Article one of Alexander Görlach's new column, part of our ongoing series "Let's Talk Democracy, explores Democracy and Aspiration.

To speak about democracy is not necessarily to discuss whether a presidential or a parliamentary system is the better one, or whether to vote for your legislators every four or five years. It is rather a conversation about the values underlining and guiding a democratic society. These values are the goals of a democracy at the same time and, as such, they are never fully achieved. This is true for every democracy, but probably the most visible in American democracy.