Democracy: A Unique Form of People Power

The word democracy is derived from the Greek words of “demos”, referring to people and “Kratos”, meaning power . The Greeks are credited with developing the earliest forms of democracy around 2,500 years ago. India, Russia, Japan and many other nations have only recently become democratic. Therefore, despite its lengthy history as a concept, democracy has only really become a global reality during the latter half of the 20th century. Democracy means many things to many different people. Winston Churchill has the belief that “…democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Democracy is certainly a form of government, whereby the people rule through their elected representatives. The people are absolute, and are the supreme form of political authority. Democracy is also a guardian of the rights of all citizens and the state may not take away, nor interfere with certain basic rights. Finally democracy is the rule of law, under which all citizens are equal. The law maintains order, protects citizens and limits the power of the government. In brief, democracy is the institutionalization of liberty. For this rationale, any social order must possess the time-tested fundamentals of constitutional government, human rights, and equality before the law to be properly called democratic.

Democracy is a unique form of government by nature. There are numerous forms of government in which one person or just a select few obtain and hold political power in a nation. An autocracy is ruled by one person, royal families rule monarchies, dictatorships have but one person with authority and so on, so forth. The clear pattern here is that they are all governed by the few and are not ...

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...s resilience through its defeat of fascism during World War Two. Communism was also dealt a severe blow once the U.S.S.R. dissolved into over a dozen fledgling democracies. The people whether they realize it or not, hold the power, regardless of the system of governance. On that note, democracy is the fairest method in which the people may have a direct say in the way they are governed. Establishment of the rights of the populace is an important part of democracy. Rights and freedoms provide for a greater harmony within society, by ensuring no person is discriminated against. No society can operate successfully without laws and democracy is no different. The law is the great equalizer of free democratic society, entitling all citizens to parity. Therefore true democracy is the embodiment of: a higher form of government, a sanctuary of rights and the law of the land.