Define Democracy

Define Democracy By Stan Alexandru Gabriel

In history, democracy was adopted for the first time from the beginning of human been development, because it was stimulating communication between individuals and freedom of thought. The ancient Romans had a working democracy for the early part of their history. The Forum in Rome is where political meetings and votes were held. The Forum can still be seen today, but most of its buildings are in ruins. First of all, the democracy is a way of thinking, a way of acting. Every human been must act by its own instinct, because everybody is free to do whatever he feels and needs. But in the same time, there is a limit: the law. And my opinion is that laws are the limit of common sense. You can’t perceive as some restrictions. Democracy is generally based on the rule of equality. This means that all members of a country or a state are equal in the eyes of law. Every individual has the right to enjoy and experience equal economic, political and social rights and the state is not allowed to discriminate citizens on the standard of sex, caste, property and religion. This type of thinking and acting is defining a modern current of politics, a way of governing. Surely you know that human been is an animal. Being democratic, you feel yourself natural, like an animal free to choose its own habitat, his own way. On the other side, please try to imagine yourself a domestic animal. You can eat only when the owner is bringing you something, you are free only when he unleashes you and if your master is giving a command, you will proceed in following it even if it isn’t your thought. But speaking about laws again, wild animals can set up their own limits and they can feel when to stop and when to act. That’s the law of nature! Democracies are based on "rule of law." The Ancient Greeks valued “Natural Law”, the notion that human societies should be governed by ethical principles found in nature. The Greeks are famous for practicing “direct democracy”, a system in which citizens meet to discuss all policy, and then make decisions by majority rule. However, only free males were considered to be citizens. So their democracy was certainly limited. But how could direct democracy work in a large, diverse population spread over a geographical distance? Generally, the answer has been that it can't. In its place, the American Founders put "indirect" or "representative" democracy. In this system, representatives are chosen by the people to make decisions 1

for them. The Founders preferred the term "republic" to "democracy" because it described a system they generally preferred: the interests of the peopled were represented by more knowledgeable or wealthier citizens who were responsible to those that elected them. Today we tend to use the terms "republic" and "democracy" interchangeably. What is really democracy? Why is it such popular? Opinions are different. Consulting the history, Winston Churchill once said that “democracy is the worst form of government except all forms tested over time”. However, the etymological origin of the term "Democracy" in ancient Greek language can be translated as "people power”. That can be translated as everybody is free to choose and everybody has the same rights and no one is above the law. In most of the civilized countries, democracy is the favorite form of government. The power is in the hands of the people by giving them the chance to elect the members from the board of the government or parliament and the president of their country or the mayor and local council. Also, any citizen is free to participate as a candidate that can be elected in any leading position of the state, county or town. But some specialists are trying to open our eyes, following Churchill’s opinion. At the beginning of his wonderful film “The People Speak”, Howard Zinn tells us that “Democracy does not come from the top, it comes from the bottom”. This insight from Zinn provides a key to our topic—the relation between democracy and socialism, especially the socialism associated with the outlook of Karl Marx. That is a lie! Yet one of the tragedies of the twentieth century is that so many self-proclaimed partisans of socialism plugged themselves into that lie, leaving “rule by the people” out of the socialist equation. They defined socialism as government ownership and control of the economy, and government planning for the benefit of the people, who some day would be permitted to have a decisive say in the decisions affecting their lives. The United States is among the oldest modern democracies, but it is only the oldest if the criteria are refined to disqualify claimants ranging from Switzerland to San Marino. Some historians suggest that the Native American Six Nations confederacy (Iroquois), which traces its consensus-based government tradition across eight centuries, is the oldest living participatory democracy. Others point out that meaningful democracy only arrived at a national level in 1906, when Finland became the first country to abolish race and gender requirements for both voting and for serving in government.

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To understand my point of view and the difference between socialism and democracy, I’m bringing to you the model of Vladimir Lenin. As the leader of the Russian revolution in 1917, he established a communist government that allowed no private property to exist. All members of society were theoretically equal. However, Lenin considered a small "vanguard of the revolution" necessary to guide the people and establish order. So a small group of leaders make decisions in the name of the people, based on their perceptions of what the people want and need. However, democracy isn’t quite the same in all the countries, because every state has its own Constitution. Only the concept is similar. Foremost amongst these is whether or not a democracy, by definition, can only be a democracy if it can encompass those who would destroy it if they could and give them a voice as well. There are for sure countries where democratic laws are not applied or accepted. For example, there are millions, perhaps tens of millions, of homosexual people who live in democracies where their reasonable expectation of being able to love a person and to sexually express that love is denied to them, usually together with any legal recognition in almost all other areas of public life. Homosexuals in such a situation would not count themselves as fully free, nor equal to the rest of the population. For sure there are some other examples that can obey the fact that “democracy” is not “freedom”, but I understood the concepts that are valuable. Let’s say one of them is the worth of the Individual, because democracy serves many of the different and distinct individuals that reside in the governed land. Also equality of all persons, meaning that it does not matter what race, gender, color, religion, an individual is. Each individual is entitled to equal opportunity and equality before law. Regarding leadership, probably majority rule and minority rights can easily define the will of the people determined by popular vote meaning majority rules, but it does not mean the majority is correct. Sometimes the minority is correct thus allowing for democracy is a trial and error process. Necessity of compromise represents the process in which democracy achieves majority or public agreement rather than completely terminating an idea or thought. And probably the most important for lots of people is the individual freedom, where all individual are given individual freedom as long as it does not interfere or harm the others, majority will. Speaking about freedom, I believe that press and media are also important in defining democracy! The right to freedom of speech as one of 3

the basic human rights is enshrined in main international human rights documents. Freedom of expression is the inseparable element of a democratic society. Whether the society is democratic or not can be defined by the factor of independent press and mass media. The most important aspect of journalism is the checks and balances it provides. Without journalism, important events, good or bad, would not have been exposed. We live in a politically correct society. Freedom of the press is another aspect which defines democracy. So, opinions are pro and against. Democracy is seen by many eyes and understood by many brains. So many types are judging by their own point of view. But there as many ways that can describe democracy. It can be the political orientation of those who favor government by the people or by their elected representatives; a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them or the doctrine that the numerical majority of an organized group can make decisions binding on the whole group. My opinion is that democracy is what people need, but as far as I’ve observed, in our country the people are misunderstanding the ways of democracy. Let’s hope the future will bring something new.

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