Dealing with Democracy: From the Past to the Present

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The basic principles of democracy, known to modern society, were laid down more than twenty centuries ago in Ancient Greece.

Power of the people: signs and types

According to one of a number of definitions, democracy is understood as such a way of organizing a political system, which gives a guarantee of an individual to take part in political processes. In other words, if in totalitarian and authoritarian societies the power or the leader of the state decides the main issues, then in a democratic one, all (or almost all) citizens are allowed to make political decisions. The limitation of their rights in this system is possible only on the basis of the law.

Considering the fundamental features of democracy, we note that these include, firstly, the recognition of the people as a source of power and sovereign in the state. This means that the highest state power, in fact, belongs to the people, who themselves decide to whom to entrust it. The second characteristic feature of a democratic political regime is the equality of citizens, that is, their equal access not only to opportunities, but also to real ways of exercising both political power and their other rights in all spheres of public life.

The next feature is the subordination of the minority to the majority when making decisions and implementing them. It should be noted that not all researchers consider this feature to be consistent with the traditions of democracy.

It is often said in American political philosophy that democracy is when two wolves and one lamb decide what is for dinner tonight. In fact, the fact that the minority must obey the majority does not mean that the former has absolutely no rights. They exist and are defined by law. And the majority should respect them.

Another important characteristic of democracy is the electivity of the main organs of the state. Even under monarchical rule, the prime minister, members of parliament and other government officials are elected by the people and are directly dependent on them.

On the most general basis (we will talk about types), democracy can be divided into direct (direct) and representative. In the first case, people themselves exercise political power, in the second - through their representatives elected to the government.

It is often said that these two types of democracy seem to be mutually exclusive. They are actually two sides of the same coin. Direct democracy is inconceivable without representative, and representative has no meaning without immediate.

A historical example of the operation of direct democracy is given to us by the Novgorod feudal republic, where the main and almost the only governing body was the people's assembly - the veche. However, this did not mean at all that there were no institutions of representative democracy in Novgorod. The voivode was elected, the prince was invited, the post of archbishop existed. All this meant that people could not exercise all state powers in full.

Also, some researchers believe that there is an intermediate form between direct and representative - plebiscite democracy, when people express their opinion, on the one hand, directly, on the other, through certain authorities.

Democracy Concepts: Who Governs and How?

The idea of democracy originated in antiquity. This is evidenced by the ancient Greek translation of the word - the power of the people. Of course, the ancient concept of democracy was very different from the one we use now. In history, there were several more options for understanding this term. One of them was proposed in the Early Modern Time by the English philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. This is the so-called liberal concept of democracy.

From this point of view, each person in society should be independent, the interests of society should be completely subordinate to its interests. Probably, this concept was valid for the 17th century, but today its full implementation is hardly possible.

The second concept of democracy that existed in modern times is the collectivist concept of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The famous philosopher Karl Marx was one of its supporters. In this concept, democracy, on the contrary, should implement the tasks of the whole society, and the interests of a person should be largely subordinated to public interests. The third concept is pluralistic. In accordance with it, the interests of society are certainly important, but the interests of social groups are much more important. And finally, the last concept of democracy is elitist.

In this case, democracy is not a rivalry between individuals, not social groups, but political elites. This concept is believed to be most pronounced in the United States of America. Indeed, for several centuries in the United States, two political parties have been competing with each other:

Democratic and Republican. Formally, no one prohibits American citizens from creating other political parties (and they, of course, there are), but all the same, at every presidential and parliamentary elections, citizens choose only between two parties.

Democratic system: basic characteristics

In addition to the aforementioned properties of democracy, there are also no less significant characteristics of a democratic regime, the first of which is parliamentarism. According to this criterion, the parliament occupies a central place in the political administration of the country and has the preferential right in the adoption of laws.

The next characteristic of the democratic system is political pluralism (from the Latin word pluralis - plural), which implies respect for the opinions of others, the coexistence of different points of view on the development of society, the opportunity for each person to freely express their opinion. Once even Mao Zedong said: "Let a hundred schools compete, let a hundred flowers bloom." But after people in communist China began to freely express their points of view, the "great helmsman" changed his position.

Repression began in the Celestial Empire. In a democratic political regime, such an outcome is, of course, unacceptable.

The next characteristics of a democratic political regime are tolerance (from the Latin tolerantia - patience, acceptance) and consensus (from the Latin consensus - unanimity, unanimity). In the first case, it is tolerance of other people's opinions, feelings, customs, and culture. In the second, it is the existence in society of a strong agreement on basic values or principles of action.

Civil society and the rule of law are two more important characteristics of a democratic regime. Note that the existence of the first is impossible without the presence of the second.

Well, in conclusion, it should be said that the American non-governmental organization Freedom House, which publishes the results of an annual analysis of the state of freedom in the world, recorded that if in 1980 there were 51 free countries in the world, then in 2019 their number increased to 83.

Anna Zarubina