Unit 5: Democracy

Democracy as a Political Theory

There is a difference between the terms of government “for the people” and “by the people”. While the former one is designed to support the needs of the citizens, the second one is designed by the contributions of the citizens to form the rules of the government. Participations of the citizens to government can be direct or indirect. In the direct one as in Switzerland, all the rules are directly influenced by citizens through referendum. In the indirect one as in France, elected representatives determine rules. Government might be presidential, as in the United States or parliamentary, as in Great Britain. There are different types of democracies: full democracy (Norway and Canada), flawed democracy (the United States and France), hybrid regime (Pakistan), authoritarian democracy (Russia and China).

Practice of Democracy

Democracies are still in progress. Any democracy is incomplete. According to John Locke citizens have any right to resist and even to express this resistance violently against the government which takes away their property or enslaves them.

Democracy is practiced differently in different parts of the world. In Great Britain Britain, democracy is in the form of monarchial parliamentary democracy. France is a parliamentary republic with an elected president as the head of state. There is also an elected parliament which serves to create legislative rules for government. In the United States, there is a constitutional republic. In India, there is a socialist parliamentary. It is the world’s largest democracy based on huge population. India gives importance to provide equality for its each citizen. However, this creates a problem since different cultures perceptions of equality are also different from each other.

Also some problems occur within different forms democracy. Russia is one of the examples of these countries which have some sort of problematic democracy. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has attempted to incorporate democratic principles of other existing democratic governments to its own regime; however, it cannot be claimed that it was successful. It has a very long and strong totalitarian cultural history that it prevents a successful transition from communism to democracy. Some resistance can even come from the citizens who like the early totalitarian style of the government more than now. Also, sometimes in large segments of population, individual interpretations of the rules of the system can vary. The American civil war is a good example of this. Official and unofficial rules are not the same between northern and southern states although the United States government tries to create a unified spirit out of the same accepted democratic principals of the nation. In France, citizens claimed independence from aristocracy seeking for democracy which caused Revolutionary War from 1789-1799.

Actually the problems of democracy had started to emerge long before these examples. In his book, Republic, Plato discussed many of these problems which occur during the actual practice of democratic principles in Athens. According to him, wealthy oligarchs oppressed poor citizens. there have always been problems with the democratic systems all around the world. The important thing is to find a way to solve them.

A political ideology is a belief system held in common within groups of people. Thus, it is concerned with the benefits of each member of the society making the benefit maximum for the citizens and also for the state.

Ideals cover a wide range of political beliefs. Democracy gives the opportunity to the people who hold different political ideas to choose their leaders and be a part of the process of ruling the country in a way. Thus, a democratic government must address a wide range of human values and political ideals. One of these political ideas is libertarian in which there is minimal government influence. The other one is authoritarian which has the total acceptance of full government for the sake of full security. Conservatives believe that for stability we need fixed rules while progressives take responsibility for their own behavior and rules will adopt to social change over time.

In terms of economy, political ideologies vary. In socialism, all national assets are shared by the citizens while in capitalism only the investors or the owners of the businesses benefit from the economic growth.

Development of the Democracy Idea

The concept of democracy is originated from the ancient Greeks. The Greek word “demokratia” means “rule of the people”. In modern times, it means the exercise of power by the citizens directly or indirectly. Because of the voting system in which a majority vote represents the greater number of citizens, democracy is sometimes referred to as rule of the majority.

According to Plato, government should consist of people who are trained to and eligible enough to be a part of it. However, this is not the case with the modern democracies. In modern democracies there is a belief that citizens have a capacity to intervene in developing their own government processes. The only purpose of the governments should be to support the citizens. The needs of the students are much more important than the requirements of the government and its leaders.

Whether or not democracy enhances economy is an important question. The history shows that democracy lead welfare communities. China is a good example of this. China shows great growth in economy and also it also experiences a gradual transition from totalitarian communism to partial democracy.

Although countries are influenced from each other in terms of democracy, democracy can be observed to remain partially in Africa. It is not stable enough to survive tribes. Individuals and movements are seeking for more democratic forms of governance.

