In On Democracy, Robert Dahl presents five criteria that states are required to meet in order to satisfy the primary aim of democracy, which is to provide political equality to all of its citizens (1998, 37). The criteria include effective participation, equal voting, enlightened understanding, open agenda setting and inclusion. (Dahl, 1998, 38). Above these criteria, this paper will only focus on effective participation and enlightened understanding to apply them to India; this is because its citizens are going through a tough time with the two criteria to become a state with effective democracy. Therefore, this paper will demonstrate that India is in the process of achieving effective participation, but significantly lacks enlightened understanding. …show more content…
According to Dahl, this criterion emphasizes that citizens must have the equal and effective opportunities to learn about politics surrounding them (1998, 38). The goal of enlightened understanding is to ensure that citizens can make the best decisions that serve their interests. Analyzing freedom of press is an effective indicator to measure enlightened understanding because media is the best medium that citizens could access to learn about what is going on in their government. Without freedom of press, freedom of expression of journalists and scholars are violated and thus, they might encounter difficulties in reporting about politics. Although India has the Right to Information Act, which assures the promotion of "transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority," it is not being enforced enough (2005, 1). According to a research, India 's press status is evaluated as "partly free" (Freedom House, 2014). Furthermore, the press status of India 's score stands at 39 out of 100, where 0 represents the freest status and 100 represents the least free status (Sinha, 2014). In the World Press Freedom Index, India was ranked as the 140th out of 180 countries in terms of freedom of media (Reporters Without Borders ,
In the book, “How Democratic Is the American Constitution”, Robert A. Dahl takes us deeper into the complexities of demonstration of American majority rule government were surrounded. An intriguing part of this book is the examination with different popular governments as far and wide as possible. His tables and graphs in the book are helpful for the situation. The book also given an idea of majority rules system in the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.
Robert Dahl states his opinion towards the Constitution in his novel How Democratic is the American Constitution? He goes through multiple subjects such as our government compared to other countries, the framers of the constitution, and what is stated in it that can be improved or should remain unchanged. Dahl makes several intriguing cases about laws that our outdated, and things that should be changed because they might not be accurate or modern. This was an enjoyable read and on many topics Robert A. Dahl and I seem to have similar views. I believe the American Constitution is not democratic.
From September 1, 1939 to September 2, 1945, the world was witness to the most fatal war in our history. During this six year period, an estimated 78 million died. In 1940, The US, despite not having joined the war at the time, was at risk of being invaded. Franklin D. Roosevelt realized that without the help of the US, the war efforts of Great Britain and the rest of Europe were futile. However, American citizens were opposed to joining the war because of the horrors of World War 1 and the idea of those horrors being repeated. In an effort to convince the American public to take action, Roosevelt addressed the country on December 29, 1940. Roosevelt’s use of repetition and pathos within his speech, “The Great Arsenal of Democracy,” illustrated
The first, and possibly most difficult concept to define ¬¬¬¬¬is democracy itself. Beetham[1] suggests that in order to reach a definition from the many contested options, one must understand that there are core principles of democracy, which can be used to create a definition concurrent with the majority of those posed in the academic field. He identifies these principles as being those of majoritarian rule, consensual rule, representation of ‘public good’ or ‘popular will.’ He also identifies the importance of political equality and the furthering of public good over private interests. The ability to express counter-arguments to pose different points of view are also said to be integral to democratic processes. Representative democracy, Beetham says, goes further requiring the equal opportunity of all citizens to stand for election, the equal accountability of those elected, that the democracy must be representative of the electorate and that citizens are able to participate in political processes through organizations and access to their representatives.
Kyi Suu San Aung. "The Quest of Democracy." Reading The World: Ideas That Matter, edited
In his article, Democracy as a Universal Value, Amartya Sen asserts that democracy is a universal value. In order to develop his argument Sen needs to state his definition of democracy and define what he means by universal value. In the course of Sen's argument he gives his view of the relationship between democracy and the economy. He then defends his view of democracy as a universal value against a main argument that deals with cultural differences between regions.
Is a Democracy Really What You Think It Is? What is considered an ideal democracy? Would it be where the people rule directly or where there are representatives who organize the government?
There have been enormous efforts to spread democracy as a political system throughout the world by the developed democratic countries and the international development organizations including the World Bank. By the late 1990s the United States alone spent over a half billion dollars to promote democratic expansion throughout the world (Diamond, 2003). These were done considering that the democratic system leads towards development. As a result in the late 20th century we saw a huge political transformation towards democracy. During the last few decades a huge number of countries adopted democracy as their political system. However, it retain a big question how far democracy is successful in bringing development of a country? At this stage, some people also criticizes the effort of democratization arguing that it is done without considering the context of a country, sometimes democracy is not ideal for all countries and it is an effort to extinct diversity of political system. In studying the literature regarding the debate, we found a paradoxical relationship between democracy and development. Some argue that democracy has failed to ensure expected outcomes in terms of development. While others confronted that democracy has a considerable impact on development. Another group of people argue that form of political system actually does not have any impact on development process. On the verge of these debates, some development institutions and academics throw light on why democracy is not working properly, and what measure should be taken to make it more successful in bringing effective development of developing countries. Consequently, this writing is an effort of revisiting the different views about impact of democra...
Since its independence in 1947, political stability has been a key factor which has ensured that India is the largest democracy in the world today. In spite ...
Firstly, K. Isbester mentions that democracy has a different meaning for everyone, as some can define democracy as a good aspect for development, on the contrary other believe that it is nothing more than voting after several years. Although, Latin America see democratic g...
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
Direct democracy means forms of direct participation of citizens in democratic decision making in contrast to indirect or representative democracy, based on the sovereignty of the people. This can happen in the form of an assembly democracy or by initiative and referendum with ballot voting, with direct voting on issues instead of for candidates or parties. Sometimes the term is also used for electing representatives in a direct vote as opposed to indirect elections (by voting for an electing body, electoral college, etc.), as well as for recalling elected officeholders. Direct democracy may be understood as a full-scale system of political institutions, but in modern times, it means most often specific decision-making institutions in the broader
Press freedom takes influential place in a country. It represents citizen's freedom of speech and the right to know. Media can expose news without obstructor or any controls by government and organizations. There should not be control over the press and press freedom is necessary for regulation the growth of corruption, development of economy and maintenance of democracy.
...titutions and most importantly the citizens. To expect all the citizens in a democracy to lack ambition and greed is practically impossible, especially when modern society teaches individuals that ambition is a necessary component of success. Yet, there are nations that do ascribe to the democratic ideals as realistically as possible. By allowing and encouraging citizens to vote and by creating and implementing laws equally these democratic governments are instituting some of the most important ideals of a democratic government.
In a democracy, free and fair elections which are held after around half a decade, guarantee social rights and equality. These elections ensure that every citizen has the right to vote, and hence they create social stability among the society. Each and every individual casting his vote in the elections reduces discrimination among the people. Citizens are not judged on the basis of religion, race, color, social status and so on. In this way, the dignity of nationals is not damaged and people can live in peace. In addition to voting rights, a democracy also assures access to other services like security, education, property rights, and healthcare facilities. These human rights maintain social equity and involv...