For a long time, the United States has been proud to be the longest lasting 'democratic' country in the world. Of course, there has always been a debate: since there was a lack of universal suffrage in the past of the United States (slavery, Jim Crowe, systematic exclusion of minority participation in voting, etc.), can the history of the United States until recently be considered a history of a "democratic state" in the contemporary sense of the term "democracy"?