Difference between revisions of "Democracy" - New World Encyclopedia
m (→20th Century) |
|||
Line 4: | Line 4: | ||
Direct democracy has not been a successful form of government because it degenerates into "mob rule" in which the rights of minorities are not respected. It also has followed mood swings based on social impulse and not been the basis of any stable regime. Both [[Aristotle]] and St. [[Thomas Aquinas]] considered democracy to be among the worst forms of government. Throughout history forms of [[representative democracy]] and [[constitutional democracy]] have evolved to protect the rights of minorities and represent the long-term welfare of the state. These indirect forms of democracy, which put power in the hands of citizens, within limits, are the basis of most successful democratic governments in the modern world. | Direct democracy has not been a successful form of government because it degenerates into "mob rule" in which the rights of minorities are not respected. It also has followed mood swings based on social impulse and not been the basis of any stable regime. Both [[Aristotle]] and St. [[Thomas Aquinas]] considered democracy to be among the worst forms of government. Throughout history forms of [[representative democracy]] and [[constitutional democracy]] have evolved to protect the rights of minorities and represent the long-term welfare of the state. These indirect forms of democracy, which put power in the hands of citizens, within limits, are the basis of most successful democratic governments in the modern world. | ||
+ | ==History== | ||
=== Ancient origins === | === Ancient origins === | ||
The word ''democracy'' derives from the ancient Greek ''[[demokratia]]'' ''(δημοκρατία)'', formed from the roots ''demos'' ''(δημος)'', "people, the mob, the many"<ref>Takashi Inoguchi, Edward Newman, and John Keane, ''The Changing Nature of Democracy'' (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1998), 255.</ref> and ''kratos'' ''(κρατος)'' "rule." In [[Ancient Greece]] democracy was usually related to a ''polis,'' or a city state which was small in comparison to many modern [[nation-state]]s. Although [[Athens|Athenian]] democracy is today considered by many to have been a form of direct democracy, originally it had two distinguishing features: firstly the allotment (selection by lot) of ordinary citizens to government offices and courts, and secondarily the assembly of all the citizens. All the Athenian citizens were eligible to speak and vote in the Assembly, which set the laws of the city-state, but neither political rights, nor citizenship, were granted to [[women]], [[slaves]], or [[metics]]. Of the 250,000 inhabitants only some 30,000 on average were citizens. Of those 30,000 perhaps 5,000 might regularly attend one or more meetings of the popular Assembly. Most of the officers and magistrates of Athenian government were allotted; only the generals ([[strategoi]]) and a few other officers were elected.<ref>Paul Cartledge, ''BBC - History - The Democratic Experiment'', http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekdemocracy_01.shtml. Retrieved August 17, 2007.</ref> Aristotle though democracies were most likely to work in agricultural settings where all people were self-sufficient and needed no economic support from government. | The word ''democracy'' derives from the ancient Greek ''[[demokratia]]'' ''(δημοκρατία)'', formed from the roots ''demos'' ''(δημος)'', "people, the mob, the many"<ref>Takashi Inoguchi, Edward Newman, and John Keane, ''The Changing Nature of Democracy'' (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1998), 255.</ref> and ''kratos'' ''(κρατος)'' "rule." In [[Ancient Greece]] democracy was usually related to a ''polis,'' or a city state which was small in comparison to many modern [[nation-state]]s. Although [[Athens|Athenian]] democracy is today considered by many to have been a form of direct democracy, originally it had two distinguishing features: firstly the allotment (selection by lot) of ordinary citizens to government offices and courts, and secondarily the assembly of all the citizens. All the Athenian citizens were eligible to speak and vote in the Assembly, which set the laws of the city-state, but neither political rights, nor citizenship, were granted to [[women]], [[slaves]], or [[metics]]. Of the 250,000 inhabitants only some 30,000 on average were citizens. Of those 30,000 perhaps 5,000 might regularly attend one or more meetings of the popular Assembly. Most of the officers and magistrates of Athenian government were allotted; only the generals ([[strategoi]]) and a few other officers were elected.<ref>Paul Cartledge, ''BBC - History - The Democratic Experiment'', http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekdemocracy_01.shtml. Retrieved August 17, 2007.</ref> Aristotle though democracies were most likely to work in agricultural settings where all people were self-sufficient and needed no economic support from government. | ||
Line 28: | Line 29: | ||
=== 20th Century === | === 20th Century === | ||
− | The transitions of the 20th century to liberal democracy have come in successive "waves of democracy," variously resulting from wars, revolutions, [[decolonization]], and economic circumstances. [[World War I]] and the dissolution of the [[Ottoman empire|Ottoman]] and [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian]] empires resulted in the creation of new nation-states in Europe, most of them nominally and partly democratic. In the 1920s democracy flourished, but the [[Great Depression]] brought disenchantment, and most the countries of Europe, Latin America, and Asia turned to authoritarian rule or dictatorships that promised that a strong state could solve problems which democraices could not. [[Fascism]] and dictatorships flourished in [[Nazi Germany]], [[Italy]], [[Spain]] and [[Portugal]], as well as nondemocratic regimes in [[Poland]], the Baltics, the Balkans, [[Brazil]], [[Cuba]], [[China]], and [[Japan]], among others. Together with Stalin's regime in the [[Soviet Union]], these made the 1930s the "Age of Dictators."<ref>Charles DiCola, ''Age of Dictators:Totalitarianism in the Interwar Period'', http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:jCe2MTKLhzAJ:www.snl.depaul.edu/contents/current/syllabi/HC_314.doc+Stalin+1930%27s+%22Age+of+Dictators%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&lr=lang_en. Retrieved August 17, 2007.</ref> | + | The transitions of the 20th century to liberal democracy have come in successive "waves of democracy," variously resulting from wars, revolutions, [[decolonization]], and economic circumstances. [[World War I]] and the dissolution of the [[Ottoman empire|Ottoman]] and [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian]] empires resulted in the creation of new nation-states in Europe, most of them nominally and partly democratic. In the 1920s democracy flourished, but the [[Great Depression]] brought disenchantment, and most the countries of Europe, Latin America, and Asia turned to authoritarian rule or dictatorships that promised that a strong state could solve problems which democraices could not. [[Fascism]] and dictatorships flourished in [[Nazi Germany]], [[Italy]], [[Spain]] and [[Portugal]], as well as nondemocratic regimes in [[Poland]], the Baltics, the Balkans, [[Brazil]], [[Cuba]], [[China]], and [[Japan]], among others. Together with Stalin's regime in the [[Soviet Union]], these made the 1930s the "Age of Dictators."<ref>Charles DiCola, ''Age of Dictators:Totalitarianism in the Interwar Period'', http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:jCe2MTKLhzAJ:www.snl.depaul.edu/contents/current/syllabi/HC_314.doc+Stalin+1930%27s+%22Age+of+Dictators%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&lr=lang_en. Retrieved August 17, 2007.</ref> Even the United States allowed [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] much more power than previous presidents. |
