After having analyzed the term democracy extensively by looking at different contexts and the perspectives of philosophers, there is a lot I could add to the initial definition and discussion I had about democracy. First of all, I started my initial argument saying that democracy is a type of government where every person forming part of it has a say in the management of policies and regulations by the majority of vote. On a more figurative way, I stated that democracy is a way in which a country or government is managed and it can be viewed as freedom and equality. I also argued that this form of government is valuable because it is more likely for a state to be sovereign and prosperous if the citizens that form part of it have had a say in the management of their own welfare. After re-accessing what I had argued, I am still convinced with …show more content…
JS Mill’s argument made me realize this statement because he said that a democratic legislation is strategically, epistemically and morally better. Strategically, democracy is helps take into account the interests, rights and opinions of most people in society when decisions are being made. Much more people have to be taken into account than in a monarchy or an aristocracy because each person in society has political power at least to an extent. Epistemically, democracy is said to help participants to take the right decisions. This is because democratic decision-making tends to be better informed about the interests of its citizens and it’s the best ways of tackling down those interests. In a moral sense, democracy encourages individuals to be more autonomous, but they also have to take into account the perspectiv3s and the point of view of other people. Hence, it is evident that democracy is a good method of ruling over a country or ruling over people: however, like any method, it also has its
Before that can be established, I think a definition of democracy should be stated so that it may be called upon later in this essay. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, democracy is stated as "the principle of social equality and respect for the individual within a community" .
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 defined as a supreme power vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections. Therefore, I have always thought of America as democracy a place where the people elected the government official, freedom of speech and freedom of religion where just a few great things that the United States had to offer. After reading this article I have doubts about America being a democracy state, federal laws can be created by a Senator or Representative who has an idea for a new law then after the bill passes, the president sign the bill in law and this bills applies to everyone who lives in the United States, but if it was a democracy then the
The universal definition of democracy is that "people have substantial control over decisions which affect them". This definition is broad and within it are multiple worldviews with differing interpretations of what is meant by "people", "control", and "decisions". Two of the worldviews of democracy included within this universal definition are liberalism and socialism.
Democracy is a system entirely structured from people who make the democracy as much as the democracy makes people, so that makes it a very unique, well designed and good system. But it has one great weakness; when the people who rule the polis lack of virtue education the society corrupts and leads the people into a destruction.
One of the contemporary definitions of democracy today is as follows: “Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives; Rule by the majority” (“Democracy” Def.1,4). Democracy, as a form of government, was a radical idea when it manifested; many governments in the early history of the world were totalitarian or tyrannical in nature, due to overarching beliefs that the strong ruled over the weak.
Democracy is “...the word that resonates in people’s minds and springs from their lips as they struggle for freedom and a better way of life...” (Schmitter and Karl, 1991:75). However, the word democracy has many different means depending on the country and context it is used in. “Every country has is own culture and comes by its political system through its own history” (Greenberg, 2007:101, cited in Li, 2008:4). Li, (2008) states that because of China’s political structure the usual road to democracy may be difficult for it to achieve. The western idea ...
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...
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.
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.
Liberalism and democracy are closely tied together in international politics. They have a central bond which brings out the notion of democratic peace. Today much of Latin America and the European Union practices democracy. The chances of these nations getting into an armed conflict are very scarce in today’s standards. Liberalism promotes the idea of human security and equality and democracy reinforces that idea into the political framework of governing bodies and their higher authorities. Liberalism leads to democracy which promotes democratic peace preventing conflict between nations. This article will look at how liberalism leads to democratic peace through the process of creating democracy.
There are two kinds of benefits which are commonly attributed to democracy: relatively better laws and policies and improvement in the characters of participants. John Stuart Mill argued that a democratic method of making legislation is better than non-democratic methods in three ways: epistemologically, strategically and via the improvement of the characters of the democratic citizens. (Mill,1861, Chapter 3.) Epistemologically, democracy is the finest decision-making method on the premise that it gives people access to the decisions of their choice more often than in any other form of government. The democratic decision making is believed to be more informed than any other form of rule, about the citizens’ interests and the steps necessary steps required in fulfilling those interests. As democracy influences a good number of demos in the domain of decision making, it manages to take dominance over data and analytical appraisal of policies and laws. Additionaly, we can say that broad based discussion of democracy enhances the evaluative estimation of the different virtuous ideas that guide people who make decisions.
As Julia Paley summarizes, “The most straightforward assertion is that democracy is a political form, differentiable from other political forms such as monarchy and dictatorship. Within that rubric there exists ‘different systems of democracy: advanced liberal democracy, parliamentary democracy, electoral democracy, socialist democracy”(Paley). In other words, Paley believes that democracy can be described as a generic terminology used to encompass any political system that involves a voting process. With so many different methods and regulations in practice regarding to the processes of electing legislatures, parliaments, presidents, and prime ministers, it becomes increasingly difficult to express the idea of democracy as a simple, all-inclusive
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.
Former U.S. president Abraham Lincoln defined democracy as: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people”. The idea of democracy looked great on paper, and was utilized as a primary government system for generations, but has democracy really proven to be effective? Are democratic systems really forms of government where power is ‘in the hands of the people’? We can only tell by going over the main assets that democracy represents and stands for. Democracy depicts five main ideas: