Democracy and Its Structure of Government - Research Paper Example

? Democracy and its structure of government of client> taken> Democracy This paper is concerned with politics. There are many forms of governing a body. Democracy is one of the methods to govern a body and this paper would be discussing about its structure, pros and cons, and an example of a country, Canada, having a democratic government. Introduction Power is never equally distributed in any nation. Yet there is a high need to concentrate on the issue of assigning power to whom and how. Governments have many forms, many ways to make decisions for its people. One of the systems of government is democracy1. Elements of democracy It is the most common form of government in the world of today. Democracy comes from two words, demos means “people” and cracy means “rule of”, so the word democracy means the rule of people. The authority to take decisions rests with the people of such a government. Democracy is considered as the best way to show equality and liberty among people in a society2. Modern democracies have a number of characteristics. They have elections and voting which gives equal rights to political power. They encourage equality by not discriminating one group over another. Democracies allow people to control political actions. It emphasizes on citizen participation3. Democracy can exist on a variety of levels such as local and international. Forms of democracy There are two basic forms of democracy; one being direct and the other representative4. Direct Democracy It is that form of democracy in which all of the citizens of a political organization jointly make the decisions for that group. When a matter needs to be solved and a decision has to be taken, all the members sit together and vote in favour or against the matter. Example of a direct democracy is ancient Athens. They used to come together, debate on the issue and jointly decide amongst each other5. One of the main advantages of a direct democracy is that the citizens feel important and included in the matter. All decisions have high degree of authenticity. On the other hand, it also has its own setbacks. It is not a realistic approach for large countries. It is impossible for people of a populous country like India to sit together and discuss on an issue. Another limit is its need for people to effectively participate. This requires that the citizens are well informed of the issue to be discussed. This needs the time of the citizens which today most of them do not have. Third, decisions are taken on majority’s opinions. In direct democracy, there can be a tyranny of majority. Majorities can unfairly suppress minorities’ rights. This is the reason direct democracy is only at regional and local levels6. Representative Democracy In this form of democracy, people choose officials to represent their group and to make decisions on their behalf. An official is selected through regular elections. In this form, the citizens still participate and have the authority to decide, but the chosen representative implements the policies on their behalf. Government which are based on the principles of representative democracy are titled as republics. Majority of today’s governments are republics, for instance, United States, Mexico, and European countries7. Representative democracy has several advantages over direct democracy. First, elected representatives can focus more on politics and become specialists on issues that average people do not have time. Second, the whole process of debating and then coming to one conclusion is quicker and less complicated than direct democracy. Third, countries can save time and money on elections since they are held after every few years; where as in direct democracy there are campaigns for most of the issues. Fourth, chosen officials provide continuity in government and prevent major changes in policy. Lastly, the elected officials can make complex decisions which the public might hesitate to take8. However, this democracy also has setbacks like direct democracy. It requires participation of citizens, though to a lesser level. One issue that citizens face is the feeling of being felt unimportant. Because of voter apathy, they are less likely to vote and pay less attention to the actions of their representatives. Another drawback in the eyes of some political thinkers is that people become remote from government. The more remote people become, the less they interact with government and the greater is the danger of corruption9. Process oriented approach to democracy Tilly discusses the approach to democracy and mentions Robert Dahl’s five process-oriented criteria for democracy10: Effective participation Before introducing any policy, all the members have equal rights to make their opinion clear to other members. Voting equality Every member has an equal right and opportunity to vote. All votes are counted as equal. Enlightened understanding Each member has equal opportunity to know about the alternate policies and their consequences. Control of the agenda Members still have the opportunity to bring changes in the main agenda even in the fourth stage. They have all the right and opportunity to decide what matters should be included in the agenda. Inclusion of adults All adult residents have full rights of citizens. Before twentieth century this law was not acceptable to many advocates11. Sather also believes that there are a few pros and cons of this system which are as under: Pros and cons of democracy Pros -It ensures that governments are responsible and accountable towards their people. They safeguard people’s interest against corruption. -It allows practicing freedom. -Flawed policies are given the right to be corrected. -Economies are open and are more likely to grow and prosper. -Democratic governments when internationally interact; they never tend to go for war12. Cons It is only true in the strictest sense that two democratic nations have not gone into war. Look at the collapse of Yogoslavia and Greece; Turkey and Cyprus; Pakistan and India. States with partial democracy are aggressive such as Napolean13. Democracy in Canada Let us consider what system of government prevails in Canada. Julian writes in his book that Canada has a democratic government where people have the right to choose their own government. It is a free state where people have freedom of speech. An individual is an important unit. Freedom of each is considered a virtue14. However, there are problems associated with Canadian democracy. Conflicts in opinions occur amongst the citizens of Canada. They do not believe that democracy is the perfect system of government. They do not favor participative political activity a good contribution to their nation. They believe municipal, provincial and federal government is important, but politics is not relevant. Politics should be a part-time profession of every citizen15. For Canada, it is said that dictatorship prevails under the flag of democracy. All levels of government are not accessible to an ordinary citizen. There are many Canadians who do not get involved in politics. An estimate of four to five percent has been made which involve themselves in politics and are chosen repetitively at the federal and provincial levels16. Gibson recognizes three levels of democracy. The first level is in which the voters get to choose people who then decide who is the powerful leader. That leader runs the nation for a period of four or five years as an elected dictatorship. Second level again sees the people elect the representatives but those chosen officials can make laws and budgets and can act independently. The third level of democracy is direct democracy, in which voters directly make decisions. Canada lies in the second level of democracy17. Conclusion No system is a perfect system. It would be a long debate to say whether democracy is the best system or not. However, the challenge for all of us is to improve democracy at our levels in the best possible manner we can. It is a responsibility of every citizen of the country including Prime Minister, MLAs, and provincial premiers, to improve one’s democracy and thus enhance human condition18. Julian says that democracy can be improved since the power is in the hands of people. More and more participation and involvement in country’s affairs can improve the democracy of a nation. The flaws in a democratic government can be altered by non violent reforms. Do not let your country’s democracy diminish just like Canadian democracy which is now only about rules and not about what is best for its citizens19. References Gibson, Gordon. Fixing Canadian democracy. The fraser institute, 2003. Julian, Terry. Improving Canada's democracy. Trafford publishing, 2002. Lansford, Tom. Democracy. n.d. Magstadt, Thomas M. Understanding Politics: Ideas, Institutions, and Issues. Cengage Learning, 2009. Sather, Trevor. Pros And Cons: a Debater's Handbook . Routledge, 2005. Tilly, Charles. Democracy. Cambridge University Press, 2007. Read More