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Democracy
Democracy is a type of government characterized by a "rule of the people." In most democracies, citizens are equal and have the ability to vote for their political leaders.
1,484 Questions
What did the Democratic Party and the whig party have in common?
What did the Democratic Party and the Whig party have in common
Did the framers favor the democracy or republic?
Pure democracy essentially means that majority opinion rules; the Framers feared that this would oppress the rights of minorities. So, they provided a framework for a republican form of government, consisting of elected representatives.
One irony of Athenian democracy was?
That it was a slaveholding society that denied even the most basic rights of citizenship to tens of thousands of people. Thucydides says more than 20,000 slaves fled from Athens to Sparta (its very name synonymous with harsh austerity) in a single decade: hardly a model society, then. It was democracy for some: in other words, not democratic at all.
What are 3 principles of democracy?
The three principles of American democracy are:
- Power of government comes from the citizens
- Americans themselves acting through their representatives run their government
- The purpose of the government is to make the United States a better place to live in.
What countries used democracy after ww1?
Greece and Rome for sure. Greece had a direct democracy, and Rome had a representative democracy. Rome's form of democracy was a Republic. A Republic is the kind of government to we use in the USA today.
Why did Athens establish the world's first democracy?
They imagined that the male citizens meeting in fortnightly assembly to direct how the city-state was run would empower them and deliver good rulership and just administration. It worked for a few years until the smart ones worked out how to twist things to their own advantage, resulting in their getting into a 27-year war which they lost.
How do struggle and movement shape democracy?
Democracy invariably involves conflicts of interests and new posts and those who excuse power are constrained by the influence and pressure exerted on them. The popular and pressure external on them. The popular struggles and movements are often expressed in organized ways. Political parties or men in power are required to balance these conflicting demands and pressures. These struggles and movements around conflicting demands and pressure shape the democratic structure of the country. Even an ordinary citizen plays an important role in these popular struggles and movements.
MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRACY IN NEPAL
In April 2006, Nepal witnessed an extra-ordinary movement that was aimed at restoring democracy in the country. Nepal, one of the third wave countries won democracy in 1990 despite the fact that King remained the head of the states. But the real power was exercised by popularly elected representatives. Unfortunately King Birendraj who accepted his transition from absolute minority to constitutional monarchy was killed mysteriously in the massacre of royal family in 2001. King Gyananendra, his successor and new king of Nepal showed his non-acceptance for democratic rule in the country. He dismissed the elected Prime Minister and dissolved the popularly elected Parliament in February 2005. It created a wave of dissatisfaction among citizens and led to movement of April 2006, that was aimed at regoing democracy over king and monarchy. All the major political parties in the parliament of Nepal formed a seven Alliance (SPA) and declared a four day strike in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital. The struggle aggravated and resulted into indefinite strike where Maoists insurgants and other social and political groups joined hands. The number of protestors reached in the figures of 3 to 5 lakhs on April 21 and collectively they served ultimatum to the king. There was demand for restoration of democracy in this movement. King made half hearted concessions but the leaders of the movements rejected them completely. They firmly stood to their demand and demanded power to all party government and a new constituent assembly.
Finally, King Gyanendra was forced to accept all their three demands on the last day of the ultimatum, 24 April 2004.
Girija Prasad Khosla was unanimously chose as the New Prime Minister of the internal government by SPA. This restricted parliament meet and passed laws taking away most of the power of the King.
SPA along with Maoists took important decisions about the formation and works of New Constituent Assembly. The struggle wrote history and was formed as Nepal's second movement for democracy.
BOLINA'S WATER WAR
This popuylar and successful struggle against the privatization of water in Boliva implies the fact that popular struggles are integral part to the working of democracy.
World Bank pressured Bolivia's government to give up its control of municipal water supply and later the government sold the rights for the city of Cochamba to affluent multi-national company (MNC). The Company immediately linked the priced of water by four times. Bolivia's people received monthly water bill of Rs. 1000 as the average income of their citizen was round Rs. 5000/- a month. It led to a popular protest that was spontaneous and was against this injustice.
