Democracy

Democracy is the name given to a number of forms of government and procedures which have legitimacy because the people affected are involved in the decision making process. The two main criteria for a democracy are firstly that the officials exercising power have legitimate authority because they have been elected as opposed to inheriting that authority or holding it by force; and secondly the mechanism for changing a ruler is through peaceful and regular elections as opposed to revolts, coups or civil war. Democracy is not a theory about what the aims or content of government or law should be. Only that those aims should be guided by the opinion of the majority as opposed to a single ruler as with an absolute monarchy or dictatorship or a small group as with an oligarchy. Thus some polities have used the democratic process to secure liberty while others have used it to promote equality, nationalism or other values.

Historically democracy has appeared in many different places such as ancient Greece, Rome, and South Asia. Democracy in the modern world evolved in Britain and France and was then spread to other places. The main reason for the development of democracy was a dissatisfaction with the corruption, incompetance, abuse of power and lack of accountability of the existing polity which was often an absolute monarchy. There are many different types of democracy from the minimilist direct democracy found in Switzerland to the totalitarian democracy of communist states such as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as well as mixed systems such as the blending of monarchy, oligarchy and democracy of the United Kingdom. As democracy is now regarded by many as the highest form of legitimate authority many states claim to be democratic. And one of the most damaging accusations is that a group or process is undemocratic. In the Islamic world there are also democracies such as Turkey, Egypt, Iran and Pakistan although there are also Muslims who believe democracy is unislamic. Though the term democracy is typically used in the context of a political state, the principles are also applicable to other groups and organizations.

In the past philosophers from Plato and Aristotle to St. Thomas Aquinas and Hobbes have considered democracy to be among the worst forms of government because they could easily be corrupted and result in injustice. The chief danger is that a majority can impose its will upon a minority in a way that violates their liberties. Thus during the twentieth centuries well as liberal democracies there were demogogues such as Hitler who came to power through the democractic process as well totalitarian democracies like the Soviet Union.

To function properly democracies require a high level of education and maturity among the people who vote. Otherwise the process can be captured by demagogues if too many vote in a self-centered way as happened in Weimer Germany. Modern democracy has benefited from the mass education of citizens, the free press and most especially the Protestant Reformation which encouraged self-restraint and public mindedness and trained people in self-government.

History

Ancient origins

The word "democracy" derives from the ancient Greek demokratia (δημοκρατία). It combines the elements demos (which means "people") and kratos ("force, power"). Kratos is an unexpectedly brutish word. In the words "monarchy" and "oligarchy", the second element arche means rule, leading, or being first. The Athenian democracy developed in the Greek city-state of Athens (comprising the central city-state of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica). Athens was one of the very first known democracies and probably the most important in ancient times. Every adult male citizen was by right a member of the Assembly and had a duty to participate and vote on legislation and executive bills. The officials of the democracy were elected by lot except generals (strategoi) and financial officials who were elected by the Assembly. Election was seen as less democratic and open to corruption because it would favor the rich (who could buy votes) and the eloquent whereas a lottery gave everyone an equal chance to participate and experience in Aristotle's words, "ruling and being ruled in turn" (Politics 1317b28–30). Participation was not open to all the inhabitants of Attica, but the in-group of participants was constituted with no reference to economic class and they participated on a scale that was truly phenomenal. Never before had so many people spent so much of their time in governing themselves. However they only had the time to do this because of the huge number of slaves that underpined the Athenian economy. Political rights and citizenship, were not granted to women, slaves, or metics (aliens). Of the 250-300,000 inhabitants about one third were from citizen familes and about 30,000 were citizens. Of those 30,000 perhaps 5,000 might regularly attend one or more meetings of the popular Assembly.

Athenian polity was an expression of its philosophy. One of the distinguishing features of ancient Greece was its lack of a priestly class who would mediate between the people and the gods and also be channels of the divine laws and will. Instead the philosopher Aristotle summed the humanistic Greek view up in his definition of human beings as ‘political or social animals’ or as another philosopher put it, 'man is the measure of all things.' Men could only live perfect and self-sufficient lives if they became active citizens, knowing how to rule and be ruled by participating fully in the life of the state. Thus for Athenians making laws and arguing about policy was their duty and right. This contrasts with a religiously based culture where it is the gods who make or hand down the laws and human beings do not have the authority to make or change these laws. So individual citizens of Athens had the right to take the initiative: to stand to speak in the assembly, to initiate a public law suit (that is, one held to affect the political community as a whole), to propose a law before the lawmakers or to approach the council with suggestions.

