Abraham Lincoln (2005) defined modern democracy in three-part as “government of the people”, “government by the people” and “government for the people”. Democracy started in Greek around 500 B.C. with the simple meaning of people with power, nowadays democracy could be separate into two forms the direct democracy and the representative democracy. In this essay, I will argue that democracy is in crisis from the following aspect, fail of the direct democracy, the decline of representative democracy and the eroded right.
Firstly, democracy is in crisis due to fail examples of direct democracy. Referendum a primary for of a direct democracy when people are directly consulted for government decision making and give the decision through a vote.
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Other than representative democracy, liberal democracy has an additional liberal feature, the freedom. In the Belmarsh case in 2001 ,for example, the freedom has been eroded. In this case, nine men have been put in jail without trial due to UK parliament respond to the 9/11 attack in the USA. After the judicial review, the Crime and Security Act has been changed from the government have the power to detain anyone who was suspected without trial into the suspected terrorist can only be held without trial up to 28 days. Human right has been eroded and people’s freedom are therefore not secure anymore (Ginsburg, 2005). Freedom of religion, another feature of liberal democracy becomes controversial under Huntington’s view of the clash of civilizations. According to Huntington’s point of view that “the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic, the great division among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural” (1996), therefore, the freedom of religion would have a possibility leads to conflict. As this brings the question to choices between either freedom or conflict, some country chooses to abandon freedom of religion. For example, in China government forbids the beliefs to “Fa Lun Gong” as it partly clashes with the communist ideology. From the side of liberal democracy, democracy is decreasing because of the fact that freedom is been
From the early 1840s to the present day, a democracy can be described as a flawed establishment which has been shaped by the power of wealth and control, complex social relations, and most importantly the people’s desire to live a fulfilling life. Throughout this time period the principles of democracy, such as equality, protection of the people’s interest, and promotion of human rights were shifting in order to increase the democracy efficiency. Therefore the continued importance of the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and Constitution remain significant since, in American today, democracy is a system that is continuously being shaped by the people within it.
The United States of America’s liberation from Britain was an incredible feet, yet afterwards there were many loose ends that needed to be tied up to truly start their independence as a free nation. At the top of that list was to choice and construct what type of government our country would build itself around and from which it would grow for many years to come. There have always been various structures and frameworks, socialism, communism, etc, in which you can construct a country’s government from, but the United States of America picking a representative democracy, or a republic, made this country as great as it is.
Democracy is perhaps the most elusive concept of all times. But if there has to be something more elusive, it will surely be the concept of American democracy. In 1858, Abraham Lincoln is known to have written:
The authors also argue that the greatness of the government driven by democracy is the right to
A direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of government wherein the citizens have a direct say.
There are numerous comparison and differences between direct and representative democracy. Representative democracy has someone who represents you and speaks for you. Direct democracy is when you vote on every single thing. Both democracies vote on legislation that affects them. A direct democracy is a form of democracy where people vote on every single thing and a representative democracy is a form of democracy where people elect officials that represent a group of people.
I think that a republic is the best form of government. A Republic is another word for Representative Democracy. A republic is a form of government where nobody has ultimate power or makes all decisions. It is run on a system of checks and balances. This is good because then one person won't get too carried away with power, or if one person has a bad idea, other people can veto, or say no to that idea so that the country doesn't make too many bad decisions as a whole. Also, all of the people in the country have to choice to vote for who they want in office, so it is the people’s choice of who they want in power or who they want to make or veto decisions. Of course, many countries are much too big to count each individual vote, so a smaller
Going back the road, to the distressing aftermath of World War One, there arose many questions about progressive political coordination of man and if civilization as they knew it then, was one of man’s greatest achievement or a revelation of his weaknesses. Growing questions about democracy were of raveling the minds of every citizen. America as a republic then, had suffered traumatic pains from several civil wars and political corruption and many feared the emergency of the “tyranny of the fifty one percent”. American democracy seemed to have suffered a blow from the start as it was considered as a fragile ideal. In
My second principle,deals with a political society that defines the political government. In my opinion, there's dozens of political government, although, the most greatest efficient type of government is a representative democracy. The public still has a say in the politics of the nation, instead of a two party system, similar to the U.S., I consider a parliamentary system more useful. A parliamentary system enhances the ways conclusions are made. Throughout the years, the American two party system has been driving the nation to its doom by arguing the same problem and never agreeing. That's why the countries in my previous paragraph were able to agree with topics that America still argues. additionally, less elections or in better terms
Democracies are controlled by the people, and for the people, or so it is commonly defined. All people have their own opinions of how they think the government should work. Democracies symbolize freedom and justice as they appeal to the people. The first document, “The Gettysburg Address” focuses on the effects of the Civil War and how the people should react, instead of how the government is run. The second document, the “Funeral Oration”, explains how the people themselves could form the perfect democracy by Pericles standards. With this evidence in mind, the “Funeral Oration”, a speech given by Pericles, holds more extensive knowledge about the definition of democracy than Lincoln in “The Gettysburg Address”.
First, the advantage of the direct democracy is that most people can make do the own vote. Currently when country have problem, congress will make the decision, because there are the representatives in the country. This means representatives chooses what they debate and discuss and what happens in government.
The general understanding of democracy is that it is a state of leadership where citizens of a country participate equally either directly or by representative individuals in the establishment of laws, which run the society. However, like many other forms of leadership, democracy has its cons and may not give the citizens the necessary freedoms that they think they have. Different philosophers have different insights on democracy in terms of concepts such as liberty, which they embraced. This paper will look at Benjamin Barber and Joseph Schumpeter’s idea of democracy contrasting their definition in terms of citizenship, obligation, rights and duties of each individual in the society declaring whose idea of democracy creates a compelling vision (Terchek & Conte, 2001).
Democracy is a unique type of government, and the purpose of this essay is to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses that a democratic government provides. I will detail that many components of this type of society are both strengths and weakness as each component has beneficial aspects as well as unavoidable pitfalls.
one essential conviction, expressed in the word democracy itself: that power should be in the hands of the people. Although democracy today has been slightly inefficient in this idea, with the wealthy, elite class challenging this right, “it nevertheless claims for itself a fundamental validity that no other kind of society shares….” To completely understand the structure of democracy, one must return to the roots of the practice itself, and examine the origins in ancient Greece, the expansion in the Roman Empire, and how these practices combined make what we recognize as today’s democratic government.
Winston Churchill once remarked that “democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried”. In agreement with his statement, this paper will examine the problems of democratic governments using specific examples, and compare it to the failure of fascist governments in Nazi Germany and Italy and communist governments in the Soviet Union and China.