Democracy has been a topic discussed for hundreds of years and a general idea of the topic would be the “governing of people by the people”. Many people have attempted “to sketch characteristics, or outcomes or preconditions, because democracy itself” (4) has been seen to be a difficult concept to define. In John L Anderson’s ‘What is Democracy?’ (2004) he takes an alternative approach to understanding democracy. Anderson explains that there is no “tidy set of ideas”, but rather “an indirect approach to defining democracy” (4) in order to understand and teach the concept of democracy. He states that there are four notion to achieve this: seeking the public interest helps us develop a morality based upon concern for others; governing others …show more content…
The first section is ‘Public Interest’. He looks at Aristotle’s era for a “basic analysis of democracy” (5). Democracy, in Greek, meant rule by the masses (kratein demos). The word Demos was not a positive outlook at the people, but meant their worst form and depicted them as selfish and only interested in achieving their own goals. Aristotle believed that “governments are problematic when people rule with their self-interest in mind” (5). However, we are all selfish, and what matters is how our self-interest impacts the rest of society. Plato, a philosopher before Aristotle’s time, explains in his book The Republic, that we are inherently selfish and the only thing that keeps chaos out of reach are the rules we abide by. As selfish humans, we look for like minded people and proceed to give them the power to make their selfish desires acceptable by law - we call them governments. However the difference between a bad government and a good one is one that can distinguish our desires from the bad and the good and make good decisions for the greater number of …show more content…
He talks about how we inherently acknowledge the laws and norms of society, even when we are not being judged by the members of society. I agree to a degree on this notion. I agree that trust is important, but I think it is a concept that see-saws on the fence of our sub-conscience against doubt. We start out trusting our society because of the laws in place. However, after someone has broken the law and has had consequences, we begin to slowly drop the trust in the society we sub-consciously believed in and the doubt rises a little. Let us take the example Anderson presents in his article. He explains that we all know the rules of the road. If we see a stop sign we stop we automatically know we must stop, regardless of whether there are other cars or not. However, let us presume that at a stop sign a driver does not stop because they know it is usually a quiet street, and actually speeds up. A pedestrian, knowing the same rule, assumes a driver will stop because it is a stop sign. However the driver, not having slowed down, accidently hits and kills the pedestrian. Following that accident, our trust in society falls, but our want to follow the rules rises. Even in our own laws. We buy insurance when driving, not because we believe we are bad drivers, but we believe others might be. As important as trust is, we take everything with caution,
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.
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" .
Kyi Suu San Aung. "The Quest of Democracy." Reading The World: Ideas That Matter, edited
“The nature of tyrannies, dictatorships, and oligarchies is to use powers of suppression to deny citizens political and human rights. The nature of democracy is to find ways to guarantee those rights.” (Jacobus, pg. 51) By definition, democracy is, “a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.” (en.oxforddictionaries.com) The basic elements of democracy are (but not limited to) free and fair elections, protection of human rights, limited government power, and equality before the law. Robert A. Dahl believed the ideal of a perfect democracy is unrealistic. However, Dahl believed a democratic government is the best option despite its imperfections. Dahl lists
Before pondering the extent of democracy one must determine what the term “democracy” means. Democracy is a “means of selecting policymakers and of organizing government so that policy represents and responds to citizens’ preferences.”i[i] The traditional democratic theory further explains the ideas behind democracy. The five aspects of this theory are that one man equals one vote, there is good voter-turnout, citizens can obtain knowledge through free speech and press, the general public controls government agenda, and an extension of all rights to all citizens.ii[ii] From this, one could say a true democracy would submit every bill to the public for a popular vote, like the traditional town meetings of old New England where all eligible voters met to have their say in governmental agenda.iii[iii] One could also say that democracy implies protection of rights and equal rights for all. Or, as Abraham Lincoln said, a democracy is “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”iv[iv] The people make the government, they have a say in the agenda, and the government governs by the people’s consent. This ...
Democracy is a total system that is considered to be ruled by the people. Democracy is considered to be the key role in how citizens live their public lives. For a successful democracy to work, you need to have the key understandings of how it started when it started and why it started. It truly shows that you need the role of society and the rights of the people to be considered successful. In my articles reading I came across three that stood out that help me better understand how democracy became what it is. The articles I talk about are "Thank your taxes", "The letter that won the American Revolution", and "Compromise 1: Philadelphia Story". In the article "Thank your taxes" the citizens were struggling with the government and how they
In making this argument this essay seeks to five things. Firstly, to define democracy within the contemporary context offering the key characteristics of a modern re...
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.
Plato defines Athens as a democratic society that “treats all men as equal, whether they are equal or not.” Therefore, believes that there are those that are born to rule and others that are born to be ruled. Plato presents the argument that democracy does not achieve the greatest good, giving four main objections to democracy. Firstly, he identifies that most of us are ruled by passions, pleasure, sentiment and impulse. Hence, th...
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
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...
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: a government by the people, in which citizens rule either directly or through elected representatives - the latter description more relevant to today’s societies. Quite evidently, democracy is not perfect; like any other political system, it is subject to a plethora of flaws. For instance, it is no secret that voters tend to make illogical decisions – not out of sheer malice, but as a result of being wrongly informed. Politicians also make erroneous choices, whether they do so because they are dishonest or simply out of touch with the true will of their constituents. Further, anyone who has studied the government of a parliamentary democracy knows gerrymandering can have a powerful say in determining elections. Despite these and other flaws however, democracy still seems to work.
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.
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.