There were many critics of Athenian democracy and twice it suffered coups. For example in 406 B.C.E. the Athenians won a naval victory over the Spartans. After the battle a storm arose and the eight generals in command failed to collect survivors: the Athenians sentenced all of them to death. Technically, it was illegal, as the generals were tried and sentenced together, rather than one by one as Athenian law required. Socrates happened to be the citizen presiding over the assembly that day. He refused to cooperate objecting to the idea that the people should be able to ignore the laws and do whatever they wanted just because they were in the majority. This tension in democracy between the rule of law and the rule of the people has constantly resurfaced throughout history. It was under a later democratic government that Socrates himself was executed which is partly why both Plato and Aristotle regarded democracy so critically.

Other Ancient civilizations entertained various forms of government that could considered democratic. 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.

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 parts of Europe were ruled by clergy or feudal lords during the Middle Ages. 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, particularly on the Italian peninsular, often allowed greater freedom for science and the arts, and the Renaissance blossomed in this environment, helping to create conditions for the re-emergence of democracy.

One of the most significant influences on the development of democracy was Protestantism. Non-conformists wanted to choose their own minister instead of having one appointed.

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, few of these have an unbroken history into the modern period an exception being the Althing which lays claim to being the oldest parliament in the world. Furthermore participation in many of these post-feudal governments was often restricted to the aristocracy.

The origin of modern democracy

The origin of modern democracy that has expanded so rapidly in the past century lies in the evolution of English political institutions. The government of the English in the 10th century before the Norman conquest and the imposition of feudalism, was derived from the customs of the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled in England in the fifth century. The English were a nation of freeholders living in homesteads. A group of these homesteads formed a village which had an assembly, the village-moot presided over by the village-reeve. A 100 or so of such villages constituted a Hundred which, like the village, also had a meeting presided over by an elder where they managed their own affairs. A number of hundreds formed a shire presided over by an earldorman appointed by the King and Witan. The kingdom made up of these shires was ruled by the Witenagemot and the King. The Witenagemot was the "Meeting of the Wise Men" who could elect and depose the King, decide questions of war and peace, make and amend the laws, confirm the appointment of bishops and earldormen and settle disputes. The King was greatly respected but could not alter the law, levy a tax or make a grant of land without the consent of the Witenagemot.

The English system of government worked from below upwards, from the freeman to the King, every man holding his own land as his right, choosing his own earldorman who in turn helped to choose the King. The law was customary law which formed the basis of Common Law, a body of general rules prescribing social conduct. It was characterized by trial by jury and by the doctrine of the supremacy of law. The law was not made but discovered as revealed in the traditonal life and practices of the community. It was thought of as God's law which had been handed down through custom from generation to generation. Thus no one had the authority to unilaterally go against the wisdom of the past generations and make new law.

In 1066 William the Conqueror invaded England and imposed the feudal system which worked from the top down. The King owned all the land and gave it to his knights, earls, and barons. In this way he gathered up, and concentrated in himself, the whole power of the state. Subsequent English history has been a long struggle to reassert the Anglo-saxon principles of government against this imposed feudalism.

