Characteristics Of Democracy

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According to Locke, men live equal with each other without any domination or subordination and they are free to act within the bounds of natural law. So, the political society, meaning the government, as long as it is legitimate, represents a social contract between those who create the Government and the Majority, the people, that they have the right to act and make decisions. The idea of majority rule and the consent of the governed started by Locke influenced the later Democratic Theorists and became the foundation for all later theories of Democracy. He believed that they are totally connected and that for a government to be legitimate it must enjoy the consent of the governed and the consent must be obtained through the majority rule. …show more content…

However, the ideal democracy is only useful to identify essential features of a system, as the real world is much more complicated than the ideal. (Dahl, 1991; Gross & Dahl, 1957; Robert A. Dahl, 2017) The basic characteristics of a perfect democracy:
· Political freedom and freedom of speech, citizens they should be free to express themselves publicly without fear of punishment on relevant political subjects. They should be able to criticize and judge the political decisions and the democratic process.
· The right to be informed, to gather information from political independent sources that are not under the control of the government or any other group. The right to publish information and to be protected by law and the right to use that information.
· The free and fair election that requires, full and effective participation in voting and society. All the citizens have the right to participate on an equal footing with others.
· All citizens have equal say in law-making and their votes should be counted as …show more content…

The frequency within the governments are been elected and the political changes that brings in their policies leads in instability, the political pressure from the oppositions and the press can bring unexpected political changes. Immigration and terrorism are helping increase this instability and led the emergence of radical political parties and movements such as the skinhead movement in the United States and Britain, the National Front in France and contributed to the election of the U.S president Donald J. Trump. (Bohman, 1999; Dahl, 1991; Gross & Dahl, 1957; Gutmann & Thompson, 2004; Robert A. Dahl, 2017) Acts of terrorism, especially after the September 11 attacks of 2001, forced government to take more strict measures against terrorism by promoting and giving power to their law-enforcement agencies such as police and military. (Carter & Stokes, 2002; Dahl, 1991; Gross & Dahl, 1957; Gustaf Arrhenius, 2011; Perry, 2015; Robert A. Dahl,

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