In such countries turnout is obviously much higher than the average for countries where voting is optional. Question: What proportion of the electorate voted in your country's most recent elections? Although it is undoubtedly a problem that people are increasingly failing to vote in elections, there are some studies which indicate that participation in different forms may actually be on the increase, for example, pressure groups, civic initiatives, consultative organs, and so on.
These forms of participation are just as important to the effective functioning of democracy as voter turnout at elections, if not more so. Democracy and civic participation The so-called Arab Spring, where masses of people — many of them young — took to the streets in order to express their dissatisfaction with the government, has shown a new level of civic participation in countries which have not traditionally been regarded as democracies.
In Europe as well, even in the more traditional democracies, "people power" appears to have found a new lease of life: students have protested in many countries against moves by governments to impose fees on education. Trade unions have brought people onto the streets to protest about the impact of economic cuts. In addition, autonomous groups of activists have invented new and creative forms of demonstrating against climate change, the power of large corporations, the withdrawal of key state services, and also against oppressive measures of policing.
There are two problems that are more intricately connected to the notion of representative democracy, and these concern minority interests. The first problem is that minority interests are often not represented through the electoral system: this may happen if their numbers are too few to reach the minimum level necessary for any representation.
The second problem is that even if their numbers are represented in the legislative body, they will have a minority of representatives and these may not therefore be able to summon up the necessary votes to defeat the majority representatives.
For these reasons, democracy is often referred to as "rule of the majority". Majority rule, if not backed up by a guarantee of human rights for all, can lead to decisions which are harmful to minorities, and the fact that these decisions are the "will of the people" can provide no justification.
The basic interests of minorities as well as majorities need to be safeguarded in any democratic system by adherence to human rights principles, reinforced by an effective legal mechanism, whatever the will of the majority may be.
Question: If the majority of the population is in favour of depriving certain people their human rights, do you think "the people should decide"? A related problem is the worrying trends across Europe towards support for extreme right parties.
These parties have often played on nationalist feelings, and have targeted "non-indigenous" members of the population, particularly asylum seekers, refugees, and members of religious minorities, and sometimes in violent ways. As a defence, such parties often appeal to their support among the population, and the democratic principle that they represent the opinions of a large number of people.
However, where a party advocates violence in any form, and where it fails to respect the human rights of every member of the population, it has little right to appeal to democratic principles. Depending on the extent of the problem, and the particular cultural context, it may be necessary to limit the right to freedom of expression of certain groups, despite the importance of this right to the democratic process.
Most countries, for example, have laws against inciting racial hatred. This is regarded by the European Court as an acceptable limitation of freedom of expression, justified by the need to protect the rights of other members of society, or the structure of society itself.
Question: Is nationalism any different from racism? Young people often do not even have the vote, so how can they be a part of the democratic process? Many people would answer this question by saying that young people are not ready to be part of the process, and that only when they are 18 or at whatever age their country gives them the vote will they be able to participate. In fact, many young people are politically very active long before they get the vote, and in some ways, the impact of such activity can be stronger than the single vote they receive later on — and may or may not decide to use — once every 4 or 5 years.
Politicians are often anxious to appeal to the youth vote, so they may be more likely to listen to the concerns of young people. Many young people are engaged in environmental groups, or in other protest groups campaigning against war, against corporate exploitation, or against child labour. Perhaps one of the most important ways that young people can begin to be engaged in community life and political activity is at a local level: here they will be more aware of the particular issues that are of concern to them and those with whom they come into contact, and they will be better able to have a direct impact.
Democracy does not only deal with national or international issues: it needs to begin in our own neighbourhoods! Youth organisations are one of the ways through which young people experience and practise democracy and, therefore, have an important role in democracy, provided, of course, that they are independent and democratic in the way they function! Question: If a year-old is considered mature enough to marry and get a job, should he or she not be able to vote?
We will strive for our common goal of promoting democracy and good governance of the highest quality, nationally, regionally and locally for all our citizens. Democracy is one of the core values of the Council of Europe, together with human rights and the rule of law. The Council of Europe has a number of programmes and publications looking at the improvement and future of democracy. The aim of the Forum is to "strengthen democracy, political freedoms and citizens' participation through the exchange of ideas, information and examples of best practices".
A meeting of the Forum takes place every year, and brings together about participants from the 47 Council of Europe member States and observer States. Support for development and implementation of standards for democracy is carried by the European Commission for Democracy through Law — also known as the Venice Commission — which is the Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional matters. They saw a danger in majorities forcing their will on minorities.
As a result, they advocated a representative democracy in the form of a constitutional republic over a direct democracy.
For example, James Madison, in Federalist No. Representative democracy is a variety of democracy founded on the principle of elected people representing a group of people. For example, three countries which use representative democracy are the United States of America a representative democracy , the United Kingdom a constitutional monarchy and Poland a republic. It is an element of both the parliamentary system and presidential system of government and is typically used in a lower chamber such as the House of Commons UK or Bundestag Germany.
According to Freedom House, in there were electoral democracies — up from 40 in According to World Forum on Democracy, electoral democracies now represent of the existing countries and constitute At the same time, liberal democracies—countries Freedom House regards as free and respectful of basic human rights and the rule of law—are 85 in number and represent 38 percent of the global population.