− | [[World War II]] brought a | + | [[World War II]] brought a definite reversal of this trend in Western Europe. The dictators had gone to war without regard for the lives of citizens they ruled. The successful democratization of the [[Allied Control Council|American, British, and French sectors of occupied Germany]], [[Austria]], [[Italy]], and the [[occupied Japan]], especially the success of the [[Marshall Plan]], served as a basis for later theory of [[regime change]]. However, most of [[Eastern Europe]], including the [[German Democratic Republic|Soviet sector of Germany]] was forced into the [[Warsaw Pact|Soviet bloc]]. The war was followed by [[decolonization]], and again most of the new independent states had nominally democratic constitutions, but once elected many rulers held their power for decades. Following World War II, most western democratic nations had [[mixed economy|mixed economies]] and developed a [[welfare state]], reflecting a general consensus among their electorates and political parties that the wealthy could be taxed to help support the poor. |
− | + | In the 1950s and 1960s, economic growth was high in both the western and [[communism|Communist]] countries as industries were developed to provide goods for citizens. However, it later declined in the state-controlled, command economies, where incentives for hard work and innovation were lost. By 1960, the vast majority of [[nation-state]]s were nominally democracies, although the majority of the world's populations lived in nations that experienced sham elections, and other forms of subterfuge. | |
− | The | + | A subsequent wave of [[democratization]] brought substantial gains toward true liberal democracy for many nations like Spain and Portugal. Several of the military dictatorships in [[South America]] became democratic in the late 1970s and early 1980s as they were handed over to the people as dictators were unable to pay the national debts accumulated during their rule due to theft and misuse of loans. This was followed by nations in [[East Asia|East]] and [[South Asia]] by the mid- to late 1980s,that were becoming industrial producers. |
+ | |||
+ | In 1989 [[History of the Soviet Union (1985-1991)|the Soviet Union]] was bankrupt, ending the [[Cold War]] and discrediting government-run economies. The former [[Eastern bloc]] countries had some memory of liberal democracy and could reorganize more easily than Russia, which had been communist since 1917. The most successful of the new democracies were those geographically and culturally closest to western Europe, and they quickly became members or candidate members of the [[European Union]]. Russia, however, had its reforms impeded by a mafia that crippled new businesses and the old party leaders who took personal ownership of Russia's outdated industries. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The liberal trend spread to some nations in [[Africa]] in the 1990s, most prominently in [[South Africa]], where [[apartheid]] was disassembled by the efforts of [[Nelson Mandela]] and [[F.W. deKlerk]]. More recent examples include the [[Indonesian Revolution of 1998]], the [[5th October Overthrow|Bulldozer Revolution]] in [[Yugoslavia]], the [[Rose Revolution]] in [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], the [[Orange Revolution]] in [[Ukraine]], the [[Cedar Revolution]] in [[Lebanon]], and the [[Tulip Revolution]] in [[Kyrgyzstan]]. | ||
== Forms of democracy == | == Forms of democracy == | ||
{{Forms of government}} | {{Forms of government}} | ||
{{Main|Democracy (varieties)}} | {{Main|Democracy (varieties)}} | ||
− | === Representative === | + | There are many variations on the forms of government that put ultimate rule in the citizens of a state: |
− | [[Representative democracy]] involves the selection of government officials by a | + | === Representative Democracy === |
+ | [[Representative democracy]] involves the selection of government officials by a popular election. Representatives are to act in the interest of those they represent, and are considered to have skills to do so in a more manageable-sized government. They retain the freedom to exercise their own judgment as how best to represent the electorate. The constituency can communicate with the representative on important issues and elect a new representative to next term if they are unsatisfied with the results. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Representatives may be elected by a particular district (or [[constituency]]), or represent the electorate as a whole as in many [[Proportional representation|proportional]] systems, with some using a combination of the two. Another form of representation, used in the Ancient Roman Republic, was voting by class, with the wealthy electing senator and the plebian class electing tribunes. When the United State was founded, the representatives were elected by citizens, and senators were elected by state legislatures to provide representatives of the long-term interests of society. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Representative democracies might incorporate other forms of democracy, such as [[referenda]], a form of direct democracy, on certain types of issues. | ||
==== Liberal Democracy ==== | ==== Liberal Democracy ==== | ||
Line 133: | Line 143: | ||
* [[Cooperatives]] are enterprises owned and democratically controlled by their customers or workers. | * [[Cooperatives]] are enterprises owned and democratically controlled by their customers or workers. | ||
==The future of democracy== | ==The future of democracy== | ||
+ | The number of liberal democracies currently stands at an all-time high and has been growing without interruption for some time. As such, it has been speculated that this trend may continue in the future to the point where liberal democratic nation-states become the universal standard form of human [[society]]. This prediction forms the core of [[Francis Fukayama]]'s "[[The End of History and the Last Man|End of History]]" theory. | ||
+ | |||
Any form of rule requires the ability to rule, and it has been argued that democracies can only be as good as the citizens. | Any form of rule requires the ability to rule, and it has been argued that democracies can only be as good as the citizens. | ||
+ | |||
== See also == | == See also == | ||
{{wiktionarypar|democracy}} | {{wiktionarypar|democracy}} |
Revision as of 18:59, 26 September 2007
Democracy describes a number of forms of government in which rule derives from the citizens. With origins in ancient Greece, Rome, and South Asia, democracy has generally grown and developed throughout history. The principles of democracy emphasize the importance of the individual citizen having a voice in government, either directly through a vote, or indirectly through representation, and by implication personal responsibility for the welfare of his or her group. Today, democratic principles are touted as preferred in many parts of the world. Though the term democracy is typically used in the context of a political state, the principles are also applicable to other groups and organizations.
