
Is The USA STILL A Democracy? | 250 Years Of American Independence
Published: July 2, 2026
Duration: 32:00
When did America actually become a democracy and could it be losing it? As the United States marks 250 years since independence, this episode examines one of the country's biggest founding myths: that America has always been a democracy. From the Constitution of 1787 to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the programme traces how political rights gradually expanded from a system that excluded most Americans - including enslaved people, women, Native Americans and many Black citizens - to something closer to universal democracy. If full democratic participation only became a reality around sixty years ago, what does that mean for the...