ISTANBUL, April 4 (Xinhua) -- A prominent Turkish scholar has said that American democracy is a political "game" in which the elites only remember the average citizen at election time.
"A democracy that assembles its citizens to the polls only once every four years, from election to election, and never asks about their problems, and does not involve them in the solution process is not very meaningful," Baris Doster, an academic at the Istanbul-based Marmara University, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
U.S. citizens are severely excluded from the democratic process, resulting in a loss of faith in their democracy.
Citing a Pew Research Center survey that showed Americans' trust in government has hit the lowest level in history, the scholar said, "only 20 percent of U.S. voters think they are being expressed. Such low-level trust is not surprising at all."
The trust crisis has already led to dysfunctionality in its democratic process while exacerbating its two-party political system that has already failed to address the problems of citizens, said Doster.
"If you pay attention, you will notice that the political elites and those who hold money are the men of influence in both parties, but not the citizens on the street, workers, or oppressed," he added.
"American democracy is a democracy where only the power-holders, the rich, and the political elite have their say," the expert concluded.
Doster also criticized the United States for presenting itself as the "model of democracy" and pointed out that it constantly interferes in other countries' internal affairs, even waging wars under the guise of democracy.
He said the United States is not entitled to discuss human rights, democracy and freedom.
"In other words, the last person to speak about human rights and liberties among roughly 8.5 billion people in the world is the president of the United States," he continued.
Whenever the United States talks about democracy, freedom and human rights, "I think of Afghanistan and Iraq...I think of the coups and attempted coups in Latin America under U.S. support," the expert added.
In such a context, the so-called "Summit for Democracy" convened by the United States "is categorically and fundamentally crippled by definition," Doster said. ■