Democracy

CIVICS CHAPTER 7 - DEMOCRACY


1) What did democracies mean in ancient societies? What does it mean now?

Though democracies did exist in ancient societies like India and Greece, but historians argue that they were not the type of total democracies. For example in Greece, democracy did exist but only for the masters and not for the slaves though much of the Athenian society ran on the labor of the slaves, but they did not have any political equality. By the ancient Athenian form of government, they enjoyed total democracy but only the masters but if we compare it with today’s form of democracy, it can be labeled as the worst form of tyranny. Ancient democracies thrived on class divide and modern democracy does not believe in class divide. The rights are not limited to the privileged few but for the population at large. So the idea of democracy in ancient times can be quiet misleading.

Today’s democracy means political equality in the sense every person who is a citizen of that particular land has certain rights and enjoys them without any class divide and has to perform certain duties for the country and here also the duties are not unequally divided. Ancient societies may have had total democracies and that may have existed before the society was divided on the basis of class. Modern democracies are not and cannot be limited and are open to one and all and the rights are universal to all.

2) What is meant by the principle of political equality?

Modern democracies are not based on class divide and cannot have first class citizens or second class citizens. They are available to all and the definition of democracy is based on political equality. Political equality means every citizen of that land enjoys equal status and has the right and duty to take active part in the democratic process. The person’s economic status is not a scale to decide his right as a citizen of that land. Constitutions of some countries are written and some are understood but in today’s world they have provided equal rights to all the citizens and these rights protect the citizens from the atrocities that may be heaped on them.

For example our country India, the society is multi religious and does not contain people of one caste, race, language or following a single type of tradition or culture. In such a situation, the government had the responsibility of seeing to it that all the people of our country what ever may be their religion or caste or economic status be, enjoy total rights or political equality and have the freedom of taking active part in the government process of our land.

3) What is the importance of the dates 1688 and 1789 in the growth of modern democracy?

Modern democracies that we enjoy today have had a long history of changes and revolutions and additions and deletions. Accountability on part of the government i.e. being accountable for every law or act that was passed was not present as early as 1688. It was only after 1688 that the principle of rule of law was established i.e. the government was guided by a rule of law meaning it had to frame laws according to set standard rules and not according to the whims and fancies of who every may have been in power. All those governments who ever came to power had to work within the frame work of the constitution. The government can no longer make its own principles, which is as good as having none at all. The British precedents also popularized the idea of a charter of rights for ordinary citizens.

The French revolution of 1789 contributed most to the idea of democracy. The revolutionaries in France adopted the declaration of rights of man. It declared that all men were equal. The French revolution is considered to be one of the most remarkable revolutions as it made few compromises and many innovations. The idea of associating democracy with the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity goes to the 1789 French revolution.

4) What is a laissez-faire economy?

This policy encourages the idea of private enterprise. It means that every person knows his interest and should work for himself. Man need not care for others. This type of economy lays more emphasis on individualism where man need not bother about others but work for his own benefits and when every person works for his benefit, the country is benefited in the long run. This type of economy has certain merits i.e. it requires tolerance or one individual for others’ lives, views and customs. Here democracy meant a way of life where every one works for self. But this theory is true only in books because practically it is very difficult to have this type of economy where every one works for self interest and not bother about others. This race for self interest may sometimes lead to one person trying to take away the rights of another individual.

5) What are the differences between direct and indirect democracy?

Democracies are of two type’s i.e. direct and indirect democracy. Direct democracy means involving the entire population in government. There are four procedures by which people can be directly involved. These are referendum, recall, initiative and plebiscite. Direct democracies may have existed when the population may have been less and manageable.

Indirect democracy can also be called as representative type of democracy. Here the population being large does control the government but not directly. They do not make laws or take decisions but their representatives do it for them. In this kind of democracy the choosing of right kind of representative is the most important affair and is done through elections where the population of that country exercises it right to vote once in five years. The elected representatives then take decisions in the government on behalf of the electorate. But if the representative proves to be unconstitutional, then the electorate can throw the representative out during the next elections. In the modern world today, this type of representative democracy is the most effective type of democracy.

6) How is public opinion formed and expressed?

In a democratic form of government, public opinion is very important from the government’s point of view. Every party wants to stay in power and would not like to displease the public so feed back is necessary on the policies that have been formed and so public opinion becomes the most important part in any democracy of modern world.

Public opinion is formed in many ways. Several agencies have a hand in shaping it. For a healthy public opinion, it is very important that the citizens of the country should know what is happening around them in the country and in the world at large. In today’s world public opinion is formed through mass media i.e. through newspapers, radio, television, cinema etc. But public opinion heavily depends on the free press and it is the responsibility of the press to project the correct news and not to manipulate it to suite their ends.

Public opinion is not just to be formed but also to be expressed. The general public should not only form the public opinion but also express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction towards the government process. It is the duty of the journalists and the mass media to help the public to express their opinion so that a healthy democratic government is shaped and the country moves on the road to development. Public opinion which is correctly formed and expressed plays a very important role in the government process not only in the country but also in the other countries of the world as the public is aware of what is happening not only in their country but also in the countries around the world.