Direct democracy has not been a successful form of government because it degenerates into "mob rule" in which the rights of minorities are not respected. It also has followed mood swings based on social impulse and not been the basis of any stable regime. Both Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas considered democracy to be among the worst forms of government. Throughout history forms of representative democracy and constitutional democracy have evolved to protect the rights of minorities and represent the long-term welfare of the state. These indirect forms of democracy, which put power in the hands of citizens, within limits, are the basis of most successful democratic governments in the modern world.
History
Ancient origins
The word democracy derives from the ancient Greek demokratia (δημοκρατία), formed from the roots demos (δημος), "people, the mob, the many"[1] and kratos (κρατος) "rule." In Ancient Greece democracy was usually related to a polis, or a city state which was small in comparison to many modern nation-states. Although Athenian democracy is today considered by many to have been a form of direct democracy, originally it had two distinguishing features: firstly the allotment (selection by lot) of ordinary citizens to government offices and courts, and secondarily the assembly of all the citizens. All the Athenian citizens were eligible to speak and vote in the Assembly, which set the laws of the city-state, but neither political rights, nor citizenship, were granted to women, slaves, or metics. Of the 250,000 inhabitants only some 30,000 on average were citizens. Of those 30,000 perhaps 5,000 might regularly attend one or more meetings of the popular Assembly. Most of the officers and magistrates of Athenian government were allotted; only the generals (strategoi) and a few other officers were elected.[2] Aristotle though democracies were most likely to work in agricultural settings where all people were self-sufficient and needed no economic support from government.
While Western civilization begins its democratic roots in Ancient Greece, other Ancient civilizations entertained various forms of government we could consider democracy. ancient India, for example had examples of citizen-rule. The democratic Sangha, Gana and Panchayat systems were used in some of these republics; the Panchayat system is still used today in Indian villages. Later during the time of Alexander the Great in the 4th century B.C.E., the Greeks wrote about the Sabarcae and Sambastai states in what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan, whose "form of government was democratic and not regal" according to Greek scholars at the time.[3]
The Roman Republic had elections among the wealthy landowning families. Almost all high officials came from a few noble families who made up the Roman Senate. Members of the plebian class (middle class) who were disenfranchised went on a strike and would not return to work until they were included in government. A group of legal scholars studied Greek forms of government and developed the Twelve Tables, the basis for a constitutional republic. This government was accepted by both the wealthy landholding class and the plebes who were represented by Tribunes. Tribunes had veto power over Senatorial legislation and served as a check and balance system between these two classes. Women and slaves did not cast votes.
Democracy was also seen to a certain extent in bands and tribes such as the Iroquois Confederacy. However, in the Iroquois Confederacy only the males of certain clans could be leaders and some clans were excluded. Only the oldest females from the same clans could choose and remove the leaders. This excluded most of the population. They emphasized consensus among the leaders, not majority rule by voting, when making decisions. Band societies, such as the bushmen, which usually number 20–50 people in the band often do not have leaders and make decisions based on consensus among the community.
Middle Ages
Most regions during the Middle Ages were ruled by clergy or feudal lords. However, the growth of centers of commerce and city states led to great experimentation in non-feudal forms of government. Many cities elected mayors or burghers. There were various systems involving elections or assemblies, although often only involving a minority of the population. Such city states often allowed greater freedom for science and the arts, and the Renaissance blossomed in this environment, bringing Western Europe out of its Dark ages and helping to create conditions for the emergence of Western Democracy. In Florence, Machiavelli's writings initiated the analysis of political power and its use.
Instances of democracy that have been cited include Gopala in Bengal, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Althing in Iceland, certain medieval Italian city-states such as Venice, the tuatha system in early medieval Ireland, the Veche in Slavic countries, Scandinavian Things and the autonomous merchant city of Sakai in the 16th century in Japan. However, participation in many of these post-feudal governments was often restricted to an aristocracy, and so may be better classified as oligarchy.
The Parliament of England had its roots in the restrictions on the power of the king written into the Magna Carta. The first elected parliament was De Montfort's Parliament in England in 1265. However only a small minority of lords actually had a voice; Parliament was elected by only less than 3 percent of the population as late as 1780.[4] The power to call parliament was at the pleasure of the monarch (usually when he or she needed funds). After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the English Bill of Rights was enacted in 1689, which codified certain rights and increased the influence of the Parliament.[5] The franchise was slowly increased and the Parliament gradually gained more power until the monarch became largely a figurehead.
