What is democracy? Democracy is a form of government in which the power is vested in the people. What exactly does that mean? It means that the people have the power to vote government officials into office; it means that the majority rules; it means that everyone is entitled to freedom and equality. Although many people would agree that democracy is the greatest concept man ever created, the sad truth is that democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government because of the inevitable cycle that, for the most part, always results in tyranny. How can democracy lead to tyranny? Although democracy is widely different from tyranny, if not taken care of properly since the beginning, the lack of care and “nurture,” as was mentioned in the …show more content…
This can clearly be seen with corporations. According to the article, “‘Greed’ Is the First Word That Comes To Mind,” published in the Huffington Post and written by Jillian Berman, Berman states that “we’ve seen economic productivity soar, but most of the benefits have gone to CEOs, shareholders and corporate coffers instead of ordinary workers.” In other words, these benefits are allowing the rich to get richer, while the poor continue to get poorer. Along with this, the greed then influences corruption in the government by corporations bribing government officials to pass certain laws or put in place “tax reductions that benefit the wealthy” (Dinerman 6), as was mentioned in the editorial, “How Much Inequality Can Democracy Manage?” by Miriam Dinerman. Now that economic gain appears to be the main focus of our elected officials, it can be safe to say that we are no longer truly …show more content…
While this may be true to some extent, what this argument fails to see is that history has shown us time and time again that even the greatest civilizations have to fall. Take the Athenian government for example. They, too, had a government that functioned much like our democratic government today, and they, too, surpassed the 200 year limit. Just as we did, the Athenians also started with bondage but were able to gain liberty and establish a democracy; however, their democracy eventually became suppressed, which brought them back to
In today’s world, there are several types of governments that control their countries. There are democracies, dictatorships, republics, monarchies etc. Absolute monarchy was a very common form of government centuries ago. Throughout this time period, many leaders, dictators, monarchs made mistakes that the government looks at today. The abuse and misuse of power by absolute monarchs inexorably led to the rise of modern democracy. This is shown through leaders abusing their powers as absolute monarchs, the unreliability of monarchy, and corrupt governments.
...nstead the state consists of rulers who behave like subjects and subjects who behave like rulers. The people begin to desire a strong leader, who will make the difficult decisions for them and bear the consequences: the Democracy has become a Tyranny.
Democracy is a system where society takes control of voting and chooses presidents to their liking; voting was based on the people’s interests. The Missouri Compromise, the Corrupt Bargain, and the Spoils System were all conferring factors in the rise of democracy. Democracy became a way for people to vote for their best interest.
There are those that believe big business has a less dominant role in the government because “researchers found that when citizen interest groups and other competitors opposed businesses on policies, businesses had roughly an equal chance of success as the citizen group,” (ScienceDaily). When going against citizen interest groups, big businesses do not retain as much of an advantage. However, in reality it is obvious that big businesses still have an advantage against the working class and other citizens when it comes to government power. “Lobbyists for businesses also have the resources to outlast citizen groups and pursue a variety of policy changes simultaneously,” (ScienceDaily). Corrupt corporations continue to use their money and power to influence the government, particularly if it benefits
"Democracy tends to ignore, even deny, threats to its existence because it loathes doing what is needed to counter them," explained Revel. "It awakens only when the danger becomes deadly, imminent, evident. By then, either there is too little time left for it to save itself, or the price of survival has become crushingly high."
... conclusion Plato's idea of the emergence of tyranny from democracy is true. Tyranny evolves from democracy because of the unequal ability to realize desires lawfully present in society. The idle envy the prosperous and invest their support in popular leaders to ensure their well being in other way. The popular leaders do so, and some commit acts of violence and injustice to do so better. This encourages them to commit further acts of violence for both their supporters interests and their own, until they reach a point where they must commit acts of violence purely out of the interest of self preservation. The live in constant fear of the world around then, ironically chained away from the pleasures they pursued by committing acts of tyranny. Democracies possess protection against tyranny chiefly bureaucracy and the ability to keep citizens informed and interested.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary Democracy is a form of government by the people; especially: rule of the majority(Webster). This is what the United States is represented as, and this is based on the United States Constitution from which the United states draws all legal powers. In Robert Dahls book How democratic Is the American Constitution? He challenges this idea by trying to appeal to his readers in a way that they may view the United States Constitution in a different light. Dahl does this by pointing out flaws that the Constitution has and, draws on facts based on the other democracies around the world that the United States is compared too. He points out how many democratic ideas and innovations have a occurred since the conception of the American Constitution yet it has only adopted some of those idea.
