What Is A Democracy

The history of democracy whether you want it or no

Democracy - to those of us in the West it has a virtuous ring to it as the best way in which to run a country.

However this has not always been so and people's idea of the best system does change from time to time place to place and generation to generation.

So first of all who gave us the word democracy?

Well the answer is our friends the Greeks, and it comes from 'demos' for the people and 'cratos' for rule or power, so it was rule by the people or power of the people.

And whilst you might think that was jolly nice of them the fact is that for many greeks it was seen as a dirty concept and the worst thing imaginable, it was almost as bad as rule by the mob. The idea of all and sundry being involved in politics was terrible.

However, we also credit the Greeks with the closest thing to democracy in the ancient world, but it was a direct democracy and very different to what it means now.

A direct democracy is where everyone with the vote has a say on all issues so they would gather together and debate and have a show of hands.

This contrasts with a representative democracy which is a practical solution to the logistics of having so many people with other jobs where we elect people to represent our wishes in parliament. Of course direct is the optimum in theory but one of the worst in practice hence the more dilute but practical representative democracy.

Democracy as an umbrella term is also misleading as they are not born equal. Originally hardly anyone could vote and some counted double - for instance learned people or teachers had double votes and in some systems and countries even more. Gradually over time more and more got the vote - younger, women as well as men - a horrific idea back in the day - and the general public and every hoi polloi got the vote over 18 and of fixed abode once they were on the electoral register.

And so that's democracy for you - points to note:

- when it first came about it was considered a horrific idea
- there are many types like direct and representational democracies
- it is seen as a practical form of running a country if not optimum
- it has many critics still today
- it is fairly incoherent as one person cannot possibly genuinly even vaguely represent the views of their hundreds of thousands of electorate
- it is still seen by many though as the best of a bad bunch of ways of letting people be involved with decision making

What Is A Democracy

Author: Stephen

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Last Updated: Feb 8th 2008

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