Understanding Democracy and its Pros and Cons

What is Democracy

The word ‘democracy’ comes from a Greek which implies ‘rule by the people.’ It’s accustomed to describe a system of state where power is held by the citizens. They impact several important decisions, either directly or through the people elected by them.

Democracy is predicated on freedom and equality among all people. 

It is also described as ‘rule of the majority’, since all the important decisions are more or less sanctioned or supported by popular adult suffrage.

"While democracy must have its organizations and controls, its vital breath is individual liberty"

- Charles Evan Hughes

In Myanmar, the controller of the army becomes the rule and clearly, people have no say in this decision.

Just like Pinochet's rule in Chile which is an example of dictatorship, in monarchical 

Saudi Arabia, the rulers belong to the royal family and this is what qualifies them to become kings. People have no grounds to express their choice in such cases. 

India and China both the counties faced famines in 1958-1961. 

China was hit badly, but India had not suffered such a hit compared to China despite inferior economic conditions. 

The reason may be that the Indian and Chinese governments had responded differently to food shortages.

What kind of government would you choose for yourself? Something like Myanmar or Saudi Arabia or maybe China? No, right! You would definitely like to choose India. 

Here, you can see that democracy is there to meet the needs of the people and is superior to any other form of government. 

Merits of Democracy

1. Democratic government is always accountable to the citizens for its action.
2. Democracy aims to improve the quality of decision-making.
3. It agrees to give a method to deal with differences and conflicts.
4. It reinforces the dignity of citizens of the country.
5. Democracy is superior to other forms of government because it allows us to reflect on and change our mistakes.

Demerits of Democracy

1. Leaders keep changing in a democracy leading to not a very stable government.
2. Democracy is more about political competition as well as power play, leaving little scope for morality.
3. Many people have to be consulted in a democracy that leads to delays in taking a spontaneous decision.
4. Elected leaders do not always know what the general citizens want and expect out of them, resulting in bad decisions.
5. The system of vote banks and gaining allies on false beliefs or money has corrupted the electoral competition procedures.
6. rdinary people don’t know what is good for them; they're often manipulated by the ones in power to vote for them.

Why Democracy?

From these arguments, we can see that democracy may not really be the quintessential form of government. However, democracy is better than other forms of government that are there for us to choose from.

In a democratic country, not everyone has the authority to govern directly. Many can make decisions on their behalf through elected representatives. This has become important for the reasons given below:

1. Modern democracies include such a large number of people that it is physically impossible for them to sit together and take a collective decision peacefully
2. Even if they could, the citizens do not usually have the time, the desire or the skills to actively take part in all the decisions.

Democracy, as a principle, can be applied to all areas of sphere of life and even beyond government. People use the word democracy not only to describe any existing governments, but to set the ideal standards that all democracies should aim for. 

If the given ideals of democracy are taken into consideration as it is then, no country in the world can be called firmly democratic.

Conclusion 

Nevertheless, understanding democracy as an ideal form of government helps us explain why we should and need to value democracy. It enables people to judge existing democracy and identify its weaknesses. It also assists us in distinguishing  between good democracy and minimal democracy.

Democracy in today's world is largely dominated by elected representatives who are chosen and elected by us. But for many small communities, there are other ways to make democratic decisions. Everyone can sit together and make decisions together consulting everyone's opinions, for example Gram Panchayat in villages.

"No government is perfect. One of the chief virtues of democracy, however, is that

it's defects are always visible and under democratic processes can be pointed out

and corrected."

- Harry S. Truman 

At least in theory, liberal democracy provides a kind of proportional representation of governance, allowing citizens to make changes through participation and persuade those in power to act for the greater good. 

Democracy has partially sustained, due to its ability to respond to change from below and more protection of civil liberties through increased voting rights.

"The cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy."

 - John Dewey

Written by - Tanvi Mohanty

Edited by - Isha Singh