18th and 19th centuries
Modern democracy was born in the eighteenth century. Although not described as a democracy by its founding fathers, the United States has been described as the first liberal democracy on the basis that its founders shared a commitment to the principle of natural freedom and equality.[6] The United States Constitution which set down the framework for government with checks and balances on power to prevent usurpation or abuse of power. Adopted in 1788, it provided for an elected government through representatives, and it protected civil rights and liberties of all except slaves, which grew to haunt the new government.
On the American frontier, democracy became a way of life, with widespread social, economic and political equality.[7] However the frontier did not produce much democracy in Canada, Australia or Russia. By the 1840s almost all property restrictions were ended and nearly all white adult male citizens could vote; and turnout averaged 60–80 percent in frequent elections for local, state and national officials. The system gradually evolved, from Jeffersonian Democracy to Jacksonian Democracy and beyond. Following the American Civil War, in 1868, newly freed slaves, in the case of men, were granted the right to vote under the passage of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Women's suffrage came to fulfillment in the 1920s with the passage of the 19th Amendment.
In 1789, Revolutionary France adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and, although short-lived, the National Convention was elected by all males. [8] Liberal democracies were few and often short-lived before the late nineteenth century. Various nations and territories have claimed to be the first to practice universal suffrage.
20th Century
The transitions of the 20th century to liberal democracy have come in successive "waves of democracy," variously resulting from wars, revolutions, decolonization, and economic circumstances. World War I and the dissolution of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires resulted in the creation of new nation-states in Europe, most of them nominally and partly democratic. In the 1920s democracy flourished, but the Great Depression brought disenchantment, and most the countries of Europe, Latin America, and Asia turned to authoritarian rule or dictatorships that promised that a strong state could solve problems which democraices could not. Fascism and dictatorships flourished in Nazi Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal, as well as nondemocratic regimes in Poland, the Baltics, the Balkans, Brazil, Cuba, China, and Japan, among others. Together with Stalin's regime in the Soviet Union, these made the 1930s the "Age of Dictators."[9] Even the United States allowed Franklin D. Roosevelt much more power than previous presidents.
World War II brought a definite reversal of this trend in Western Europe. The dictators had gone to war without regard for the lives of citizens they ruled. The successful democratization of the American, British, and French sectors of occupied Germany, Austria, Italy, and the occupied Japan, especially the success of the Marshall Plan, served as a basis for later theory of regime change. However, most of Eastern Europe, including the Soviet sector of Germany was forced into the Soviet bloc. The war was followed by decolonization, and again most of the new independent states had nominally democratic constitutions, but once elected many rulers held their power for decades. Following World War II, most western democratic nations had mixed economies and developed a welfare state, reflecting a general consensus among their electorates and political parties that the wealthy could be taxed to help support the poor.
In the 1950s and 1960s, economic growth was high in both the western and Communist countries as industries were developed to provide goods for citizens. However, it later declined in the state-controlled, command economies, where incentives for hard work and innovation were lost. By 1960, the vast majority of nation-states were nominally democracies, although the majority of the world's populations lived in nations that experienced sham elections, and other forms of subterfuge.
A subsequent wave of democratization brought substantial gains toward true liberal democracy for many nations like Spain and Portugal. Several of the military dictatorships in South America became democratic in the late 1970s and early 1980s as they were handed over to the people as dictators were unable to pay the national debts accumulated during their rule due to theft and misuse of loans. This was followed by nations in East and South Asia by the mid- to late 1980s,that were becoming industrial producers.
In 1989 the Soviet Union was bankrupt, ending the Cold War and discrediting government-run economies. The former Eastern bloc countries had some memory of liberal democracy and could reorganize more easily than Russia, which had been communist since 1917. The most successful of the new democracies were those geographically and culturally closest to western Europe, and they quickly became members or candidate members of the European Union. Russia, however, had its reforms impeded by a mafia that crippled new businesses and the old party leaders who took personal ownership of Russia's outdated industries.
The liberal trend spread to some nations in Africa in the 1990s, most prominently in South Africa, where apartheid was disassembled by the efforts of Nelson Mandela and F.W. deKlerk. More recent examples include the Indonesian Revolution of 1998, the Bulldozer Revolution in Yugoslavia, the Rose Revolution in Georgia, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, and the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan.
Forms of democracy
List of forms of government
|
There are many variations on the forms of government that put ultimate rule in the citizens of a state:
Representative Democracy
Representative democracy involves the selection of government officials by a popular election. Representatives are to act in the interest of those they represent, and are considered to have skills to do so in a more manageable-sized government. They retain the freedom to exercise their own judgment as how best to represent the electorate. The constituency can communicate with the representative on important issues and elect a new representative to next term if they are unsatisfied with the results.
Representatives may be elected by a particular district (or constituency), or represent the electorate as a whole as in many proportional systems, with some using a combination of the two. Another form of representation, used in the Ancient Roman Republic, was voting by class, with the wealthy electing senator and the plebian class electing tribunes. When the United State was founded, the representatives were elected by citizens, and senators were elected by state legislatures to provide representatives of the long-term interests of society.
Representative democracies might incorporate other forms of democracy, such as referenda, a form of direct democracy, on certain types of issues.
Liberal Democracy
Liberal democracy is a representative democracy along with the protection of minorities, the rule of law, a separation of powers, and protection of liberties (thus the name liberal) of speech, assembly, religion, and property. Conversely, an illiberal democracy is one where the protections that form a liberal democracy are either nonexistent, or not enforced.
Direct Democracy
Direct democracy is a political system in which the citizens vote on major policy decisions. Issues are resolved by popular vote. All direct democracies to date have been weak forms, relatively small communities, usually city-states. However, some see the extensive use of referenda, as in California, as akin to direct democracy in a very large polity with more than 20 million potential voters.[10]
Socialist Democracy
Socialism has several different views on democracy. Social democracy, democratic socialism, Soviet democracy, and the dictatorship of the proletariat are some examples. Many democratic socialists and social democrats believe in a form of participatory democracy and workplace democracy combined with a representative democracy. Marxist-Leninists, Stalinists, Maoists and other "orthodox Marxists" generally believe in soviet democracy and democratic centralism. Libertarian socialists generally believe in direct democracy and Libertarian Marxists often believe in a Consociational state that combines consensus democracy with representative democracy.
