Democracy is the Best Form of Government - Essay Example

Democracy is the Best Form of Government ID No. Democracy is the Best Form of Government Democracy is a form of government that gives the people a voice. It is a representative form of government wherein the people are allowed to choose who will lead them. Democracy comes from two Greek words, “demos” which means the citizens in a Greek city-state, and “kratos” which means “power or rule” (Singleton, 1). The power to govern is granted by the people through an election, referred to as representative democracy (1).

In the presidential form of government, the people elects the president of the country and members of Congress, while in the parliamentary form, they elect the members of the parliament who in turn selects the prime minister. The majority vote of the citizenry is given recognition in these types of elections. In a democratic government, the people are allowed to engage in free market and free enterprise. They can choose which type of industry or business they can engage to earn a living. Moreover, people are allowed to own personal and real properties without limitation.

The other important rights granted by any constitutional government are the freedom of the press, of speech, of assembly and to form associations. People can publish or broadcast in the media their advocacy and opinions without fear of reprisal or incarceration by authorities and government agents. They can speak against the government and even criticize the appointed and elected leaders of the country. The citizens can also form organizations and associations for whatever purpose, except that of overthrowing the government or fomenting terror, fear or criminal acts.

Democracy is not the best kind of government for the people because it is lax in monitoring how people exercise their rights. The people can engage in any business including the buying and selling of guns and ammunitions. It is not uncommon in a democratic country for ordinary citizens to own a gun and go on a rampage shooting that kills many innocent civilians. In the US, this type of incident happens even inside school campuses (Girl Critical, pars. 32-33; van Wagtendonk, par. 1). The citizens are allowed to form any organization that can present a harmless front but with a malicious motivation, such as sowing terror among the people.

A democratic form of government allows free enterprise that is exploited by groups having excessive desire for money and material wealth. This can be exemplified in the recent global economic slump that brought down several banking and financial institutions, as well as the real estate industry. Being allowed by the free economic system, marketing and financial firms sold and repackaged securities (based on real estate) in the US and overseas which is beyond the regular value. Since these business and financial firms are given too much leeway in conducting business, the US government was not able to strictly monitor their activities.

It is claimed that a democratic government protects the basic rights of its citizens. However, minorities (Why Democracy, par. 5) are subjected to cultural and racial discrimination, along with non-whites. Thus, aboriginal groups, Asians and Hispanics are marginalized and usually subjected to unfair treatment. The cultural bias is shown not only in verbal slur, but also extends beyond the physical and sexual boundaries. Democracy is a kind of government that can be abused by both the authorities and the people.

Works Cited Girl Critical after Los Angeles School Shooting. USA Today. Associated Press. 2011 January 18. 2 April 2011. . Singleton, Lianne. Discovering Democracy. n.d. 2 April 2011. . van Wagtendonk, Reinout. College Shooting Stuns US. 2007 April 17. 3 April 2011. . Why Democracy is Wrong. 2006 May 13. 3 April 2011. .