DEMOCRACY AND POPULAR STRUGGLES
The struggles relating to Nepal and Bolivia were successful but their impact was at different levels. The struggle in Nepal was to establish democracy while the struggle in Bolivia involved claims on an elected democratic government. Both these different stories shares some elements which are relevant to the study of the past and future of democracies. Both these struggles involved mass mobilization. These popular struggles had major importance in democracies and they are as follows:
1. It is clear that democracy evolves through popular struggle. It usually involves conflict between those group who have exercised power and those who aspire for a share in power. These moments erupts when country is going through transition to democracy, expansion of democracy or deepening of democracy.
2. The democratic conflict is resolved through mass mobilization as it was done in Nepal and Bolina. But sometimes, the conflict is resolved through parliament or judiciary. It is possible that they sometimes even get involved in the dispute so the resolution has to come from the people.
3.
Are initiatives good for democracy?
No, I don't think so. I live in California and we have a system that any initiative can be on the ballot with a set number of voter signatures. Some of these things are written by special interests and only help them, others are silly, and then there are the dangerous ones. These are the ones that mask as one thing on the surface, but really do something else. A few years ago we had proposition 57 that wanted to use discrimination against Hispanic immigrants. It passed, but went to the courts. This last year was one that lessened the prison time for nonviolent offenders. On the surface it sounds good, but since passage crime has gotten worse. The pot initiative passed this fall to make pot legal but cities are passing laws not allowing the sale of pot and the federal government is still arresting people.
What is basic concepts of American democracy?
A. Necessity of compromise
B. Equality of all persons
C. Majority rule with minority rights
D. Individual liberty
E. Worth of the individual
No. The Sultanate of Oman is an Absolute Monarchy. There is no difference between a Kingdom and Sultanate except that the rulers have different names (King vs. Sultan). The Sultan of Oman has absolute and dictatorial power. He controls his people through direct edicts and runs a largely nepotistic government.
Greco-Roman principles have led to laws that are based on reson rather than God's will. (APEX)
What ideas of fairness equity and rights were apart of Athenian democracy?
Athens, having expelled its tyrant in 510 BCE, began to experiment with democracy in 508 BCE with an Assembly elected by male citizens.
During the Persian invasion 480-479 BCE the aristocratic Council of the Areopagus took control to control the war effort and remained in control until 461 BCE when Ephialtes removed it and re-established the authority of the Assembly and was murdered for this.
Pericles took over and began to extend democracy further, expelling his conservative opponent Thucydides son of Melesias in 444 BCE, and extended political power to all male adults regardless of property qualifications. The Assembly decided, the Council carried out it's directions. This is known as a radical democracy - (as opposed to today's representative democracies wher voters elect members of parliament, who make the decisions).
This democracy continued on (with some periods during and after the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE) when it was limited to meet war crises) but faded as people lost interest in fortnightly Assembly meetings and government fell more and more to the Council, with the people voting on Council motions.
Which countries do not have democratic elections?
Only two countries in the world do not claim to be democracies, Myanmar (Burma) which is a Military Dictatorship, and Vatican City which is an Ecclesiastical Monarchy.
However according to the Democracy Index, 51 of the countries that claim to be democracies are actually Authoritarian Regimes where corruption and other factors prevent effective democratic process.
Only 30 countries are considered to be True Democracies with effective Democratic Governments, according to the Democratic Index
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_index
If you want examples then look no further than countries with Communism or Dictatorships. Some Communist countries are/were China, Korea, Cuba, Soviet Union. Some Dictatorships are/were Nazis and Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Robert Mugabe. X
What is a potential problem of a direct democracy or majority rule?
tyranny through suppression of the minority
What are the Ingredients of Democracy?
DEMOCRACY; is a form of government in which all the eligible citizens have an equal say in the decision that affect their lives.
DEMOCRACY allows eligible citizen to participate equally-either directly or through elected representative in the proposal, development and creation of law. it encompasses social, economic andcultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self determination.
What are the Ingredients of Democracy?1. participation
2. political Tolerance
3. Pluralism ( ideological, ethnic, linguistic, Religious).
4.Rule of Law (equality before law).
5.Minority Rights (Religious, ethnic, linguistic).
6. Freedom ( of thought, believe, expression, speech, debate, inquiry, assemble, association e.t.c).
7. citizens right ( human, political and civic.
