The United States has democracy. It has 3 branches of gov’t: Executive, Legislative, & Judicial. Anyone over the age of 18 can vote who is a U.S. citizen, and I believe you have to be over 35 to run for Senate/Congress(not positive on that one). It has checks and balances b/w each branch of gov’t. I would argue a positive view and compare it to other types of govts that have failed, ex: Communism, Dictatorships…etc. They have all crumbled, but the U.S. gov’t is strong, the strongest nation in the world. I’m not sure what the five basic concepts of democracy are, you might need to refer to your text book for that, then try reference.com.