More than 200 years ago, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay published a series of essays promoting the ratification of the United States Constitution now known as Federalist Papers. In explaining the need for an independent judiciary, Alexander Hamilton noted in The Federalist # 78 that the federal courts "were designed to be an intermediate body between the people and their legislature" in order to ensure that the people's representatives acted only within the authority given to Congress under the Constitution.
essay on democracy for intermediate
Mark Dimunation talks about The Federalist Papers. The collection of 85 essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay were written between 1787 and 1788 to encourage the states to ratify the Constitution.
In this essay on democracy, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of democracy in any country. We will try to find out that, is Democracy is the best form of Government? Democracy Essay is also very important for the Examinations of 10th class, 2nd Year and Graduation Annual Exams. Here you will find 2 examples of Essay For more English Essays you can go here.
In a civil society, democracy is the guardian of equality, liberty and the fundamental tighs of the people. It makes all the citizens interested in national affairs by giving them a feeling of participation and a sense of responsibility. Everyone enjoys freedom of thought, action and speech. The four pillars of democracy are the rule of law, freedom of opinion, freedom of association and freedom of the press. Bernard Shaw has defined democracy as:
Unfortunately, democracy could not flourish in Pakistan because of political immaturity, economic insecurity and institutional instability. Sectarianism, illiteracy a caste system have deteriorated our social and political system. At the time of elections, the voters are either bribed or threatened to give their votes in favour of illegible and irresponsible candidates. Power is abused for the promotion of selfish ends. Corruption and favouritism are rampant. In this way, the lawmakers become law-breakers. Moreover, the continual military interventions also destabilize the democratic system of the country.
In spite of its demerits, democracy is a reasonable, useful and successful system of government. It is based on consent and not force, persuasion and not dictation. On the other hand, in spite of a few merits dictatorship is a curse to humanity.
Thus democracy is a public kind of government. All classes of people from a layman to a lord take part in democracy. That is why this form of government is widely liked by nations all over the world. It is the most favourite form of government of this age. Many people like democracy for its favourable features. They are as follows.
Democracy prevents wars. War is a necessary evil. But in this age of nuclear weapons, a war would mean a wholesale killing of humans. Democratic rulers do not take the risk of wars. Rather they try to resolve their disputes through diplomatic dialogues. Thus democracy indirectly prevents wars.
Being popular is no guarantee for a thing to be asserted as good. So, we cannot say that democracy is the only form of good government. It has advantages as well as disadvantages. Some of the disadvantages of democracy are discussed below.
Democracy brings about inequalities in economic and social resources. People with greater resources naturally win the election and come to power. They influence the political system and the economic policies of the state to their advantage. Thus they hinder a satisfactory level of political equality. They try to oblige the workers of their political party. Thus democracy causes inequality and injustice.
If we analyze democracy from the point of view of our country, we come to know that it has never been successful in our country. The main reasons are lack of education, the lack of political sense and interruption from non-political elements. No government has ever been given a chance to run its affairs smoothly. But in spite of all this, if our political leaders pay some heed to the golden rules of Islamic democracy, they would be successful rulers indeed.
In this Essay, we discussed everything about the Advantages and Disadvantages of democracy. Furthermore, Essay on democracy is very important if you are preparing selective and choosey essays for 2nd year and graduation. You can also try Mobile Phone Essay.
Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under a representative democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into different branches of government, the rule of law in everyday life as part of an open society, a market economy with private property, and the equal protection of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties and political freedoms for all people. To define the system in practice, liberal democracies often draw upon a constitution, either codified (such as in the United States)[1] or uncodified (such as in the United Kingdom), to delineate the powers of government and enshrine the social contract. After a period of expansion in the second half of the 20th century, liberal democracy became a prevalent political system in the world.[2]
A liberal democracy may take various constitutional forms as it may be a constitutional monarchy[3] or a republic. It may have a parliamentary system, a presidential system or a semi-presidential system. Liberal democracies usually have universal suffrage, granting all adult citizens the right to vote regardless of ethnicity, sex, property ownership, race, age, sexuality, gender, income, social status, or religion. However, historically some countries regarded as liberal democracies have had a more limited franchise. Even today, some countries, considered to be liberal democracies, do not have truly universal suffrage. For instance, in the United Kingdom people serving long prison sentences are unable to vote, a policy which has been ruled a human rights violation by the European Court of Human Rights.[4] A similar policy is also enacted in most of the United States.[5] According to a study by Coppedge and Reinicke, at least 85% of democracies provided for universal suffrage.[6] Many nations require positive identification before allowing people to vote. For example, in the United States 2/3 of states require their citizens to provide identification to vote, these states also provide state IDs for free.[7] The decisions made through elections are made not by all of the citizens but rather by those who are members of the electorate and who choose to participate by voting.
The liberal democratic constitution defines the democratic character of the state. The purpose of a constitution is often seen as a limit on the authority of the government. Liberal democracy emphasizes the separation of powers, an independent judiciary and a system of checks and balances between branches of government. Multi-party systems with at least two persistent, viable political parties are characteristic of liberal democracies. In Europe, liberal democracies are likely to emphasize the importance of the state being a Rechtsstaat, i.e. a state that follows the principle of rule of law. Governmental authority is legitimately exercised only in accordance with written, publicly disclosed laws adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedure. Many democracies use federalism, also known as vertical separation of powers, in order to prevent abuse and increase public input by dividing governing powers between municipal, provincial and national governments (e.g. Germany, where the federal government assumes the main legislative responsibilities and the federated Länder assume many executive tasks).[citation needed]
By the late 18th century, leading philosophers of the day had published works that spread around the European continent and beyond. One of the most influential of these philosophers was English empiricist John Locke, who refuted monarchical absolutism in his Two Treatises of Government. According to Locke, individuals entered into a social contract with a state, surrendering some of their liberties in exchange for the protection of their natural rights. Locke advanced that governments were only legitimate if they maintained the consent of the governed and that citizens had the right to instigate a rebellion against their government if that government acted against their interests. These ideas and beliefs influenced the American Revolution and the French Revolution, which gave birth to the ideology of liberalism and instituted forms of government that attempted to put the principles of the Enlightenment philosophers into practice. Neither of these forms of government was precisely what we would call a liberal democracy today (the most significant differences being that voting rights were still restricted to a minority of the population and slavery remained a legal institution) and the French attempt turned out to be short-lived, but they were the prototypes from which liberal democracy later grew. Since the supporters of these forms of government were known as liberals, the governments themselves came to be known as liberal democracies.[citation needed]
When the first prototypical liberal democracies were founded, the liberals themselves were viewed as an extreme and rather dangerous fringe group that threatened international peace and stability. The conservative monarchists who opposed liberalism and democracy saw themselves as defenders of traditional values and the natural order of things and their criticism of democracy seemed vindicated when Napoleon Bonaparte took control of the young French Republic, reorganized it into the first French Empire and proceeded to conquer most of Europe. Napoleon was eventually defeated and the Holy Alliance was formed in Europe to prevent any further spread of liberalism or democracy. However, liberal democratic ideals soon became widespread among the general population and over the 19th century traditional monarchy was forced on a continuous defensive and withdrawal. The dominions of the British Empire became laboratories for liberal democracy from the mid 19th century onward. In Canada, responsible government began in the 1840s and in Australia and New Zealand, parliamentary government elected by male suffrage and secret ballot was established from the 1850s and female suffrage achieved from the 1890s.[14] 2ff7e9595c
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