Democracy: Totalitarianism And Democracy

Ever since societies have formed, debates have spiraled up into trying to decide what type of regime is most efficient. These political systems that make up a state, range from one person having complete control to citizens having the most say. Many dream of human rights and the ability to speak what’s on their mind, the freedom to elect officials to represent, fight, and make decision for the people. While some have lived under a simple and controlling society ruled by a charismatic leader. Two forms of government that have been present throughout the highs and lows of history are Totalitarianism and Democracy. Totalitarianism is a form of government where one body has absolute power and controls its citizen’s lives through every aspect.

The word democracy comes from the Greek word demos, which means the people, and cracy, which means rule by (Types of Regimes, 2015). Athens is considered as the birthplace of democracy. It goes back to when the Athenian leader Cleisthenes introduced it in 507 B.C. (Ancient Greek Democracy, 2015). They had a great government system where all male citizens regardless of rich or poor had equal political rights and the freedom of speech. They had the opportunity to voice their opinion directly in the political arena. They directly came together to make decisions by which they lived and usually majority wins. Democracy then spread around the Mediterranean Sea, which was then wiped out by the Roman Empire. Thousand years later in 1700s people began to fight for democracy again. America then adopted the Constitution through the Revolutionary war. It provided voting rights to white males who were property owners. The democracy system that of early America is not the democracy system we know today. Back then women and blacks didn’t have the right to vote it was strictly while male property owners, where now its different. Rich, poor, male, female, different races can vote, but children and foreigner still cant. The power isn’t rested in the hands of the wealthy and privileged but anyone can have a say in the decision making

Democracy citizens have a voice in what they believe should be happening in the government such as raising their voice through media when they are unhappy with how something is going. Whereas in a totalitarian government such actions would never be tolerated, citizens are just expected to follow and never question their dictator. Crimes and corruption are more likely in a democracy than in a totalitarian government because in a democracy people will go overboard in trying to fight for what they believe this country should be all about whereas under totalitarian rules and regulation are much stricter so that leads to less crimes and usually keeps its citizens under control, which provides a stable