Types of Democracies

All democracies have some common features like citizen participation with voting, issue group participation, direct participation, and the rule of law.

Democracy from Direct Participation

Switzerland is a good example for direct democracy. Any citizen starting at the age of 18 take part in government decision-making process. The system of voting varies among different political districts. Federal Council consists of Councilors representing different political parties.

There are three different types of voting in Switzerland which are mandatory, popular initiative, and optional. Mandatory voting is held to change existing constitutional measures.

Democracy from Direct Participation

Elements of indirect democracy are as follows:

• Citizens determine government through indirect voting
• Open elections in which all the citizens of legal age elect the representatives who act on their behalf.
• Representation in government through political
• party influence
• Rotation of leadership when determined by leadership to be necessary
• Rule of law developed by representative leaders.

The United States is a good example for indirect democracy. The most important principle of its democracy is the separation of powers among three different branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The power in each of these branches is explained in a constitution.

Some forms of democracy incorporate elements of presidential and parliamentary governments. For instance, in France, there is a constitutional republic which incorporates a parliament of directly elected representatives in a National Assembly and an upper house of government elected indirectly.

Parliamentary Forms of Democracy

I an parliamentary system, the process of enacting law is much faster than a presidential system since a presidential system of government needs more check and balances. The United Kingdom is the first country which has practiced the parliamentary system for the first time. Since they have the Queen as the head of the government, it is known as parliamentary monarchy. In such systems, the citizens directly elect the members of the legislative body. The elected members of the parliament then choose from among the leading political party who will be the Prime Minister with executive functions.

Democracy From Other Than Representative Participation or Republic

Hybrid Forms of Democracy

Hybrid democracy involves both democratic and nondemocratic governmental principles. In hybrid democracies, the only mission of the government is not to address the needs of the citizens. A leader is elected but the voters are limited to choose a single party or the elected leader behaves in an autocratic manner.

Hybrid regimes can be observed in developing countries. A country new to democracy can have such regimes. Some civil movements and their pursuit for more individual rights can be resulted in such regimes. Hybrid democracies can easily be observed in some Middle Eastern and African countries.

Presidential Elections in a Totalitarian State

Sometimes a leader is chosen in an election to a totalitarian regime such as Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Benito Mussolini in Italy. After winning the election, the new totalitarian government, uses fascist strategies over the citizens and each branch of the government.

Legislative Elections Into A Presidential State

In Syria, the system has just one part ,so the citizens do not have much of a choice but to vote for the same party.

Presidential Elections Limited to Political Party Membership

In some countries like China, elections for leadership are conducted only within a single dominant political party. Sometimes it seems meaningless to have elections when there is only one ruling party; however, sometimes new parties may occur to represent other suppressed voices in the community.

Elections of Monarchs

While leadership is determined by heredity in a monarchy, some monarchs are elected even when there is sometimes only one candidate. In some countries such as Malaysia, the monarch’s powers are also set under the constitution.

Democracy in a Monarchy

Democracy and monarchy are different regimes in terms of the election of the leadership. In a democracy, leadership is chosen through voting, but in a monarchy leadership is determined through some forms of inheritance. In the monarchy, there is a little potential for democracy. However, ın democracy decision making process can take longer than monarchy since there are a lot of different ideas and conflicts which has to negotiate to reach an agreement.

Legislative Forms of Democracy

In this form of democracy, the legislative body forms the government. It determines its own leadership and provides executive functions. Sometimes a single political party may control the legislature as in China.

Judicial Forms of Democracy

When judicial decisions are made only on a constitution, court systems can hardly influence government. Their behaviors are controlled through constitutional or legislative rules.

Non-Democracy

Totalitarianism

In totalitarianism, a single party has all the power. All the other parties even the citizens having different ideas should be eliminated to hold the whole power in itself. Today North Korea and some parts of China can be given as examples to the counties which are ruled by totalitarianism. Fundamentalism is a part of totalitarianism since it is based on elements of unquestioned belief. Controlling citizens is an important part of totalitarian regimes. They achieve it by spreading the spirit of nationalism.