What are some of the attributes of democracy?
The Freedom of political expression
The freedom of speech
To Rule
To control Pokemon on the battlefield
How does the American democracy differ from the democracy that grew under Pericles?
The fundamental distinction between Ancient Athenian democracy and US democracy is that the Ancient Athenians had a direct democracy in which all persons entitled to vote would vote on all issues and the US has an indirect democracy in which all persons entitled to vote will vote for representatives who will then vote on all issues.
However, there are other differences. Ancient Athenian democracy was limited in several ways. The first were limits on suffrage. Only ethnic Athenian males who owned property were allowed to vote. This was less than 10% of the population of Athens. There were also limits on who could be the leaders of the state, restricting that to several noble families. Conversely, in the US, because of amendments to the Constitution any person above the age of eighteen years is entitled to vote and any person who follows the requisite conditions (which are conditions for which any citizen could qualify) can achieve any office in the country (excepting the Presidency which requires a US birth).
What is the most significant difference between direct democracy and representative democracy?
In a direct democracy, citizens directly vote for all decisions made by the government. In an indirect democracy, they vote for representatives who, in turn, vote for decisions.
How long was Germany a Democracy?
Germany, post 1990 reunification, is a federal, parliamentary, representative democratic republic. Much like the USA, Germany has states (16 of them) and powers are assumed by those states as well. Nevertheless, censorship law is still an issue in Germany.
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There is no censorship issue in Germany.
Why type of democracy does the US have?
Without specifying who "they" are, it is impossible to narrow down what type of democracy "they" have. That being said, here are different types of democracy.
1) Direct Democracies: Direct Democracies, which compose a number of limited initiatives, such as exist in some Swiss cantons, are governments where the individual citizens vote directly on issues, without a Congress or other indirect form of election. The difficulty and complexity of modern government have effectively made direct democracy impossible.
2) Presidential Republics: Presidential Republics, which include the United States and large parts of Latin America, are governments where all citizens over a certain age can vote for political parties that sit in Congress as well as voting for a President who is the chief executive. In Presidential Republics, there is a clear delineation between the legislative and executive branches.
3) Parliamentary Democracy: Most European countries (including the constitutional monarchies) have governments where all citizens over a certain age can vote for political parties that occupy seats in a Parliament and create a ruling coalition. This coalition appoints the Prime Minister and takes over the affairs of governance between the fair and non-fraudulent elections.
4) Illiberal Democracies: Russia and many Third-World Nations were Liberal Democracies on paper with guaranteed voting rights, freedoms of speech and religion, constitutions that bind the authority of the Executive. In nearly every regime that this describes (like Putin's Russia, Erdogan's Turkey, Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Mubarak's Egypt) these paper rights and limitations on paper did not exist. These rulers used an apparent mechanism of democracy to perpetuate a dictatorship.
5) Compromised or Confessional Governments: In situations with various powerful ethnic groups like Lebanon (with its Maronite, Shiite, and Sunni communities) and Iraq with its (Shiite, Sunni Arab, and Kurd communities) there are democracies which guarantee certain positions in the government to a certain ethnic group so that one group cannot dictate policies for all the other groups. This often results in fights over census taking as that might lessen a particular group's strength and actual group on group violence to intimidate voters of one ethnic group to vote for a candidate that also supports whatever objective would help the perpetrator who are a different ethnicity. This results in very fragile agreements.
What are the best ways for citizens to make a change within a democratic government?
You are likely looking for the term "voting". However, one luxury of the American representative system, in conjunction with the First Amendment of the Constitution, is that citizens are free at all time to petition the government for redress.
The term for changing the U.S. constitution is not simply "voting"! Seriously? Though I am not quite sure what the term is, "voting" is quite juvenil!
because thats just the way it is !
What are some similarities and differences of direct democracy and representative democracy?
1. Direct Democracy : Full citizen participation in government power / Assemble of all citizens holds sovereignty
2. Both direct and Rep. Dem.: Majority Rule, Popular Sovereignty, citizens vote
3. Rep. Dem. only: Sovereignty exercised by representatives, indirect representation though appt. by representatives
