Fair Government, Democracy - Essay Example

Democracy

Democracy is a form of government in which the citizens or the people of the country have the authority to choose their governing legislation. It is therefore different from other forms of government where the powers are held by an individual or a group of individuals. Therefore the rest of the citizens are needed to follow the decisions that are made by this small group of people in the government (Acemoglu et al. 65). Several critical aspects constitute democracy and they include things such as freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. This is where people are not restricted to express their grievances and express their ideas concerning how things should be conducted in the government. Another aspect is inclusiveness and equality where members of a society are all considered equal and therefore, no one should be socially excluded. A democratic government should, therefore, take its decisions having all the citizens in mind and that no rules or policies should be made that disadvantages any member of the society. Equality is also another aspect of democracy, where everyone in society has equal standing in terms of political power and influence. In a democratic government no, one should therefore be denied any opportunity as long as they qualify for the opportunity. Voting right is also another aspect that characterizes democracy. This is where citizens have the ability and the right to choose their leaders and this is done through voting. This process is therefore not left to a few individuals who chose leaders, but all the members of the society have the right to be involved in selecting their leaders through voting.

In general, there are two types of democracy; representative and direct democracy. Direct democracy is where the members of the society have the right to directly decide and liberate on the legislature. All the members of the society have the right and the ability to decide who will rule them and also they possess the ability to remove the leader in power in case the leader does not meet the required set standards or does not meet their expectations in terms of ruling. The other type of democracy is the representative democracy which entails members of the society selecting representatives to be deliberate and decide on legislature (Acemoglu et al. 65). The society members, therefore, select a group of individuals and entrusts them with the ability to make decisions on their behalf. Examples of such representatives include the parliamentary or presidential representatives. In parliamentary representatives, for instance, different members of parliament from different parts of the nations are selected and they will help in making decisions on behalf of their people and they will always defend their people from any social injustice that might arise. Liquid democracy combines the two elements of democracy, that is a direct and representative democracy.

The most common decision making approaches to democracy has always been the majority rule whereby the decisi0on is made based on the level of support from the majority. The decision is therefore made based on the number of votes; the group that has more votes in support of the idea therefore wins while the other decision that has fewer votes, mostly less than a half is neglected. The other approach is the consensus democracy, whereby the whole process of legislation is based on consensus decision making (Hammar, 54). It is mainly characterized by a decision-making structure which involves taking into account as many opinions as possible. In this approach, the decisions of the minority are not ignored as it is in the case of the majority rule where the decisions of the majority are ignored by vote-winning majorities.

A democratic set up involves exercising the power of the majority within the framework of a representative majority. To avoid disadvantaging the minority, the constitution comes up with several individual rights that cut across all the citizens and that can be enjoyed by all the people (Hammar, 54). They include things such as freedom of association and freedom of association and freedom of speech. These are rights that any individual would want to enjoy and therefore anyone experiencing them would not think that they have been disadvantaged in as much as the decisions have been made based in the popular votes of the majority.

There are several main keys elements that constitute democracy and one of the key elements is a political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections. The leaders chosen to lead the people are put in power or removed from power through a free and fair voting system by the citizens. Another key is the active participation of the citizens in civic life and politics (Parés et al. 54). This is where many of the citizens are interested in things such as protection of human rights for all the people. The other key element is the rule of law whereby the laws and the policies of the land cut across all the citizens of that land and no one is above the law. In this element, all the citizens are equal before the law no matter the position in the government.

Reasons why the Topic is Interesting and Important

This topic on democracy is very important because of the many advantages it possesses than the disadvantages. Any government that has embraced democracy has been observed to grow far much more than other forms of government such as monarchical and dictatorship governments. The topic is interesting in that in as much as it has many disadvantages, the other side of the coin is that it also has disadvantages though they are fewer than the advantages. Looking at the advantages associated with democracy is therefore such an amazing area of discussion (Winn et al. 32). There are several advantages of democracy and they include helping in reducing the issues of exploitation, encourages faster economic growth, encourages patriotism, contributes to the smooth transition of power

To begin with, democratic structure greatly helps to reduce the issues of exploitation. All areas of government are always subjected to exploitation and corruption because of the nature of the human nature of leaders who are self-centred and greedy. Many leaders in as much as they profess their great urge to serve their people, the main factor that drives them into leadership are the ability to access wealth opportunities that are in the government. They can therefore, greatly misuse the opportunities and exploit the poor (Winn et al. 43). Democracy therefore prevents the elected leaders from ignoring the needs of the general population to concentrate on their own needs and fulfilling their own selfish ambitions. It challenges the elected officials to represent the needs of each community so that every member of the society can receive an equal opportunity to pursue their dreams. The leaders are always afraid to exploit the poor because of the fact that in a democratic government the people are fully aware of their rights and also they have the right to vote down any leader who exploits them. This fact therefore keeps the leaders on toes to make good use of their offices and also to serve their people who elected them into their respective positions in the government.

Democracy also helps faster growth of the economy of the nation. Countries that embraced democracy early have been able to progress faster economically than countries which have not embraced democracy. This is because the freedom offered in these democratic structures allows the general population to seek the results they want (Terzi, Ali Riza & Ramazan, 45). It gives the members of the society the freedom that is required to look for different employment opportunities and even better education and places to live. Since democracy allows people to make their decisions, it greatly allows everyone to remain fruitful in their work because it allows people to remain fruitful in their work.