Anarchist Democracy
The only form of democracy considered acceptable to anarchists is direct democracy. Some anarchists oppose direct democracy while others favor it. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon argued that the only acceptable form of direct democracy is one in which it is recognized that majority decisions are not binding on the minority, even when unanimous.[11] However, anarcho-communist Murray Bookchin criticized individualist anarchists for opposing democracy,[12] and says "majority rule" is consistent with anarchism.[13] Some anarcho-communists oppose the majoritarian nature of direct democracy, feeling that it can impede individual liberty and opt in favor of a non-majoritarian form of consensus democracy, similar to Proudhon's position on direct democracy.
Sortition
Sortition (or Allotment) has formed the basis of systems randomly selecting officers from the population. A much noted classical example would be the ancient Athenian democracy.
Tribal Democracy
Certain tribes such as the bushmen organized themselves using different forms of participatory democracy or consensus democracy.[14]
Consensus Democracy
Consensus democracy and deliberative democracy seek consensus among the people.[15]
History
Theory
Aristotle
Aristotle contrasted rule by the many (democracy/polity), with rule by the few (oligarchy/aristocracy), and with rule by a single person (tyranny/monarchy or today autocracy). He also thought that there was a good and a bad variant of each system (he considered democracy to be the degenerate counterpart to polity).[18][19]
Conceptions
Among political theorists, there are many contending conceptions of democracy.
- Aggregative democracy uses democratic processes to solicit citizens’ preferences and then aggregate them together to determine what social policies society should adopt. Therefore, proponents of this view hold that democratic participation should primarily focus on voting, where the policy with the most votes gets implemented. There are different variants of this:
- Under minimalism, democracy is a system of government in which citizens give teams of political leaders the right to rule in periodic elections. According to this minimalist conception, citizens cannot and should not “rule” because, for example, on most issues, most of the time, they have no clear views or their views are not well-founded. Joseph Schumpeter articulated this view most famously in his book Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy.[20] Contemporary proponents of minimalism include William H. Riker, Adam Przeworski, Richard Posner.
- Direct democracy, on the other hand, holds that citizens should participate directly, not through their representatives, in making laws and policies. Proponents of direct democracy offer varied reasons to support this view. Political activity can be valuable in itself, it socializes and educates citizens, and popular participation can check powerful elites. The will of the populace is heeded. Most importantly, citizens do not really rule themselves unless they directly decide laws and policies.
- Government should produce laws and policies that are close to the views of the median voter—with half to his left and the other half to his right. Anthony Downs laid out this view in his 1957 book An Economic Theory of Democracy.[21]
- Robert A. Dahl argues that the fundamental democratic principle is that, when it comes to binding collective decisions, each person in a political community is entitled to have his/her interests be given equal consideration (not necessarily that all people are equally satisfied by the collective decision). He uses the term polyarchy to refer to societies in which there exists a certain set of institutions and procedures which are perceived as leading to such democracy. First and foremost among these institutions is the regular occurrence of free and open elections which are used to select representatives who then manage all or most of the public policy of the society. However, these polyarchic procedures may not create a full democracy if, for example, poverty prevents political participation.[22] Some see a problem with the wealthy having more influence and therefore argue for reforms like campaign finance reform. Some may see it as a problem that the majority of the voters decide policy, as opposed to majority rule of the entire population. This can be used as an argument for making political participation mandatory, like compulsory voting [23] or for making it more patient (non-compulsory) by simply refusing power to the government until the full majority feels inclined to speak their minds.
- Deliberative democracy is based on the notion that democracy is government by discussion. Deliberative democrats contend that laws and policies should be based upon reasons that all citizens can accept. The political arena should be one in which leaders and citizens make arguments, listen, and change their minds.
- Radical democracy is based on the idea that there are hierarchical and oppressive power relations that exist in society. Democracy's role is to make visible and challenge those relations by allowing for difference, dissent and antagonisms in decision making processes.
"Democracy" and "Republic"
In 18th century historical usages, especially when considering the works of the Founding Fathers of the United States, the word "democracy" was associated with radical egalitarianism and was often defined to mean what we today call direct democracy. In the same historical context, the word "republic" was used to refer to what we now call representative democracy.[24] For example, James Madison, in Federalist Paper No. 10, advocates a constitutional republic over a democracy to protect the individual from the majority.[25] Madison was seeking to distinguish between a direct democracy and a representative democracy, but his choice to do so using the words "democracy" and "republic" had no basis in prior usage of the words. [26]
In contemporary western usage, the term "democracy" usually refers to a government chosen by the people, whether it is direct or representative. [27]The term "republic" has many different meanings but today often refers to a representative democracy with an elected head of state, such as a President, serving for a limited term, in contrast to states with a hereditary monarch as a head of state, even if these states also are representative democracies with an elected head of government such as a Prime Minister. Therefore, today the term is used by states which are quite different from the earlier use of the term, such as the former German Democratic Republic and the USSR.
Using the term "democracy" to refer solely to direct democracy, or to representative democracy without checks on the power of elected officials, retains some popularity in United States conservative and libertarian circles.