Some landmarks in this not always progressive struggle were: the attempt to bring the Church under the law of the land so that priests who committed murder could be punished (1164); the crystallisation of trial by jury (1166); Magna Carta, which in restated the ancient principle that no person should be imprisoned but by the judgement of his equals and by the law of the land (1215); the Provisions of Oxford which demanded that there should be three Parliaments a year and that the King could not act without the authority of his appointed advisors (1258); the first House of Commons summoned by Simon de Montefort with representatives from all classes of the kingdom (1265); the First Complete Parliament (1297) summoned by Edward I on the principle that, "it was right that what concerned all, should be approved by all," which passed the statute that there was to be no taxation without the consent of the realm; the right of the Commons to impeach any servant of the Crown who had done wrong (1376) and the necessity that the two Houses of Parliament should concur for the law to be changed; the growth of non-conformity and the idea that a congregation should be able to elect its own minister; Parliament's assertion that its right to control its own elections and that its privileges are of right and not grace; the declaration by the Commons that their privileges were not the gift of the Crown, but the natural birthright of Englishmen, that they could discuss matters of public interest and that they had the right to liberty of speech (1621); the Petition of Right (1628) which demanded that no man could be taxed without consent of Parliament; the abolition of the Star Chamber (1640) which dispensed arbitrary justice and the English Civil War which arose because of the arbitrary government of Charles I who tried to rule without Parliament; the extraordinary amount of religious freedom and outpouring of spirituality at this time; the Habeas Corpus Act (1679) restated the ancient principle that indefinite and illegal imprisonment was unlawful; the Glorious Revolution in which William of Orange was invited to defend the rights and liberties of the people of England from James II who wanted to rule absolutely and impose Catholicism on the country; the Toleration Act (1689) allowing freedom of worship to all Protestants; the Declaration of Right (1689) that declared illegal: the pretended power to suspend or dispense the law; the expansion of the franchise in England in the mid 19th Century through the Reform Acts (1832, 1867) which expanded the franchise and made representation more equitable; Ballot Act (1872) which introduced secret ballots; Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act (1883) which set limits on campaign spending; Representation of the People Act (1918) which gave the vote to all men and women over the age of 30. Universal suffrage and political equality of men and women wasn't acheived until 1928.

The main theme running through this political evolution is that the impetus for greater democracy was the desire preserve and expand freedom under the rule of law. To acheive this the importance of a separation of powers or more importantly functions came to recognized with an independent executive, legislature and judiciary. Hence the name liberal democracy. It was thought that a democratically accountable government was the best way to prevent the King from usurping his position and acting arbitrarily. Today the monarch still retains considerable latent power that he or she can and would be expected to use in certain circumstances. But basically the monarch now stands above party politics and is seen as a person, almost a parent figure, representing and unifying the nation and linking the past, present and future.

However with the expansion of the franchise came the expansion of government as politicians made promises to the electorate so as to win votes and be elected. These policies could only be delivered through greatly increased public expenditure financed through a huge increase in taxation. This has led to a gradual but significant loss of freedom as governments have used their democratic mandate to engage in social engineering, retrospect legislation and the confiscation of property in a manner reminiscent of the Greek abuses that Socrates railed against. It is now commonly thought that the will of a democratically elected government should not be constrained because this would be undemocratic whereas the whole raison d'etre of democracy was to preserve and not to justify the destruction of liberty.

The political principles of liberal democracy that were worked out over the centuries in England and articulated by the philosophers Locke and Hume were inherited by the United States and embodied in its constitution. Although not described as a democracy by its founding fathers, today it is regarded by many as the model for other countries to aspire too. The people who framed the constitution wanted to establish institutions that could preserve liberty and prevent the excessive growth of government which was seen as the chief threat to liberty. The United States Constitution set down the framework for government with checks and balances based on the separation of power so that no institution or person would have absolute power. It was adopted in 1788 and provided for an elected government through representatives, and it protected the civil rights and liberties of all except slaves. This exception came to haunt the new republic.

18th and 19th centuries

The first page of the United States Constitution

A significant further development of democracy occurred with the establishment of the United States.

On the American frontier, democracy became a way of life, with widespread social, economic and political equality. By the 1840s almost all property restrictions were ended and nearly all white adult male citizens could vote. Turnout averaged 60–80 percent in regular 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 was finally acheived 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. 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 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 partly democratic. Several were rather unstable and strong men came power either to establish national unity or to defend the country from predatory larger neighbours. The Great Depression also brought disenchantment and instability and in several European countries dictators and fascist parties came to power either by coups or by manipulating the democratic system claiming to be able to could solve problems which liberalism and democracy 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." 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. With the support of the USA and UK liberal democracies were established in all the countries of western Europe and the American, British, and French sectors of occupied Germany were democratised too. However in most of Eastern Europe, socialist democracies were established where only communist and communist supporting parties were allowed to participate in elections. Membership of these parties was limited which disenfranchised most of the population. The communist party maintained itself in power through the use of force imprisoning and killing any opponents. the fearincluding 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.

