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The challenge of democracy chapter one
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Introduction
Throughout history different types of instrumental regimes have been in tact so civilizations remained structured and cohesive. As humanity advanced, governments obligingly followed. Although there have been hiccups from the ancient times to modern day, one type of government, democracy, has proven to be the most effective and adaptive. As quoted by Winston Churchill, democracy is the best form of government that has existed. This is true because the heart of democracy is reliant, dependent, and thrives on the populaces desires; which gives them the ability for maintaining the right to choose, over time it adjusts and fixes itself to engulf the prominent troubling issues, and people have the right of electing the person they deem appropriate and can denounce them once they no longer appease them. In this paper, the benefits of democracy are outlined, compared to autocratic communism, and finally the flaws of democracy are illustrated.
Benefits of Democracy
Democracy, specifically Parliamentary styled democracy, is completely dependent on the civilians of a given country. Since the preferred party as a collective is voted in, controversial issues and incessant disagreement is not as huge of a hurdle compared to other democratic styles. Therefore this limits the amount of people who can achieve power. If the head of a party has a concerning façade, the odds of him or her being voted in dwindle. The head of a party represents the party, instead of the party representing him.
In addition, democracy maintains the right of choice. These characteristics are the most appealing and dominate because people can formulate decisions based on their cultural, religious, interpersonal, intrapersonal beliefs that outline who...
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At the time of Marx, communism stiff fell under the category of socialism. During the last twenty-five years of the nineteenth century, there was a split in the Socialist Party, and communism began to be recognized as a movement of its own. The original Communists were small extremist grou...
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Throughout the course of history, mankind has been recorded to corrupt itself. Men have grown tired of simply surviving; they have had to take and conquer others. Absolute monarchies control wealth, land, and even lives of men. The conditions of the people were solely dependent on the conditions of the one who was in power in that particular place and time. History has proven that most men rule unwisely in their kingdoms. To avoid tyrannical rule, some make an attempt to set up a government in which the people ruled themselves. This form of government is called a democracy, or “rule of the people.” History has also revealed through the Greeks and the French Revolution, that a democracy that gives complete power to the people, “absolute democracy”, is nothing more than a short prelude to tyranny.
Larry Johnston (2008) Politics: An Introduction to the Modern Democratic State, Third Edition, Chapters 2, 3, 7, 8 and 9.
“Democracy is a personal way of individual life; that it signifies the possession and continual use of certain attitudes, forming personal character and determining desire and purpose in all th...
1996 Ed. Columbia University Press. "Communism" The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations Ed. Columbia University Press.
In comparing the average citizen in a democratic nation, say the United States, to that of a non-democratic nation, for instance Egypt, it will be found that the citizen in the democratic nation is generally better off – free of persecution, free from fear of the authorities, and free to express his opinions on governmental matters. And while national conflicts occur everywhere, incidents like violent revolts have shown to be more prevalent in nations where citizens are not allowed to choose who governs them. It is slightly paradoxical that democracy, so inherently flawed in theory, can lead to such successful outcomes in practice. The question, then, becomes: “If democracy has so many weaknesses, why does it work?”
While electoral systems do have an impact on the proportionality of electoral outcomes and to a lesser degree on the shape of party systems, it is not realistic to expect a change in electoral system to transform the style of politics in a country. For example, PR-STV was not responsible for the economic boom in Ireland and neither is it responsible for the economic crisis. In their cross-national study of the impact of a number of political reforms, including change to an electoral system, Shaun Bowler and Todd Donovan (The Limits of Electoral Reform, Oxford University Press, 2013) strike a cautionary note, arguing that such reforms tend to have minimal or zero impact. Expecting an electoral change to result in a transformation in the style of politics in a country is completely unrealistic. It is far too easy to blame PR-STV for the happenings in our country, the power is with the people and, therefore, it is down to us to try to create the best possible government that we can. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr. “and so we shall have to decide to do more than register and more than vote; we shall have to create leaders who embody virtues that we can respect, who have moral and ethical principles we can applaud with enthusiasm.” (Martin Luther King, Jr. Quote,
Hoffman, J. & Graham, P. (2009), Introduction to Political Theory, 2nd Edition: London: Pearson Education Limited.
Throughout history, some of the most radical minds have equated democracy to anarchy, arguing a government by the people is no government at all (Jones). There have been a variety of different perceptions and functions of the word democracy over time, yet the word seemingly has only one official meaning. Properly, democracy can be simply defined as a system of government ruled by the people (“democracy, n”). Nevertheless, the numerous perspectives, connotations, and adaptations in regards to democracy’s meaning over time have assisted in transforming the definition of the word into what it’s known as today. To many, democracy is an irreducible concept; however, it continues to be interpreted in an array of methods, ranging from various forms
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...
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...
The government ensures that the citizens are living in a peaceful country, with security, better service delivery and it also a good thing allowing people to participate in decision making through voting. The political parties play a role in providing these resources to the people like; clean water, repair roads, remove garbage, etc. When we come to voting between different parties that under the government we vote for how they deliver services to the society. The election time where every party goes to an electoral campaign to present the candidate that they nominated to stand for them in the political office and make promises to the people into how they can change the world and how they can deliver services much better than the party that is already in charge. They normally d...