Note that the US constitution states that the power comes from the people "We the people..." However, some argue that unlike a pure democracy, in a constitutional republic, citizens in the US are not governed by the majority of the people but by the rule of law.[28] Constitutional Republics are a deliberate attempt to diminish the threat of mobocracy thereby protecting minority groups from the tyranny of the majority by placing checks on the power of the majority of the population. Thomas Jefferson stated that majority rights cannot exist if individual rights do not.[29] The power of the majority of the people is checked by limiting that power to electing representatives who govern within limits of overarching constitutional law rather than the popular vote or government having power to deny any inalienable right.[30] Moreover, the power of elected representatives is also checked by prohibitions against any single individual having legislative, judicial, and executive powers so that basic constitutional law is extremely difficult to change. John Adams defined a constitutional republic as "a government of laws, and not of men."[31]
The original framers of the United States Constitution were notably cognizant of what they perceived as a danger of majority rule in oppressing freedom and liberty of the individual. The framers carefully created the institutions within the Constitution and the United States Bill of Rights. They kept what they believed were the best elements of majority rule. But they were mitigated by a constitution with protections for individual liberty, a separation of powers, and a layered federal structure. Inalienable rights refers to a set of human rights that are not awarded by human power, and cannot be surrendered.[32] The Constitution of the United States was written to protect the inalienable rights of citizens from potential excesses of government, even if taken by majority rule. Inalienable rights are not granted by government, but by nature.[33]
Republicanism and Liberalism have complex relationships to democracy and republic.
Constitutional monarchs and upper chambers
Initially after the American and French revolutions the question was open whether a democracy, in order to restrain unchecked majority rule, should have an elitist upper chamber, the members perhaps appointed meritorious experts or having lifetime tenures, or should have a constitutional monarch with limited but real powers. Some countries (such as Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Scandinavian countries and Japan) turned powerful monarchs into constitutional monarchs with limited or, often gradually, merely symbolic roles. Often the monarchy was abolished along with the aristocratic system (as in the U.S., France, China, Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Greece, and Egypt). Many nations had elite upper houses of legislatures which often had lifetime tenure, but eventually these senates lost power (as in Britain) or else became elective and remained powerful (as in the United States).
Criticisms of Democracy
For debates on specific forms of democracy, see the appropriate article, such as Liberal democracy, Direct democracy, Polyarchy, Sortition, etc. Some far right, far left, theocratic, anarchist, and monarchist groups oppose all forms of democracy. This is categorized as Anti-Democratic Thought.
Beyond the public level
The Republic of India is currently the largest democracy in the world.[34]
This article deals mainly with democracy as it relates to systems of public government. This generally involves nations and subnational levels of government, although the European Parliament, whose members are democratically directly elected on the basis of universal suffrage, may be seen as an example of a supranational democratic institution.
Aside from the public sphere, similar democratic principles and mechanisms of voting and representation have been used to govern other kinds of communities and organizations.
- Many non-governmental organisations decide policy and leadership by voting.
- In business, corporations elect their boards by votes weighed by the number of shares held by each owner.
- Trade unions sometimes choose their leadership through democratic elections. In the U.S. democratic elections were rare before Congress required them in the 1950s. [35]
- Cooperatives are enterprises owned and democratically controlled by their customers or workers.
The future of democracy
The number of liberal democracies currently stands at an all-time high and has been growing without interruption for some time. As such, it has been speculated that this trend may continue in the future to the point where liberal democratic nation-states become the universal standard form of human society. This prediction forms the core of Francis Fukayama's "End of History" theory.
Any form of rule requires the ability to rule, and it has been argued that democracies can only be as good as the citizens.
See also
- Representative democracy
- Direct democracy
- Participatory democracy
- Deliberative democracy
- Democratic Peace Theory
- List of types of democracy
- Poll
- Media democracy
- Islamic democracy
- Sociocracy
- Democratization
Notes
- ↑ Takashi Inoguchi, Edward Newman, and John Keane, The Changing Nature of Democracy (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1998), 255.
- ↑ Paul Cartledge, BBC - History - The Democratic Experiment, http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekdemocracy_01.shtml. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ Steve Muhlberger, Democracy in Ancient India, http://www.nipissingu.ca/department/history/MUHLBERGER/HISTDEM/INDIADEM.HTM. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ The National Archives, Citizenship - The Struggle for Democracy, http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/struggle_democracy/getting_vote.htm. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ The National Archives, Citizenship - Rise of Parliment, http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/rise_parliament/making_history_rise.htm. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ Jacqueline Newmyer, "Present from the start: John Adams and America," Oxonian Review of Books 4, no. 2 (2005). http://www.oxonianreview.org/issues/2-2/2-2-6.htm. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ Ray Allen Billington, America's Frontier Heritage (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1974), 117-158.
- ↑ The French Revolution, http://mars.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/wc2/lectures/rev892.html. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ Charles DiCola, Age of Dictators:Totalitarianism in the Interwar Period, http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:jCe2MTKLhzAJ:www.snl.depaul.edu/contents/current/syllabi/HC_314.doc+Stalin+1930%27s+%22Age+of+Dictators%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&lr=lang_en. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ John M. Allswang, The Initiative and Referendum in California, 1898-1998 (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2000).
- ↑ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, General Idea of the Revolution, http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/ANARCHIST_ARCHIVES/proudhon/grahamproudhon.html. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ Murray Bookchin, Anarchism, Marxism and the Future of the Left: Interviews and Essays, 1993-1998 (San Francisco: AK Press, 1999), 155.
- ↑ Murray Bookchin, Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm (San Francisco: AK Press, 1995), http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/bookchin/soclife.html. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ John Kahionhes Fadden, The Six Nations Confederacy was and is likened to a longhouse, http://law.cua.edu/ComparativeLaw/Iroquois/. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson, Why Deliberative Democracy? (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004), http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/7869.html. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ Gretchen Casper and Claudiu Tufis, "Correlation Versus Interchangeability: the Limited Robustness of Empirical Finding on Democracy Using Highly Correlated Data Sets," Political Analysis 11 (2003): 196-203.