Unlike democracy, authoritarianism and totalitarianism are forms of government where an individual or a single-party concentrates all power. Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority as well as the administration of said authority. In politics, an authoritarian government is characterized by highly concentrated and centralized power maintained by political repression and the exclusion of potential challengers.
It uses political parties and mass organizations to mobilize people around the goals of the regime. Authoritarianism emphasizes arbitrary law rather than the rule of law, including election rigging and political decisions being made by a select group of officials behind closed doors.
An autocracy is a system of government in which a supreme political power is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regularized mechanisms of popular control.
By contrast, a single-party state is a type of party system government in which a single political party forms the government and no other parties are permitted to run candidates for election.
Typically, single-party states hold the suppression of political factions, except as transitory issue oriented currents within the single party or permanent coalition as a self-evident good. Totalitarianismis an extreme version of authoritarianism. Authoritarianism primarily differs from totalitarianism in that social and economic institutions exist free from governmental control.
By contrast, totalitarianism is a political system where the state holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life wherever necessary. However, a totalitarian regime attempts to control virtually all aspects of the social life, including economy, education, art, science, private life, and morals of citizens.
The concept became prominent in Western anti-communist political discourse during the Cold War era in order to highlight perceived similarities between Nazi Germany and other fascist regimes on the one hand, and Soviet communism on the other. Zbigniew Brzezinski : A number of thinkers, including Zbigniew Brzezinski, have argued that Nazi and Soviet regimes were equally totalitarian.
Political scientists Carl Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski were primarily responsible for expanding the usage of the term in university social science and professional research, reformulating it as a paradigm for the Soviet Union as well as fascist regimes.
For Friedrich and Brzezinski, the defining elements were intended to be taken as a mutually supportive organic entity composed of the following: an elaborating guiding ideology; a single mass party, typically led by a dictator; a system of terror; a monopoly of the means of communication and physical force; and central direction, and control of the economy through state planning.
Such regimes had initial origins in the chaos that followed in the wake of World War I, at which point the sophistication of modern weapons and communications enabled totalitarian movements to consolidate power. A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual: a dictator.
In contemporary usage, dictatorship refers to an autocratic form of absolute rule by leadership unrestricted by law, constitutions, or other social and political factors within the state. For some scholars, a dictatorship is a form of government that has the power to govern without consent of those being governed similar to authoritarianism , while totalitarianism describes a state that regulates nearly every aspect of public and private behavior of the people.
In other words, dictatorship concerns the source of the governing power and totalitarianism concerns the scope of the governing power. The wave of military dictatorships in Latin America in the second half of the twentieth century left a particular mark on Latin American culture.
In Latin American literature, the dictator novel challenging dictatorship is a significant genre. There are also many films depicting Latin American military dictatorships. Some nondemocratic governments can be classified into categories such as monarchies, oligarchies, theocracies and technocracies. Governments tend to fall between traditionally democratic and non-democratic forms.
These forms of government are usually distinguished based on who controls the state, how that authority is justified, and in what ways leaders and governments are structurally organized based on these justifications. A monarchy is a form of government in which sovereignty is actually or nominally embodied in a single individual, the monarch.
This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and rules for life or until abdication. Synonyms for democracy Synonyms republic , self-government , self-rule Visit the Thesaurus for More. What is the basic meaning of democracy? What is a democratic system of government?
In a democracy , every citizen should have the right to vote. The company is not a democracy ; decisions are made by a board of directors, not the workers. Recent Examples on the Web The result underscores how Mr.
Press, Arkansas Online , 9 Nov. First Known Use of democracy , in the meaning defined at sense 1a. Learn More About democracy. Time Traveler for democracy The first known use of democracy was in See more words from the same year. From the Editors at Merriam-Webster. Style: MLA. Aristocrats led major countries, including Britain, Germany, and Russia, until World War I, when other government forms gained popularity. Monarchy is a power system that appoints a person as head of state for life or until abdication.
Authority traditionally passes down through a succession line related to one's bloodline and birth order within the ruling royal family, often limited by gender. There are two types of monarchies: constitutional and absolute. Constitutional monarchies limit the monarch's power as outlined in a constitution, while absolute monarchies give a monarch unlimited power. Today, 45 nations have some form of monarchy, though the concept has become increasingly diluted with the evolution of democratic principles.
But monarchs in other countries, including Morocco, Oman, and Saudia Arabia, still have far-reaching political authority. Theocracy refers to a form of government in which a specific religious ideology determines the leadership, laws, and customs. In many instances, there is little to no distinction between scriptural laws and legal codes.
Likewise, religious clergy will typically occupy leadership roles, sometimes including the highest office in the nation. Iran is perhaps the most important and powerful theocratic state in the world today. The ayatollahs — Shiite religious leaders — rule the country. Among them is a "supreme leader" who serves as head of state, delegates authority to other religious leaders, and presides over the elected president. The Sharia — the Islamic faith's primary legal doctrine — dictates the country's legal, judiciary, and administrative codes.
Colonialism is a form of government in which a nation extends its sovereignty over other territories. In other words, it involves the expansion of a nation's rule beyond its borders. Colonialism often leads to ruling over indigenous populations and exploiting resources. The colonizer typically installs its economy, culture, religious order, and government form to strengthen its authority.
In the 15th century, European monarchies launched an age of nautical exploration that led to several notable colonial governments. British, French, Spanish, and Dutch colonists spread their influence and authority throughout the New World, dismantling and sometimes eradicating entire cultures and peoples in the process.
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