According to the New World Dictionary, democracy means "majority
rule". However, there are many other dictionaries with different
definitions.Encyclopedia Britannica states "Form of government in
which supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them
directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually
involving periodic free elections." The Stanford Encyclopedia of
philosophy states that "the term 'democracy,' as I will use it in
this article, refers very generally to a method of group decision
making characterized by a kind of equality among the participants
at an essential stage of the collective decision making." Forms of
democracy The implementation of democracy has brought a great
complexity and diversity from a large variety of concepts and ideas
used at different periods of history and in different situations.
Most forms listed here have many elements in common with each
other, but are categorized by the most prominent characteristics.
While most democratic ideas have been implemented on small scales,
some of them have yet to be implemented within recognized nation
states. Representative Representative democracy involves the
selection of government officials by the people. Representatives
may be elected by a particular district (or constituency), or
represent the electorate as a whole as in many proportional
systems, with some using a combination of the two. Some
representative democracies also incorporate elements of direct
democracy, such as referenda. A characteristic of representative
democracy is that while the representatives are elected by the
people, to act in their interest, they retain the freedom to
exercise their own judgment as how best to do so. While
considerations such as party alignment, perception of voter wishes
or the public interest, re-election prospects and other factors can
be of influence, there are generally few binding restrictions.
Liberal democracy Liberal democracy is 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. Conversely,
an illiberal democracy is one where the protections that form a
liberal democracy are either nonexistent, or not enforced. The
experience in some post-Soviet states drew attention to the
phenomenon, although it is not of recent origin. Napoleon III for
example used plebiscites to ratify his imperial decisions. Direct
Direct democracy is largely referred to as a political system where
the citizens vote on all major policy decisions. It is called
direct because, in the classical forms, there are no intermediaries
or representatives. All direct democracies to date have been weak
forms, relatively small communities, usually city-states. However,
some see the extensive use of referenda, as in California, as akin
to direct democracy in a very large polity with more than 20
million potential voters. Today, a limited direct democracy exists
in some Swiss cantons. Other current examples include many small
civic organizations (like college faculties) and town meetings in
New England (usually in towns under 10,000 population). Direct
democracy obviously becomes difficult when the electorate is large.
Modern direct democracy tries to accommodate this and sees a role
for strictly controlled representatives. It is characterized by
three pillars; referendums (initiated by governments or
legislatures or by citizens responding to legislation), initiatives
(initiated by citizens) and recall elections (on holders of public
office). Socialist Socialism is a broad movement and has several
different views on democracy. Social democracy, democratic
socialism, Soviet democracy, and the dictatorship of the
proletariat are some examples. Anarchist Some anarchists oppose
democracy while others favor it. 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.
However, anarcho-communist Murray Bookchin criticizes individualist
anarchists for opposing democracy, and says "majority rule" is
consistent with anarchism. There are also some anarchists who
expect society to operate by consensus.Some anarcho-communists
oppose the majoritarian nature of democracy, feeling that it can
impede individual liberty and opt in favor of consensus. Sortition
Sortition (or Allotment) has formed the basis of systems randomly
selecting officers from the population. Tribal democracy Certain
tribes such as the bushmen organized themselves using different
forms of participatory democracy or consensus democracy. Consensus
Consensus democracy and deliberative democracy seek consensus among
the people.
