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Oct 13, 2021 · democracy. (n.) "government by the people, system of government in which the sovereign power is vested in the people as a whole exercising power directly or by elected officials; a state so governed," 1570s, from French démocratie (14c.), from Medieval Latin democratia (13c.), from Greek dēmokratia "popular government," from dēmos "common people," originally "district" (see demotic ...
- Overview
- Fundamental questions
Democracy is a system of government in which laws, policies, leadership, and major undertakings of a state or other polity are directly or indirectly decided by the “people,” a group historically constituted by only a minority of the population (e.g., all free adult males in ancient Athens or all sufficiently propertied adult males in 19th-century Britain) but generally understood since the mid-20th century to include all (or nearly all) adult citizens.
Where was democracy first practiced?
Studies of contemporary nonliterate tribal societies and other evidence suggest that democracy, broadly speaking, was practiced within tribes of hunter-gatherers in prehistoric times. The transition to settled agricultural communities led to inequalities of wealth and power between and within communities and hierarchical nondemocratic forms of social organization. Thousands of years later, in the 6th century BCE, a relatively democratic form of government was introduced in the city-state of Athens by Cleisthenes.
How is democracy better than other forms of government?
States with democratic governments prevent rule by autocrats, guarantee fundamental individual rights, allow for a relatively high level of political equality, and rarely make war on each other. As compared with nondemocratic states, they also better foster human development as measured by indicators such as health and education, provide more prosperity for their citizens, and ensure a broader range of personal freedoms.
Why does democracy need education?
The etymological origins of the term democracy hint at a number of urgent problems that go far beyond semantic issues. If a government of or by the people—a “popular” government—is to be established, at least five fundamental questions must be confronted at the outset, and two more are almost certain to be posed if the democracy continues to exist for long.
(1) What is the appropriate unit or association within which a democratic government should be established? A town or city? A country? A business corporation? A university? An international organization? All of these?
(2) Given an appropriate association—a city, for example—who among its members should enjoy full citizenship? Which persons, in other words, should constitute the dēmos? Is every member of the association entitled to participate in governing it? Assuming that children should not be allowed to participate (as most adults would agree), should the dēmos include all adults? If it includes only a subset of the adult population, how small can the subset be before the association ceases to be a democracy and becomes something else, such as an aristocracy (government by the best, aristos) or an oligarchy (government by the few, oligos)?
(3) Assuming a proper association and a proper dēmos, how are citizens to govern? What political organizations or institutions will they need? Will these institutions differ between different kinds of associations—for example, a small town and a large country?
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Jan 29, 2021 · Key Takeaways: Democracy. Democracy, literally meaning “rule by the people,” empowers individuals to exercise political control over the form and functions of their government. While democracies come in several forms, they all feature competitive elections, freedom of expression, and protection of individual civil liberties and human rights.
- Robert Longley
democracy: [noun] a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.
- Is the United States a democracy or a republic?The United States is both a democracy and a republic. Democracies and republics are both forms of government in which supreme power resides in the...
- What is the basic meaning of 'democracy'?The word democracy most often refers to a form of government in which people choose leaders by voting.
- What is a democratic system of government?A democratic system of government is a form of government in which supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirect...
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Where does democracy come from?
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What is a democratic system of government?
What is a democracy based on?
Democracy has had diverse meanings. Indeed, the meaning of ‘people’ is itself socially determined. In ancient Athens, where the idea of democracy arguably was born, the word ‘demos’ originally meant district or land, and significant social groups were excluded from political participation, notably women, slaves and foreigners.
Abstract. Democracy has been described as ‘an essentially contested concept’. It is one of those terms scholars can never agree on how to define because the definition itself carries with it social, moral, or political agendas. The Introduction looks at what democracy could be and defends an historical approach to looking at democracy.
1: a culture that reflects a “moderate” (compared to a highly passionate or a disinterested) level of citizen activity and interest is the more likely to sustain democracy. 2: the more “civic” the culture (regarding community well-being and moderate levels participation), the more likely to sustain democracy.
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