Democracies – Rule by the People
Democracy means ‘rule by the people’. The word is derived from two Greek words: demos (the people) and kratia (power or rule). But simple definitions don’t capture the richness of democracy or its challenges. Democracy is an ongoing conversation: the citizens of a democratic country take part in the process in many ways, whether they vote, protest or run for office. The success of this ongoing conversation depends on everyone’s participation.
In a democracy, people govern themselves through their freely chosen elected representatives in regular free and fair elections. This is one of the fundamental principles of democracy, and it ensures that power flows from the bottom up. It also guarantees that the rights of all citizens are protected. This includes freedom of speech and religion, equality before the law and the opportunity to organize in a democracy. Democracy is the antithesis of all forms of authoritarian government, such as dictatorships and military regimes.
For democracy to work, citizens must respect the law and their fellow citizens. They should listen to each other and consider different points of view, even those they disagree with. They should not use violence against their political opponents and they should not call their opponents evil or illegitimate.
Similarly, they must respect the fact that the democratic state cannot achieve everything that every group wants and that different groups have different interests and preferences. They should also respect the right of a minority to practice its own culture. Finally, they must be aware that a democracy is based on mutual trust. They should trust that politicians will not misuse their position and they should believe that it is impossible for office holders to enrich themselves with public funds. In a democracy, corruption is punished and office holders are not allowed to use their position for personal gain.
It is hard to measure the subjective quality of democracy because each country has a different political system. There are presidential and parliamentary democracies, federal and unitary democracies, systems with a proportional or majoritarian voting system, and so on. Nevertheless, there are some indications that a subjective measure of democracy might be possible. This would involve combining a measurement at the macro level of a country, based on the Democ- racy Barometer, with a measurement at the micro level of the citizens. In the latter case, it could be possible to assess the degree to which a person understands democracy and how well that understanding corresponds with the theoretical definition of democracy.
In addition, it would be desirable to supplement the objective measurement of democracy with a normative concept of democracy. This could be done by using the European Social Survey 2012 and assessing both the degree to which the principles of democracy are accepted (views) and the extent to which they are practised (evaluations). In this way, it might be possible to establish a link between these objective and subjective measurements. In this article, we present a first attempt to do so.
Democracy means ‘rule by the people’. The word is derived from two Greek words: demos (the people) and kratia (power or rule). But simple definitions don’t capture the richness of democracy or its challenges. Democracy is an ongoing conversation: the citizens of a democratic country take part in the process in many ways, whether they vote, protest or run for office. The success of this ongoing conversation depends on everyone’s participation. In a democracy, people govern themselves through their freely chosen elected representatives in regular free and fair elections. This is one of the fundamental principles of democracy, and it ensures that power flows from the bottom up. It also guarantees that the rights of all citizens are protected. This includes freedom of speech and religion, equality before the law and the opportunity to organize in a democracy. Democracy is the antithesis of all forms of authoritarian government, such as dictatorships and military regimes. For democracy to work, citizens must respect the law and their fellow citizens. They should listen to each other and consider different points of view, even those they disagree with. They should not use violence against their political opponents and they should not call their opponents evil or illegitimate. Similarly, they must respect the fact that the democratic state cannot achieve everything that every group wants and that different groups have different interests and preferences. They should also respect the right of a minority to practice its own culture. Finally, they must be aware that a democracy is based on mutual trust. They should trust that politicians will not misuse their position and they should believe that it is impossible for office holders to enrich themselves with public funds. In a democracy, corruption is punished and office holders are not allowed to use their position for personal gain. It is hard to measure the subjective quality of democracy because each country has a different political system. There are presidential and parliamentary democracies, federal and unitary democracies, systems with a proportional or majoritarian voting system, and so on. Nevertheless, there are some indications that a subjective measure of democracy might be possible. This would involve combining a measurement at the macro level of a country, based on the Democ- racy Barometer, with a measurement at the micro level of the citizens. In the latter case, it could be possible to assess the degree to which a person understands democracy and how well that understanding corresponds with the theoretical definition of democracy. In addition, it would be desirable to supplement the objective measurement of democracy with a normative concept of democracy. This could be done by using the European Social Survey 2012 and assessing both the degree to which the principles of democracy are accepted (views) and the extent to which they are practised (evaluations). In this way, it might be possible to establish a link between these objective and subjective measurements. In this article, we present a first attempt to do so.