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Essay: Democracy is a globally acknowledged ideal

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  • Subject area(s): Politics essays
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  • Published: 15 September 2019*
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  • Words: 661 (approx)
  • Number of pages: 3 (approx)

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Democracy is a globally acknowledged ideal and perhaps one of the most used terms in the political sphere. The term democracy, which derives from Greek language, means "rule by the people" and was created in response to the amount and abuse of power of rulers in Greek city-states. As a result, in a democratic state, all are equal and no one is above the law. It is a form of government, in which the constitution guarantees basic civil rights, religious freedom, fair and free elections, and separations of power to all. In practice, democracy preserves and promotes the fundamental rights of the individual and aims to reflect the diversity and cultural experiences of its citizens. With all this said, it is no surprise their popularity, alone the fact people and governments all over the world risk their lives for this ideal is testimony to its appeal.

However, democracy is no cake walk. In action, democracy is more than a form of government and rather it is a goal, and involves work from both for politicians and for the people. Democracy is a safeguard that should allow for government to ensure the existence and free exercise of certain basic individual and group rights that without which democracy cannot exist. Elements of a healthy democracy need not only be simply written down in a constitution, but must be maintained in everyday life by politicians and authorities, as well as the people. Constitutional democracy, or liberal democracy, is a system of government in which the powers of political authorities are exercised within clear limits, and citizens are guaranteed the power to remove poor performing governments through frequent free and fair elections.

However, healthy constitutional democracies are made up of many key elements that ensure the expression of the people's will are reflected by their government. Under constitutional democracy democracies must, allow for the people to be the ultimate source of authority, the rights of minorities must be secured, the powers of government should be limited by law, and most importantly can be dissolved at any time by the people. However, not all democracies need to ensure these rights. To say that a state is democratic is to say little about how it is actually governed. A properly liberal state is one in which individual rights are paramount. It protects the individual not only against the abuses of a tyrant but also against the abuses of democratic majorities. illiberalism assumes a familiar form: more corruption, greater restrictions on assembly and speech, constraints on the press, retribution against political opponents, oppression of minorities. All of these things are bad, but they’re not necessarily undemocratic.

In 1997, journalist Fareed Zakaria published an article for Foreign Affairs entitled “The Rise of Illiberal Democracy.” Zakaria made a distinction between liberalism and democracy, which are term we often go hand in hand and argued that “today the two strands of liberal democracy, interwoven in the Western political fabric, are coming apart in the rest of the world. Democracy is flourishing; constitutional liberalism is not.” Zakaria’s piece pointed out that democracies around the world are increasingly becoming more and more “illiberal,” and that the ideals of liberal democracies were eroding. Zakaria said “From Peru to the Palestinian Authority, from Sierra Leone to Slovakia, from Pakistan to the Philippines…. we see the rise of a disturbing phenomenon in international life — illiberal democracy.” By Zakaria’s definition, illiberal democracy what happens when countries have free and fair elections like liberal democracy, but they fail to provide the necessary elements associated with constitutional liberalism. According to Zakaria “democratically elected regimes often re-elected or reinforced by referendums that ignore the constitutional limits of their power and deprive their citizens of basic rights and liberties.” Illiberal democracies are continuously increasing; however, few of them have become liberal democracies; on the contrary, most of them are strengthening illiberal democracy by creating forms of government that mixes substantial degrees of populist democracy with strong man leadership.

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