branches and levels of government. The decentralized American system contrasts with the strict “majoritarian” model of democracy, which holds that government should enact legislation and pursue policies that are immediately responsive to what the majority of the people want.

The American model of democratic government, pluralist democracy, has a number of advantages over the majoritarian model, and these reflect the Founders’ vision for America. Pluralist democracy requires government power to be dispersed and authority to be decentralized. According to this model, democracy exists when government authority is divided among multiple centers of power that are open to interests of various groups—for example, labor v. management, farmers v. food stores, coal companies v. environmentalists. Groups like these compete against each other in a pluralistic society.

The dispersion of authority in pluralist theory prevents government from taking hasty, possibly imprudent action, but it also can prevent any action if important power centers disagree. Although decentralization of power characterizes American government, some institutional features tend to centralize power, enabling government to act even while lacking universal agreement on policy. This essay describes how key features of the U.S. political system contribute to achieving a balance of decentralization and centralization of political authority.