The Republic of India is currently the largest democracy in the world.

Forms of democracy

Forms of government

Part of the Politics series

List of forms of government Anarchism Aristocracy Authoritarianism Autocracy Communist state Democracy Direct democracy Representative democracy Despotism Dictatorship Fascism Feudalism Hierocracy Kleptocracy Kritarchy Krytocracy Meritocracy Monarchy Absolute monarchy Constitutional monarchy Ochlocracy Oligarchy Plutocracy Republic Mixed government Constitutional republic Parliamentary republic Socialist republic Capitalist republic Single-party state Thalassocracy Theocracy Timocracy Totalitarianism Tyranny

Politics Portal

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 the legislature and executive by a popular election. Representatives are to make make decisions on behalf of those they represent. They retain the freedom to exercise their own judgment. Their constituents can communicate with them on important issues and choose a new representative in the next election if they are dissatisfied.

There are a number of systems of varying degrees of complexity for choosing representatives. They may be elected by a particular district (or constituency), or represent the electorate as a whole as in many proportional systems.

Liberal Democracy

Classical liberal democracy is normally 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.

Since the 1960s the term "liberal" has been used, often perjoratively, towards those legislatures that are liberal with state money and redistribute it to create a welfare state. However, this would be an illiberal democracy is classical terms, because it does not protect the property its citizens acquire.

Direct Democracy

Direct democracy is a political system in which the citizens vote on major policy decisions. Issues are resolved by popular vote. Many people think of direct democracy as the purest form of democracy. Direct democracies, by nature, function better in face-to-face communities or in areas where everyone is self-sufficient and has little need of government, except for military defense. Switzerland is a direct democracy where new laws often need a referendum in order to be passed. It is also very decentralised with few policies being decided on a national level.

Socialist Democracy

Socialism, where the state economy is shaped by the government, has some forms that are based on democracy. Social democracy, democratic socialism, and the dictatorship of the proletariat are some examples of names applied to the ideal of a socialist democracy. Many democratic socialists and social democrats believe in a form of welfare state and workplace democracy produced by legislation by a representative democracy.

Marxist-Leninists, Stalinists, Maoists and other "orthodox Marxists" generally promote democratic centralism, but they have never formed actual societies which were not ruled by elites that had acquired government power. Libertarian socialists generally believe in direct democracy and Libertarian Marxists often believe in a consociational state that combines consensus democracy with representative democracy. Such consensus democracy has existed in local-level cell community groups in rural communist China.

Anarchist Democracy

The only form of democracy considered acceptable to many anarchists is direct democracy, which historically discriminates against minorities. Some anarchists oppose direct democracy. 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. However, anarcho-communist Murray Bookchin criticized individualist anarchists for opposing democracy, and says "majority rule" is consistent with anarchism.

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. Drawing by lot from a pool of qualified people elected by the citizens, would be a democratic variation on sortition. Such a process would reduce the ability of wealthy contributors or election rigging to guarantee an outcome, and the problems associated with incumbent advantages would be eliminated.

Tribal and consensus democracy

Certain tribes such as the bushmen organized themselves using different forms of participatory democracy or consensus democracy. However, these are generally face-to-face communities and it is difficult to develop consensus in a large impersonal modern bureaucratic state. Consensus democracy and deliberative democracy seek consensus among the people.

File:Claims Of Democracy.png

Since World War II, democracy has gained widespread acceptance. This map displays the official self identification made by world governments with regard to democracy, as of June 2006. It shows the de jure status of democracy in the world. ██ Governments self identified as democratic ██ Governments not self identified as democratic.

