democracy

   The word ‘democracy’ derives from two Greek terms, demos, meaning ‘people’, and kratia, signifying ‘rule of’or‘by’.Manypeopletherefore seedemocracyasmeaning ‘people power’, with government resting on the consent of the governed. According toAbrahamLincoln, democracy is ‘government of the people,bythe peopleandfor the people’. In the classical or direct democracy of Ancient Greece, it was possible for all the citizens to come together in one place to make decisions as to how the state should be run. This is no longer viable, other than in very small communities. In modern indirect or representative democracies, voters choose representatives who will govern on their behalf and according to the wishes of the majority. Key elements of a modern representative democracy include: popular control of policy-makers; the existence of opposition: political equality; political freedoms; and majority rule.Ademocratic political system is one in which public policies are made, on a majority basis, by representatives, subject to effective popular control at periodic elections which are conducted on the principle of political equality and under conditions of political freedom. Over the last three decades, democracy has been widely accepted across the world as the most desirable form of government. Whereas at one time it was seen primarily as a Western creed, strong in Western Europe and former colonies such as Australia, New Zealand and North America, that is no longer true. Democracies are to be found in Southern Europe (Greece and Portugal), most of Eastern Europe (Hungary and Slovenia) and parts of Latin America (Argentina), Africa (South Africa) and Asia (Taiwan). The cause of democracy and its ally the market economy appears to have triumphed.

   Further reading: M. Cole, Democracy, Edinburgh University Press, 2006