Month: May 2025
What is Democracy?
Democracy means “people power”. It is a system of government by the people, through free and fair elections, where each person has one vote regardless of their social or economic status. This allows citizens to choose their own leaders, who in turn make laws for the benefit of all. It also allows citizens to hold elected officials accountable to them, and to protest against decisions that they think are wrong or unfair. In contrast, dictatorships are types of government in which one individual or group has total control and do not give their subjects the opportunity to participate in governing themselves or holding elected representatives accountable. The term first appeared in the 5th century BC in Greek city-states, including ancient Athens, and it was used to describe the form of governance by which citizens made their own decisions for themselves and their society, with a view to achieving optimum outcomes. Since that time, democratic ideas have spread from ancient Greece to all over the world. Today, the word is commonly used to mean a country in which every citizen has the right to vote and stand as a candidate for election to their national legislature. This is an important aspect of democracy, but it’s just one facet of a more comprehensive idea that can be applied at the local level in towns, cities, and even communities, as well as the regional and global scales. Throughout history, the struggle to establish and maintain democracies has normally focused on two areas: improving the “people” part of the concept by broadening participation, and improving the “power” or “will” part of the concept by giving citizens more real power. There are always ways to improve both of these aspects, and a healthy democracy needs all of its parts to work. For example, people who believe that they can talk to their elected representatives face-to-face are much more likely to be satisfied with the performance of their democracy than those who feel that they cannot do so. Also, those who believe that their elected officials care about what ordinary people think are more likely to be satisfied than those who don’t. In addition to being able to communicate with their elected representatives, citizens should also be able to discuss their views on how their country is run with others. They should also be able to form groups and associations, for instance, interest or lobbying groups, and should have the freedom to take part in peaceful assemblies. This is a crucial aspect of democracy because it enables ordinary citizens to make their views known to those in positions of influence. These examples are taken from the “Democracy in focus” section of the Human Rights Centre’s website. Click on the links to see more examples of democracy in action. This content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license. If you’d like to use any of this content, please contact us. You must attribute the work to the Human Rights Centre and link back to the original article on our website.
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