What is democracy? 

As United States citizens, democracy is the type of government under which you live. Because towns, cities, counties, states and countries need laws to work well, a government makes laws and works on other issues to keep where you live running smoothly. 

In the democracy of the United States, citizens over the age of 18 vote for other citizens, called candidates, who will be in charge of making these laws and making sure certain policies happen. This is called a representative democracy, and this allows us to elect people who we trust to make things happen the way we would like. Because it would be difficult for citizens to vote on every issue, elected officials in a representative democracy do that for us. 

There are many steps in making a democracy run, so explore the different features of the page to learn more. Soon you will be a voter, so it is important to learn how that can be done! Democracy starts with you!