Democracy is the structure of government still used today in many countries.The definition of democracy is a system of government where people who rule directly are freely elected representatives.In addition, democracy comes from the Greek word demokratia. Demo meaning people and kratia meaning power of rule. For instance, here is an example, Great Britain has a democratic government since elected officials and laws are voted on by the people and also the representatives they elect. Therefore Athens exemplifies a democratic government. “Athenians would meet and vote on a simple question …. is anyone becoming a threat to democracy? If a simple majority voted yes,then they dispersed and reassembled two months later,
Democracy is more than often lauded for bringing about positive change and progress both at home and the international community, as it held synonymous with the promotion of international peace, greater protection of human rights and resistance against structures of dominance and hegemony etc. However, by just focusing on the positive side one ends up overlooking the less positive side of it, which is more sinister than suggested otherwise. Since, that same democracy is responsible for “domination, hierarchy and violence.” (Hobson, 2008, 75).
More importantly, what is a democracy exactly? Some would define it as a form of government where the people rule, others as where the poor rule, and I would say it is where everyone contributes in how the government is ran but do not control the final decisions made. In Aristotle 's "Democracy and Oligarchy", he discusses the different kinds of democracies that exist and how equality plays a huge role in defining it. Without equality, or even limiting it, it can change a democracy into an oligarchy. He goes into detail about each kind there is and further analyzes how regardless of having similar elements, they are each unique in their own way.
In comparing the average citizen in a democratic nation, say the United States, to that of a non-democratic nation, for instance Egypt, it will be found that the citizen in the democratic nation is generally better off – free of persecution, free from fear of the authorities, and free to express his opinions on governmental matters. And while national conflicts occur everywhere, incidents like violent revolts have shown to be more prevalent in nations where citizens are not allowed to choose who governs them. It is slightly paradoxical that democracy, so inherently flawed in theory, can lead to such successful outcomes in practice. The question, then, becomes: “If democracy has so many weaknesses, why does it work?”
A memorable expression said by President Abraham Lincoln reads, “Democracy is government of the people, by the people, and for the people”. Democracy, is a derived from the Greek term "demos" which means people. It is a successful, system of government that vests power to the public or majority. Adopted by the United States in 1776, a democratic government has six basic characteristics: (i) established/elected sovereignty (where power and civic responsibility are exercised either directly by the public or their freely agreed elected representative(s)), (ii) majority rule(vs minority), (iii) (protects one’s own and reside with) human rights, (iv) regular free and fair elections to citizens (upon a certain age), (v) responsibility of
What is democracy? Democracy a form of government in which the people freely elect representatives to govern them in a country, democracy guarantees free and fair elections, basic personal and political rights and independent court of law. There are two types of democracy, direct and indirect democracy. Direct democracy or pure democracy is where there is direct participate of the people; people make decisions for them instead of letting them representative make decision for them. Indirect democracy the decisions are made by the representative on behalf of the people that voted for them. All over the world people are having different views with regard to democracy and how it operates. “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried” ~ Winston Churchill, some have said democracy is the worst government form of government which I also think it’s! Due to the how it operates.
Throughout history different types of instrumental regimes have been in tact so civilizations remained structured and cohesive. As humanity advanced, governments obligingly followed. Although there have been hiccups from the ancient times to modern day, one type of government, democracy, has proven to be the most effective and adaptive. As quoted by Winston Churchill, democracy is the best form of government that has existed. This is true because the heart of democracy is reliant, dependent, and thrives on the populaces desires; which gives them the ability for maintaining the right to choose, over time it adjusts and fixes itself to engulf the prominent troubling issues, and people have the right of electing the person they deem appropriate and can denounce them once they no longer appease them. In this paper, the benefits of democracy are outlined, compared to autocratic communism, and finally the flaws of democracy are illustrated.
Democracy has come to mean a principle under whose flag has most of the developed countries aced in their race for Imperialism. It has gone beyond all previous governing systems and has made room for progress and development. By offering free and fair elections, democracy has redefined human dignity and patriotism. It has also helped to improve decision-making among the citizens, and brought down the crime level. Democracy is for sure the most fitting among the other types of government, and needs to be implemented fully for effective functioning of a state.