DEMOCRACY NOTES

DEMOCRACY

Democracy is a political government either carried out directly by the people (direct democracy) or by means of elected representatives of the people (Representative democracy). The term is derived from the Greek: δημοκρατία - (dēmokratía) "the power to the people",^[1] which was coined from δῆμος (dêmos) "people" and κράτος (krátos) "power", in the middle of the fifth-fourth century BC to denote the political systems then existing in some Greek city-states, notably Athens following a popular uprising in 508 BC.^[2] Even though there is no specific, universally accepted definition of 'democracy',^[3] there are two principles that any definition of democracy includes, equality and freedom.^{[4][dubious – discuss]} These principles are reflected by all citizens being equal before the law, and having equal access to power,^[5] and freedom is secured by legitimized rights and liberties, which are generally protected by a constitution.^[6][7]

Deocracy is a the government is of the people, by the people and for the people. This is established by the various ways. Democracy originated in Greece. Greece was divided into small city states. All citizens were eligible to speak and vote in the Assembly, which set the laws of the city-state.

It evolved with the magna carte and the glorious revolution. It evolved again with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen where the Divine Rights of a King were abolished.

Today more that 50% of the countries in the world have a democratic set up.

Democracy gives a voice to all the its citizens of the nation. It gives everyone the right to express their opinion. However not everyone gets their way and there only the wish of the majority is possible.

Aristotle is critical of Democracy—He says that the popular principle of justice is to have equality according to number and not worth and the decision of the majority must be final; each citizens must have an equal share and this results in democracies the poor are more powerfull than the rich. For a man to live as he likes is to give him liberty and the exisistance of slaves continues.

CONCEPTS OF DEMOCRACY

n Under minimalism, democracy is a system of government in which citizens give teams of political leaders the right to rule in periodic elections. According to this minimalist conception, citizens cannot and should not “rule” because, for example, on most issues, most of the time, they have no clear views or their views are not well-founded.

n Direct democracy, on the other hand, holds that citizens should participate directly, not through their representatives, in making laws and policies. Proponents of direct democracy offer varied reasons to support this view. Political activity can be valuable in itself, it socializes and educates citizens, and popular participation can check powerful elites. Most importantly, citizens do not really rule themselves unless they directly decide laws and policies.

n Governments will tend to produce laws and policies that are close to the views of the median voter – with half to his left and the other half to his right. This is not actually a desirable outcome as it represents the action of self-interested and somewhat unaccountable political elites competing for votes.

CRITISM OF DEMOCRACY: Although that all depends on what kind of democracy you live in. If by democracy you mean "majority rules" then you leave the minority to live by rules set by the majority. If the Majority vote to demoralize the minority, it could be done. This is why the founding fathers of the USA hated democracy, and instead opted for a republic...but you didn't ask about a republic. The founding fathers of the USA also thought that the majority of the common people in the US were not intelligent enough to make their own decisions, and they felt that if you have unintelligent people making democratic decisions, then the state would eventually falter and fail

n Mob Rule: This refers to Oligarchy where the power rests with the small elite segment of society who are wealthy, powerful

n Moral Decay:

n Political Instability: A political party in democracy itself is every time threatened with factionalism and splits. The minority who are opinions are not listened to can rise up in protest.

n Slow Government response: Democratic institutions work on consensus to decide an issue, which usually takes longer than a unilateral decision. This is because a government has to consult with a lot of people before it

TYPES OF DEMOCRACY

n Direct Democracy: it is a political system where all citizens participate in decision making personally.

A direct democracy gives the voting population the power to:

1. Change constitutional laws,

2. Put forth initiatives, referenda and suggestions for laws,

3. Give binding orders to elective officials, such as revoking them before the end of their elected term, or initiating a lawsuit for breaking a campaign promise.

n Representative Democracy: A group of people is voted by the public into a government to represent them. Representatives may be elected or become diplomatic representatives by a particular district (or constituency), or represent the entire electorate proportionally proportional systems, with some using a combination of the two. Some representative democracies also incorporate elements of direct democracy, such as referendums. A characteristic of representative democracy is that while the representatives are elected by the people to act in their interest, they retain the freedom to exercise their own judgment as how best to do so.

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