Democracy also greatly encourages a high level of patriotism among its citizens. It has been proven that democracy helps people to identify with their government and this helps them to create a stronger level of patriotism. The fact the people are allowed to take part in major decisions in their country makes them feel important and special and they feel part of the country. This makes them love their country even more and encourages them to remain patriotic to their countries (Terzi, Ali Riza & Ramazan, 45). This therefore allows each person in the society to pursue their dreams and fight for the things they want. As everyone is pursuing their dreams, it greatly helps to mould the society in the vision that meets their expectations. This happens even when the idea runs counter to what the majority wants or fall out of the expected or falls out of an expected window of morality. There is an ability to express those ideas assuming that others are not hurt by such an effort. This is the reason why there exist more loyalty and patriotism in a democratic government.

Another advantage of democracy is that it greatly contributes to the smooth transition of power. This is because once democracy has been established, the power of who to remain in the government rests on the hands of the citizens. Democracy therefore creates an appropriate structure of the government for all the members of the society since voters select who will be in charge and how policies are made if a direct form of governing is in place. This process demands that each candidate for office declare before their voters the reasons why they are the best person to represent each community (Langlais, Éric & Marie, 32). It allows a smooth transition and prevents entering into armed conflicts because, in a democratic government, the principle of power transitioning is well laid out. This is because in a democratic government, there are fewer issues of violent rebellion and that any decision made is based on the opinions of legislative bodies which at the end of the day reduces pursuit of war.

Disadvantages

One of the disadvantages associated with democracy is that a democratic structure is dependent upon the will of the majority. Since the majority are not always right, this form of government is therefore also subjected to error and mistakes. History has taught us that the will of the majority is not always right. Issues of slavery, for instance, were accepted by the majority of Europeans since they saw that they could reap some benefits out of it (Lee-Geiller, Seulki & Taejun, 32). This was however, not right in the long run because it subjected many Africans to suffering, something which is morally unethical. Sometimes the idea of the minority group is the best, but due to the fact that democracy operates on the idea of the majority, that better idea is neglected.

Another disadvantage of democracy is that democracy takes more time to implement changes. This is because it involves a lot of discussion and deliberations. Centralized governments, however, do not need to follow many procedures as their government structures allow them to make the declaration on rules and regulations that are not always possible in democratic structures (Christiano, 45). This therefore, sometimes delays developments in these governments. A delayed decision can lead to loss of opportunities and this sometimes makes the government subject its citizens to loss of economic opportunities that would at the end of the day helped to improve their own lives. The decisions in a democratic structure are also expensive because of the time required to implement them. Anything that takes a lot of time to implement is always expensive. This is because most of the time, it also involves using a lot of resources.

In conclusion, democracy is a broad subject worth studying it in a deeper way. It has existed in nations of the world for a very long time now and many governments in the world are now embracing it. There are several advantages of democracy and they include helping in reducing the issues of exploitation, encourages faster economic growth, encourages patriotism, contributes to the smooth transition of power. There are also several disadvantages associated with democracy. They include time consumption and the fact that it is based on the decision of the majority, which sometimes it subject to error and mistakes.

The most common decision making approaches to democracy has always been the majority rule whereby the decisi0on is made based on the level of support from the majority. The decision is therefore made based on the number of votes; the group that has more votes in support of the idea therefore wins while the other decision that has fewer votes, mostly less than a half is neglected. The other approach is the consensus democracy, whereby the whole process of legislation is based on consensus decision making (Hammar, 54). It is mainly characterized by a decision-making structure which involves taking into account as many opinions as possible. In this approach, the decisions of the minority are not ignored as it is in the case of the majority rule where the decisions of the majority are ignored by vote-winning majorities.

A democratic set up involves exercising the power of the majority within the framework of a representative majority. To avoid disadvantaging the minority, the constitution comes up with several individual rights that cut across all the citizens and that can be enjoyed by all the people (Hammar, 54). They include things such as freedom of association and freedom of association and freedom of speech. These are rights that any individual would want to enjoy and therefore anyone experiencing them would not think that they have been disadvantaged in as much as the decisions have been made based in the popular votes of the majority.

There are several main keys elements that constitute democracy and one of the key elements is a political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections. The leaders chosen to lead the people are put in power or removed from power through a free and fair voting system by the citizens. Another key is the active participation of the citizens in civic life and politics (Parés et al. 54). This is where many of the citizens are interested in things such as protection of human rights for all the people. The other key element is the rule of law whereby the laws and the policies of the land cut across all the citizens of that land and no one is above the law. In this element, all the citizens are equal before the law no matter the position in the government.

Reasons why the Topic is Interesting and Important

This topic on democracy is very important because of the many advantages it possesses than the disadvantages. Any government that has embraced democracy has been observed to grow far much more than other forms of government such as monarchical and dictatorship governments. The topic is interesting in that in as much as it has many disadvantages, the other side of the coin is that it also has disadvantages though they are fewer than the advantages. Looking at the advantages associated with democracy is therefore such an amazing area of discussion (Winn et al. 32). There are several advantages of democracy and they include helping in reducing the issues of exploitation, encourages faster economic growth, encourages patriotism, contributes to the smooth transition of power

To begin with, democratic structure greatly helps to reduce the issues of exploitation. All areas of government are always subjected to exploitation and corruption because of the nature of the human nature of leaders who are self-centred and greedy. Many leaders in as much as they profess their great urge to serve their people, the main factor that drives them into leadership are the ability to access wealth opportunities that are in the government. They can therefore, greatly misuse the opportunities and exploit the poor (Winn et al. 43). Read More