- ↑ Freedom House, Methodology, http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=35&year=2005. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ R.J. Kilcullen, Aristotle, The Politics, http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/Ockham/y6704.html. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.): General Introduction, http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/aristotl.htm. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (New York: Harper Perennial: 1950).
- ↑ Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy (New York: Harper Collins, 1957).
- ↑ Robert A. Dahl, Democracy and its Critics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989).
- ↑ Sidney Verba, "Would the Dream of Political Equality Turn out to Be a Nightmare?," Perspectives on Politics 1, no. 4 (2003): 663-679, http://www.apsanet.org/imgtest/verba.pdf. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Democratic Theory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956), 10.
- ↑ James Madison, "The Same Subject Continued: The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection," Daily Advertiser, November 22, 1787, http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Federalist_Papers/No._10. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ Robert A. Dahl, On Democracy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 16-17.
- ↑ Merriam-Webster, Definition of democracy, http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/democracy. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ Sanford Levinson, Constitutional Faith (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 60.
- ↑ Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1789, in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, eds. Lipscomb and Bergh (Washington, D.C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1903-04), 7:455.
- ↑ Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1797, in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, eds. Lipscomb and Bergh (Washington, D.C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1903-04), 9:422.
- ↑ Sanford Levinson, Constitutional Faith (Princeton University Press, 1989), 60.
- ↑ U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Declaration of US Independence, 1776, http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/declaration_transcript.html. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ Thomas Jefferson to William Johnson, 1823, in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, eds. Lipscomb and Bergh (Washington, D.C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1903-04), ME 15:441.
- ↑ Michael Elliott, "India Awakens," Time, June 18, 2006, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1205374,00.html. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- ↑ Seymour Martin Lipset, Union Democracy (New York: Free Press, 1977).
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Allswang, John M. The Initiative and Referendum in California, 1898-1998. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2000. ISBN 9780804738118
- Appleby, Joyce. Liberalism and Republicanism in the Historical Imagination. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992. ISBN 9780674530126
- Benhabib, Seyla, ed. Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. ISBN 9780691044798
- Billington, Ray Allen. America's Frontier Heritage. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993. ISBN 9780826314635
- Blattberg, Charles. From Pluralist to Patriotic Politics: Putting Practice First. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-19-829688-6
- Bookchin, Murray. Anarchism, Marxism and the Future of the Left: Interviews and Essays, 1993-1998. San Francisco: AK Press, 1999. ISBN 9781873176351
- Bookchin, Murray. Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm San Francisco: AK Press, 1995. http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/bookchin/soclife.html. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Cartledge, Paul. BBC - History - The Democratic Experiment. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekdemocracy_01.shtml. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Casper, Gretchen, and Claudiu Tufis. "Correlation Versus Interchangeability: the Limited Robustness of Empirical Finding on Democracy Using Highly Correlated Data Sets." Political Analysis 11 (2003): 196-203.
- Castiglione, Dario. "Republicanism and its Legacy." European Journal of Political Theory 4, no. 4 (2005): 453-65. http://www.huss.ex.ac.uk/politics/research/readingroom/CastiglioneRepublicanism.pdf#search=%22republicanism%20historiography%22. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Copp, David, Jean Hampton, and John E. Roemer, eds. The Idea of Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
- Dahl, Robert A. Democracy and its Critics. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. ISBN 0300049382
- Dahl, Robert A. On Democracy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. ISBN 0300084552
- Dahl, Robert A., Ian Shapiro, and Jose Antonio Cheibub, eds. The Democracy Sourcebook. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003. ISBN 0262541475
- Dahl, Robert A. A Preface to Democratic Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956. ISBN 0226134345
- Davenport, Christian. State Repression and the Domestic Democratic Peace. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN 0521864909
- Diamond, Larry, and Marc Plattner, eds. The Global Resurgence of Democracy. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. ISBN 9780801853043
- Diamond, Larry, and Richard Gunther, eds. Political Parties and Democracy. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2001. ISBN 0801868637
- Diamond, Larry, and Leonardo Morlino, eds. Assessing the Quality of Democracy. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2005. ISBN 0801882877
- Diamond, Larry, Marc F. Plattner, and Philip J. Costopoulos, eds. World Religions and Democracy. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2005. ISBN 0801880807
- Diamond, Larry, Marc F. Plattner, and Daniel Brumberg, eds. Islam and Democracy in the Middle East. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2003. ISBN 0801878470
- DiCola, Charles. Age of Dictators:Totalitarianism in the Interwar Period. http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:jCe2MTKLhzAJ:www.snl.depaul.edu/contents/current/syllabi/HC_314.doc+Stalin+1930%27s+%22Age+of+Dictators%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&lr=lang_en. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Downs, Anthony. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper Collins, 1957. ISBN 9780060417505
- Edmund, Morgan S. Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1989. ISBN 0393306232
- Elliott, Michael. "India Awakens." Time, June 18, 2006. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1205374,00.html. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Elster, Jon, ed. Deliberative Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. ISBN 0521596963
- Fadden, John Kahionhes. The Six Nations Confederacy was and is likened to a longhouse. http://law.cua.edu/ComparativeLaw/Iroquois/. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Freedom House. Methodology. http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=35&year=2005. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- The French Revolution. http://mars.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/wc2/lectures/rev892.html. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Gabardi, Wayne. "Contemporary Models of Democracy." Polity 33, no. 4 (2001): 547+.
- Gutmann, Amy, and Dennis Thompson. Why Deliberative Democracy?. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004. http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/7869.html. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Heideking, Juergen, and James A. Henretta, eds. Republicanism and Liberalism in America and the German States, 1750-1850. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN 0521800668
- Held, David. Models of Democracy. Polity Press, 2006. ISBN 9780745631479
- Inglehart, Ronald. Modernization and Post-modernization. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1997. ISBN 9780691011806
- Inoguchi, Takashi, Edward Newman, and John Keane. The Changing Nature of Democracy. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1998. ISBN 9789280810059
- The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.): General Introduction. http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/aristotl.htm. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to James Madison, 1789. In The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, edited by Lipscomb and Bergh, 7:455. Washington, D.C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1903-04.
- Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to James Monroe, 1797. In The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, edited by Lipscomb and Bergh, 9:422. Washington, D.C.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1903-04.
- Khan, L. Ali. A Theory of Universal Democracy: Beyond the End of History. Frederick: Kluwer Law International, 2001. ISBN 9041120033
- Kilcullen, R.J. Aristotle, The Politics. http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/Ockham/y6704.html. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Levinson, Sanford. Constitutional Faith. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.
- Lijphart, Arend. Patterns of Democracy. Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999. ISBN 0300078935
- Lipset, Seymour Martin. "Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy." American Political Science Review 53, no. 1 (1959): 69-105. http://www.jstor.org. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Lipset, Seymour Martin. Union Democracy. New York: Free Press, 1977. ISBN 9780029192108
- Macpherson, C. B. The Life and Times of Liberal Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978. ISBN 9780192891068
- Madison, James. "The Same Subject Continued: The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection." Daily Advertiser, November 22, 1787. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Federalist_Papers/No._10. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Merriam-Webster. Definition of democracy. http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/democracy. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Muhlberger, Steve. Democracy in Ancient India. http://www.nipissingu.ca/department/history/MUHLBERGER/HISTDEM/INDIADEM.HTM. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- The National Archives. Citizenship - The Struggle for Democracy. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/struggle_democracy/getting_vote.htm. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- The National Archives. Citizenship - Rise of Parliament. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/rise_parliament/making_history_rise.htm. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Newmyer, Jacqueline. "Present from the start: John Adams and America." Oxonian Review of Books 4, no. 2 (2005). http://www.oxonianreview.org/issues/2-2/2-2-6.htm. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Plattner, Marc F., and Aleksander Smolar, eds. Globalization, Power, and Democracy. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2000. ISBN 0801865689
- Plattner, Marc F., and João Carlos Espada, eds. The Democratic Invention. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2000. ISBN 9780801864193
- Putnam, Robert. Making Democracy Work. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. ISBN 0691037388
- Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph. General Idea of the Revolution. http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/ANARCHIST_ARCHIVES/proudhon/grahamproudhon.html. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Raaflaub, Kurt A., Josiah Ober, and Robert W. Wallace. Origins of democracy in ancient Greece. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. ISBN 0520245628
- Riker, William H. The Theory of Political Coalitions. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962. ISBN 9780300008586
- Schumpeter, Joseph. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. Routledge. 2006. ISBN 9780415107624
- Sen, Amartya K. "Democracy as a Universal Value." Journal of Democracy 10, no. 3 (1999): 3-17.
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Declaration of US Independence, 1776. http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/declaration_transcript.html. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Verba, Sidney. "Would the Dream of Political Equality Turn out to Be a Nightmare?." Perspectives on Politics 1, no. 4 (2003): 663-679. http://www.apsanet.org/imgtest/verba.pdf. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Weingast, Barry. "The Political Foundations of the Rule of Law and Democracy." American Political Science Review 91, no. 2 (1997): 245-263. http://www.jsstor.org. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Whitehead, Laurence, ed. Emerging Market Democracies: East Asia and Latin America. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2002. ISBN 080187217
- Wood, Gordon S. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. New York: Vintage, 1993. ISBN 0679736883
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
External links
- Journal of Democracy Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Open Directory at Open Directory Project Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Democracy at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Democracy Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Democracy Watch (International)—Worldwide democracy monitoring organization. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- IFES—supporting the building of democratic societies around the world Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Democracy at large magazine—a quarterly magazine designed for professionals interested in democracy development worldwide Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- dgGovernance—Collection of resources on key issues of democracy and nation-building Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- the site of the Association for the School of Democracy a university-level research and training pluri- and transdisciplinary school of democracy Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- "Islam and the Challenge of Democracy" by UCLA law professor Khaled Abou El Fadl in the April/May 2003 issue of Boston Review Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- New York Times argument against the "Development first, democracy later" idea Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- The Rise of Illiberal Democracy by Fareed Zakaria Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- openDemocracy—Global democracy network using information, participation and debate to empower citizens. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Cosmopolitan democracy Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Technologies of Measuring Democracy Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- The Danger of Democratic Self-Destruction, Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- A New Nation Votes: American Elections Returns 1787-1825 Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Locate textbooks for children of age group 14 to 16 on DemocracyYou can download the soft versions of these books from this site by Selecting Class CLASS IX Selecting Subject Political Science Selecting Book title Political Science Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Global Social Change reports includes reports about global political change, in democracy and related political trends. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Critique
- The Democratic State - A Critique of Bourgeois Sovereignty Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Riff-Raff—Democracy as the Community of Capital - A Provisional Critique of Democracy Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- The Crisis of Representative Democracy. Frankfurt a. M./Bern/New York: Peter Lang, 1987. Ed. by Hans Köchler. ISBN 3-8204-8843-X Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Democracy, Liberty, Equality What is the relation between democracy and liberalism? (A Dialogue) Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Why democracy is wrong Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Democracy, The God That Failed by Hans-Hermann Hoppe Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Liberty or Equality by Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Churchill on Democracy Revisited by J.K. Baltzersen Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- The INTERNATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY, progressive scholarship, critiques of democracy. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Alternatives and improvements
- Republic Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Democratic Manifesto Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Conducting new experiments with democracy, Ethics & Democracy Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Democratic Deficit Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- simpol.org—Plan to limit global competition and facilitate the emergence of a sustainable, sane global civilization. Retrieved August 17, 2007.
- Students for Global Democracy Retrieved August 17, 2007.
Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.