Do we Aspire to Democracy, or is Democracy Something Achieved?

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There are various systems of governance, namely democracy, autocratic, authoritarian, despotic, dictatorial, tyrannical, totalitarian, absolutist, traditional, monarchic, oligarchic, plutocratic, aristocratic, and sultanistic. Of all the systems of governance named democracy is the only system which takes into consideration the rights of the people. All the other forms, power is given to individual or individuals, because of wealth or birthright. Democracy according to Dahl “is a system of governance in which rulers are held accountable for their actions in the public realm by citizens, acting indirectly through the competition and cooperation of their elected representative”, (4). Another way to define democracy is “government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system”, (Dictionary.com, 2014). With these definitions in to consideration do we aspire to democracy, or is it something achieved?

There are various principles which democracy encompasses sovereignty, equality, liberty, representation, citizenship and majority rule. Sovereignty means “supreme authority within a territory. It is a modern notion of political authority”, (Philpott, 2010). Historical variants can be understood along three dimensions the holder of sovereignty, the absoluteness of sovereignty, and the internal and external dimensions of sovereignty, an assemblage of states forms a sovereign states system”, (Philpott, 2010). The difference of commonwealths consisted in the difference of the sovereign, or the person representative of all, and because the sovereignty is either in one man, or in an assembly of more than one, and int...

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...cracy/

Citizen. (2014). Retrieved February 2, 2014, from Dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/citizen

Dahl, R. (2000). On Democracy. New Haven: Yale University Pres.

Dovi, S. (2011, October 17). Political Representation. Retrieved from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/political-representation/

Gosepath, S. (2007, June 27). Equality. Retrieved from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/equality/

Liberation. (2014). Retrieved from The Free Dictionary by Farlex: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/liberation

Majority Rules. (2014). Retrieved from The free Dictionary by Farlex: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/majority+rule

Philpott, D. (2010, June 8). Sovereignty. Retrieved March 1, 2014, from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sovereignty/

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