Re: alienation

If you mean the USA, the USA were not founded as a democracy and never have been a democracy. They were founded as a republic, with only one of the main institutions (the House of Representatives) designed more or less to be democratic. Over time, they have degenerated to an oligarchy. Today they are probably more democratic, overall, than at their founding, but still an oligarchy rather than a democracy. I assume you don't know much about American History, but these were very important debates about the proper roles of government roughly during what is called now the Progressive era (from the end of the post-Civil War Reconstruction to the end of WW1) - this was the period when the change from a republic to an oligarchy was most accelerated, and partly, ironically, by people trying to create a democracy. But don't measure democracy by America, where it doesn't exist. Countries like Venezuela are much more democratic.