This map reflects the findings of Freedom House's survey Freedom in the World 2007, which reports the state of world freedom in 2006. It is one of the most widely used measures of democracy by researchers. Note that although these measures (another is the Polity data described below) are highly correlated, this does not imply interchangeability. ██ Free. Freedom House considers these to be liberal democracies. ██ Partly Free ██ Not Free

This graph shows Freedom House's evaluation of the number of nations in the different categories given above for the period for which there are surveys, 1972-2005

Number of nations 1800-2003 scoring 8 or higher on Polity IV scale, another widely used measure of democracy.

The Economist's Democracy Index offers another measure of democracy. The palest blue countries get a score above 9, while the black countries score below 2.

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). He considered that democracy would be best suited to farmers that are self-sufficient and have no interest government, but when competing claims are made on a government good decisions are best made by knowledgeable leaders.

Thomas Jefferson wanted to see an agrarian democracy in the United States, writing to James Madison that he thought the nation would remain virtuous as long as there was plenty of land available in the United States. Alexander Hamilton thought it was more realistic to model the United States on England's system, which was more suited to industry and commerce. He suggested that George Washington become king.

"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. For example, James Madison, in Federalist Paper No. 10, advocates a constitutional republic over a democracy to protect the individual from a tyranny of the majority. Madison was distinguishing 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.

In contemporary western usage, the term "democracy" usually refers to a government chosen by the people, whether it is direct or representative. 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. 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 U.S. Constitution states that the power comes from the people "We the people..." However, unlike a pure democracy, in a constitutional republic, citizens in the US are only governed by the majority of the people within the limits prescribed by the rule of law. 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. 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. 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."

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 previous forms of government. 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.

Thomas Jefferson wanted to further protect the rights of citizens in a bill of rights by eliminating the ability of monopoly, banking, and other economic powers from infringing on citizen rights. Benjamin Rush petitioned for rights against the medical profession.

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).

In framing the U.S. Constitution, Benjamin Franklin and General Pinkney desired checks and balances on the upper and lower houses of government. They considered a Senate like Rome, where the wealthy class was represented, or where State legislatures would send delegates representing the long-term interests of the states. The lower house would be represented by the general populace. This would produce a system in which bills would only be passed when they were in the interest of both the upper and lower classes, or the short-term and long-term interests of the citizens. The first proposal failed by a vote five states for it and six states against it. The latter measure was chosen, with each state appointing two senators while representatives were elected from the masses. The Seventeenth Amendment, proposed by the 62nd Congress in 1912, undid this check by having senators elected by the same voters as representatives, undoing the check which the founders had established and making the purposes for the two houses somewhat redundant. One end result of this was a two party political system, in which one party (Republicans) represents low taxes and minimal welfare support and the other party (Democrats) represents many dependent on government payments. Neither party represents the entire population, as they would have to if legislation passed through two houses, one represented by the wealthy and one represented by the general population.

Other suggestions

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. Contemporary proponents of minimalism include William H. Riker, Adam Przeworski, Richard Posner.
  • 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.
  • 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. 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 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.

Beyond the public level

This article has discussed 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 organizations 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.
• 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 several decades. 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 formed the core of Francis Fukuyama's "End of History" theory. Moreover, the foreign policy of the United States was articulated by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rica as "transformational diplomacy": "...to work with our many partners around the world, to build and sustain democratic, well-governed states [emphasis added] that will respond to the needs of their people and conduct themselves responsibly in the international system." The George W. Bush administration has cast its 2003 invasion of Iraq, in part, as an effort to spread democracy in the Middle East, a region whose only democracy is Israel.

As human society evolves, knowledge of the successes and failures of previous governments will likely create new constitutions that learn from present and past systems. The United States founding fathers had the opportunity to to look at the best of the ancient systems of government and "create a more perfect union" based on the understanding of power and concepts of human nature that developed from the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries. Future societies will add to this knowledge that has been learned about problems that the U.S. Constitution did not adequately address.

Finally, any form of government requires the ability of the rulers to rule; and it has been argued that democracies can only be as good as the citizens that compose it. Constitutions and structures can help to prevent problems of the past from reoccurring, but cannot prevent future problems from developing. To address such developments in a democracy, the citizens themselves must have an adequate understanding of the processes of government to elect representatives that have real skills in meeting new challenges and not simply provide the best rhetoric in their promises.

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

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

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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.

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