A democracy is of political system, or a system of
decision-making within an institution, or organization, in which all members
have the equal share to power. Systems of democracy stand in contrast to other
forms of government, including monarchy and oligarchy. (wikipedia.com)
Democracy can be traced back from the present day to
classical Athens and Greeks in the 6th century B.C.E. In a modern
representative democracy, this formal equality is embodied primarily in the
right to vote.
Historical origins
Although it is generally believed that the concepts of
democracy and constitution originated in one particular place and time, (
Ancient Athens circa 508 B.C ) there is evidence to suggest that democratic
forms of government, in a broad sense, may have existed in several areas of the
world well before the turn of the 5th century B.C. Within that broad sense it
is plausible to assume that democracy in one form or another arises naturally
in any well-bonded group, such as a tribe.
Scholars identify this form of democracy as tribalism, or
primitive democracy. In this sense, a primitive democracy takes shape in small
communities or villages, usually when there is face-to-face discussion in the
village council or a leader with the backing of village elders or other
cooperative forms of government. This becomes more complex on a larger scale,
such as when the village and city are examined more broadly as political
communities. All other forms of rule – including monarchy, tyranny,
aristocracy, and oligarchy – have flourished in more urban centers, often those
with concentrated populations.
Why should we be surprise if sectional Politics rules our
political scenes in Nigeria and other places where various tribes were packed
together by the Colonialists for easy governance and as well as promoting self
interest plus exploitation?
Principles
Now a fundamental principle of the democratic form of
constitution is liberty—that is what is usually asserted, implying that only
under this constitution do men participate in liberty, for they assert this as
the aim of every democracy. But one factor of liberty is to govern and be
governed in turn; for the popular principle of justice is to have equality
according to number, not worth, and if this is the principle of justice
prevailing, the multitude must of necessity be sovereign and the decision of the
majority must be final and must constitute justice, for they say that each of
the citizens ought to have an equal share; so that it results that in
democracies the poor are more powerful than the rich, because there are more of
them and whatever is decided by the majority is sovereign. This then is one
mark of liberty which all democrats set down as a principle of the
constitution. And one is for a man to live as he likes; for they say that this
is the function of liberty, inasmuch as to live not as one likes is the life of
a man that is a slave. This is the second principle of democracy, and from it
has come the claim not to be governed, preferably not by anybody, or failing
that, to govern and be governed in turns; and this is the way in which the
second principle contributes to equalitarian liberty. (The Opinion of Aristotle
from his work- Politics)
This reflects what we are experiencing in our day to day
activities; Accusations, counter-accusations, threats, promises, achievements,
sectionalism, etc. The question of Equity and Justice in Democracy to me is a
myth and cannot be demystified! What you faced might have passed me by, then
the conflict of interest comes in and bring the chaos of mob Politics as we are
experiencing that at The National Assembly! Some peoples are now clamouring the
disbandment of The National Assembly (The Senate precisely)! It's scary but
once you are informed about the Politics at the advanced level- which I doubt
we can find at our Third World!
Lack of political education some have argued that voters may
not be educated enough to exercise their democratic right. A population with
low intellect may not be capable of making beneficial decisions. They argue
that the lack of rationality or even education is being taken advantage of by
politicians, who compete more in the way of public relations and tactics, than
in ideology. While arguments against democracy are often taken by advocates of
democracy as an attempt to maintain or revive traditional hierarchy in order to
justify autocratic rule, many extensions have been made to develop the argument
further. This is interesting given Lipset's 1959 essay about the requirements
for forming democracy, where he found that good education was present in almost
all emerging democracies. However, education alone cannot sustain a democracy,
though Caplan did note in 2005 that as a person's education increases, their
thinking tends to be more in line with most economists.
Corruption within democratic governments
This is a simple form of appealing to the short term
interests of the voters.
Another form is commonly called Pork barrel, where local
areas or political sectors are given special benefits but whose costs are
spread among all taxpayers.
Mere elections are just one aspect of the democratic process.
Other tenets of democracy, like relative equality and freedom, are frequently
absent in ostensibly democratic countries.
Moreover, in many countries, democratic participation is
less than 50% at times, and it can be argued that election of individual(s)
instead of ideas disrupts democracy.
By these points, I will always pose these kind of question:
Where are we going to find Equity and Justice for our Democracy? "All
Animal are equal, but some are more equal than others!" (George Orwell -
Animal farm)
The present government are fighting corruption but how
truthful can they be? We are human being but the fallibility of human can be
the utmost stumbling block; people are sacrificing for the purpose of common
good and can we say that of those people who are ruling us? They promised to
serve but they are ruling without any reference to our plights! When the
election time comes, they will come to the grassroots to still recycles their
fake promises! Presently, they are employing the tactics of Adolf Hitler to
hurt us and comes to us when they needs our votes to give us crumbs!
Machiavelli put forth the idea that democracies will tend to
cater to the whims of the people, who then follow false ideas to entertain
themselves, squander their reserves and do not deal with potential threats to
their rule until it is too late to oppose them. He put forth a cyclical theory
of government where monarchies tend to decay into aristocracies, which then
decay into democracies, which subsequently decay into anarchy, then tyranny,
then return to monarchy. An example is the timeline of France before, during,
and after the French Revolution until the last Bourbon Monarch.
Of course, Machiavelli's definition of democracy was
narrower than we use the word today. He hypothesized that a hybrid system of
government that incorporated facets of all 3 major types (monarchy,
aristocracy, and democracy) may be able to break this cycle. Many modern
democracies that have separation of powers are these kinds of hybrid
governments.
It is cyclical like that of Theory of State has been
propounded by Thomas Hobbes!
Information from wikipedia.com was used in this write up!
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