Fascism

In fascist regimes, the only priority of the government is developing nationalism regardless of left –wing or rightwing politics application. It is very close to totalitarianism in terms of provoking nationalism. In fascism, a single leader serving as dictator provides strong leadership. Faith in destiny is a very important element in fascist doctrine. It brings hope for the future. Also, politic is everything in fascism.

Theocracy

In theocracy, power comes from religious leadership which may either be a human a spiritual being. Islam is a good example to this. Rules accepted by the citizens come from a spiritual sense of reality.

Oligarchy

In oligarchies power may be limited to political parties, individuals and wealthy groups. The government serves to privileged and powerful individuals not to the whole society. In Saudi Arabia a wealthy family, in Russia a class of wealthy business leaders and in China, a communist party runs the government.

Plutocracy

In a plutocracy, the wealthiest take the control of the government and the only aim of the government is to make the wealthy groups richer. Free markets are more beneficial to economic growth than the economy controlled by the government.

Stratocracy

In this regime, power comes from military. I n a stratocracy government is headed by military chiefs. This is supported by law. The state and the military are constitutionally the same entity. For example, in Egypt, where elected leadership comes from its military leader, public criticism of leadership is banned and political opposition does not exist.

Democratic Transition-From Authoritian Regimes To Democracies

Democratization means a transition to a more citizencentered political regime from a regime that is less supportive of citizen needs and interests. This transition occurs generally very slow. Stable transition includes a power shift from privileged groups to citizens through a series of steps in order to avoid conflicts.

The first sings of a need for a modern form of democracy dates back 1215 when English King John signed the Magna Carta. It was a signal to end the total monarchical rule. After that, Renaissance was a turning point for a revolution in the name of citizens rights in Europe and in North America. Also, the Second World War was fought against totalitarian elements by the allied countries ruled by democratic rules of government. October 1918 Revolution f the Bolsheviks, China’s transition from a total communist party dominance to partially democracy with the death Mao Zedong, Japan after World War II, some African countries such as Brundi are great examples of the transition form authoritarian regimes to democracies.

The Problems

Breadth:

When citizens have broad diversity in terms culture and social values, it is difficult to govern this community by the government.

Size:

Larger countries do not operate with direct democracy. Large countries in terms of population, representative participation in government becomes more effective.

Cultural values:

A common language shared by all the citizens of the country is necessary for a full performance of democracy. In multi cultural countries with a lot of languages spoken by the citizens such as China, India and Canada, the governments accommodated one or two standard languages.

Over-extension:

The number of the political parties is important because as the number of the parties increase, overlap in political values occur and citizens get confused.

Need for expansion:

The partnerships between the countries for trade, culturalsocial exchange, and defense to survive requires shared rules. Countries that require increases in number of international partnerships can expect that these countries practice democracy.

Uninformed public:

The more sophisticated a democracy becomes, the more difficulty its citizens face understand the many political issues. This can lead to indifference or even to a refusal to participate.

Perils of capitalism:

While democracy is based on the principles of equality and fair distribution of wealth, in capitalism wealthy becomes wealthier and poor become poorer. This situation is a danger for democracy.

Lack of majority:

In some cases, a political party may not have the majority to form a government which results in coalitions. However, sometimes coalitions may not answer the needs of the respective constituencies.

Separation of powers:

In most presidential democracies, the separation of powers are provided and lack of adequate separation could result in tyrannical government.

Origin of Law

In many democracies law is determined by constitution , but with the democracies where constitutions are weak or do not exist, natural law or common law takes the place of constitutional law.

Transition:

Changes in leadership generally results in changes about the operation of the political system. Thus, more attention is dedicated to sustaining the continuing power than to supporting liberal characteristics of democracies.

Moral decay:

Distrust and disrespect in any society leads to rejection of government and its leaders. The practice of democracy should not cause discontent among the citizens; otherwise the rejection of rues can be expected to follow.