Is America really a great democracy?

[Knives]

We've been disusing this in our politics class and have been comparing the Australian system to the American system and in general have come to the conclusion that America isn't a 'great' democracy in comparison. I'm just wondering if anyone agrees, disagrees.

[Knives]

Well, we're a democracy (loose sense of the word) that has done great things.  I don't know if we're a "great democracy" though as I'm not sure what that means.

As in if you asked an average American they'd say you were the 'greatest democracy' but my question is do you really uphold all the democratic values to be able to claim this - especially in comparison to other states.