WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? WHY DEMOCRACY?

Overview

The stories and the analysis in the previous chapter gave us a sense of what democracy is like. There we described some governments as democratic and some as non-democratic. We saw how governments in some of those countries changed from one form to the other. Let us now draw general lessons from those stories and ask the more basic question: What is democracy? What are its features? This chapter builds on a simple definition of democracy. Step by step, we work out the meaning of the terms involved in this definition. The aim here is to understand clearly the bare minimum features of a democratic form of government. After going through this chapter we should be able to distinguish a democratic form of government from a non-democratic government. towards the end of this chapter, we step beyond this minimal objective and introduce a broader idea of democracy.

In the previous chapter, we have been that democracy is the most prevalent form of government in the world today and it is expanding to more countries. But why is it so? What makes it better than other forms of government? That is the second big question that we take up in this chapter.

2.1 WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?

In Chapter One we read many stories from different parts of the world. Through these stories we discussed various governments and organisations. We called some of these democracies. Others were described as non-democracies. Can you recall, for each of these countries, something about the governments that were described as democracies?

·       Chile, before and after Pinochet’s rule

·       Poland, after the fall of communist rule

·       Ghana, in the early period of Nkrumah’s government

What do you think is common to them? Why do we club them all under the label of democracy? What is it that distinguishes these governments from Pinochet’s rule in Chile, communist rule in Poland or the later period of Nkrumah’s rule in Ghana? What do these governments have in common with the military rule in Myanmar? Why do we say that these governments are not democratic?

On the basis of this analysis, write down some common features of:

Democratic governments

Non-democratic governments

WHY DEFINE DEMOCRACY?

Before we proceed further, let us first take note of an objection by Merry. She does not like this way of defining democracy and wants to ask some basic questions.

her teacher Matilda Lyngdoh responds to her questions, as other classmates join the discussion:

Merry: Ma’am, I don’t like this idea. First we spend one whole chapter discussing democracy. I mean logically shouldn’t we we have

approached it the other way round? Shouldn’t the meaning have come first and then the example?

Lyngdoh Madam: I can see your point, But that is not how we reason in everyday life. We use words like pen, rain or love. Do we wait to have a definition of these words before we use them? Come to think of it, do we have clear definition of these words? It is only by using a word that we understand its meaning.

Merry: But then why do we need definitions at all?

Lyngdoh Madam: We need a definition only when we come across a difficulty in the use of a word. We need a definition of rain only when we wish to distinguish it from, say, drizzle or cloudburst. The same is true for democracy. We need a clear definition only because people use it for different purposes, because very different kinds of governments call themselves democracy.

Ribiang: But why do we need to work on a definition? The other day you quoted Abraham Lincoin to us: “Democracy is government of the people, by the people and for the people”. We in Meghalaya always ruled ourselves. That is accepted by everyone. Why do need to change that?

Lyngdoh Madam: I am not saying we need to change it. I too find this definition very beautiful. but we don’t know if this is the best way of defining unless we think about it ourselves. We must not accept something just because it is famous, just because everyone accepts it.

Yolanda: Ma’am, can I suggest something? We don’t need to look for any definition. I read somewhere that the word democracy comes from a Greek word ‘Demokratia’. In Greek ‘demos’ means people and ‘kratia’ means rule. So democracy is rule by the people. This is the correct meaning. Where is the need to debate?

Lyngdoh Madam: That is also a very helpful way of thinking about this matter. I would just say that this does not always work. A word does not remain tied to its origin. Just think of computers. Originally they were used for computing, that is to say calculating, very difficult mathematical sums. These were very powerful calculators. But nowadays very few people use computers for computing sums. They use it for writing, for designing. for listening to music and for watching films. Words remain the same but their meaning can change with time. In that case it is not very useful to look at the origins of a word.

Merry: ma’am, so basically what you are saying is that there is no shortcut to our thinking about the matter ourselves. We have to think about its meaning and evolve a definition.

Lyngdoh Madam: You got me right. Let us get on with it now.

A simple definition

Let us get back to our discussion on similarities and differences among governments that are called democracies. In the previous chapter we identified one simple factor common to all democracies: the government is chosen by the people. We could thus start with a simple definition: democracy is a form of government in which the rulers are elected by the people.

This is a useful starting point. This definition allows us to separate democracy from forms of government that are clearly not democratic. The army rulers of Myanmar are not elected by the people. Those who happen to be in control of the army become the rulers of the country. People have no say in this decision. Dictators like Pinochet are not elected by the people. This also applies to monarchies. The kings of Nepal and Saudi Arabia rule not because the people have chosen them to do so but because they happen to born into the royal family.

This simple definition is not adequate. it reminds us that democracy is people’s rule. But if we use this definite in an unthinking manner. we would end up calling almost every government that holds an election a democracy. That would be very misleading. As we shall find out in Chapter Four, every government in contemporary world wants to be called a democracy, even if it is not so. That is hwy we need to carefully distinguish between a government that is a democracy and one that pretends to be one. We can do so by understanding each word in this definition carefully and spelling out the features of a democratic government.

 

  2.2 FEATURES OF DEMOCRACY

 

·       We have started with a simple definition that democracy is a form of government in which the rulers are elected by the people .This raises many questions:

·       Who are the rulers in this definition? Which officials must be elected for any government to be called a democracy? Which decisions may be taken by nonelected officials in a democracy?

·       What kind of election constitutes a democratic election? What conditions must be fulfilled for an election to be considered democratic?

·       Who are the people who can elect the rulers or get elected as rulers? Should this include every citizen on an equal basis? Can a democracy deny some citizens this right?

·       Finally, what kind of a form of government is democracy? Can elected rulers do whatever they want in a democracy? Or must a democratic government function with some limits? Is it necessary for a democracy to respect some rights of the citizens?

Let us consider each of these questions with the help of some examples.