Introduction
Referring to “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” (Abraham Lincoln 1861), democracy has long been upheld as the cornerstone of the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong. This may well explain why a recently conducted survey reveals that an overwhelming majority (83%) of the Hong Kong people recognize democracy as one of the important core values . Despite a well-embraced core value, democracy is not necessarily conducive to the development of a country. In the eyes of some renowned scholars such as John T. Wenders and Milton Friedman, democracy also has its own drawbacks on different aspects. Therefore, it is the high time for us to examine the both sides of democracy thoroughly.
Benefits of democracy
First of all, democracy safeguards the people’s interests by holding the politicians accountable. Elected by the people, politicians have to be fully responsible to the voters. If their
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In a democratic state, part of the political power is distributed to the people. Therefore, people will vote against any decisions that may bereave their basic human rights and freedom. Consequently, the ruler cannot deprive the fundamental rights of the people for his or her own benefits and thus everyone, regardless of his or her wealth or status, can enjoy the freedom and rights granted by the Constitution. On the contrary, political power is often vested to the dictator in an authoritarian regime. The dictator may arbitrarily intrude the basic human rights and the people, who do not possess political power, cannot exert influence on the ruler to prevent the impairment of human rights and freedoms. For instance, all political power in North Korea is vested in the leader Kim Jong-Un instead of the people. Without the constraint of such power, the North Korean authority blatantly violates the human rights and suppresses any dissenting opinions concerning its
This is referred to as “Consent of the Government” and plays a big role in determining what the government does. In reality, the people run the country and it would be smart for the government to take full recognition of this. The consent of the government states that the authority of a government should depend on the consent of the people (Document C). When the government chooses not to take this into account, there can sometimes be negative consequences. An example of this would be in 1989 in Tiananmen Square in China.
Governmental power is often held by a few, and this also leads to problems as citizens feel that their voices are not being heard. This inequality is not seen only between people and the government, but also different groups of citizens today (gender, race,
Alexis de Tocqueville penned Democracy in America after he spent month America in the 1831, where he witnessed a new democratic system. He found it’s concepts to have unique strengths and weaknesses that he believed could be the inspiration for the new government of post-revolution France. The concepts of limiting individualism, encouraging positive associations, and moderating the tyranny of the majority that Tocqueville observed during his trip in America helped maintain the new democratic republic built after the revolution. As soon as America became free from British rule, their groundwork for their new government helped cement them as a true democracy since it contended with individualism. Tocqueville noticed that after a successful
The United States of America is not truly a democracy. America’s government is all over the place and pretty much a mixture of everything, it never has been just democracy. The characteristics of a democracy are where the majority wins but that never really happens. For example the president election majority does not elect the president. The United States of America is not a democracy for many reasons; Rule by law, we are more a republic than a democracy, and the founders of a nation didn 't want a democracy.
In Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville, it talks about democracy in America and its strengths and weaknesses. Having seen the failed attempts at democratic government in his home country of France, Tocqueville wanted to study a stable and prosperous democracy to gain insights into how it worked. His studies led him to conclude that the movement toward democracy and equality of conditions was a universal phenomenon and a permanent historical tendency that could not be stopped. Since this democratic trend was inevitable, Tocqueville wanted to analyze it in order to determine its strengths and dangers so that governments could be formed to reinforce democracy 's strengths while counteracting its weaknesses. Even though Democracy in America
This can project the people from anything they would disagree to occur. Democracy is based on the rule of equality which means that all the people are equal as far as the law is concerned. Every person has the right to enjoy and experience social, political and economic rights and state is not allowed to discriminate him on the standard of gender, class, property or religion.
Parliamentary system is a general government system are used in many countries, there are two types of parliamentary democracies, the Westminster (originates from the British Houses of Parliament) and consensus systems. A parliamentary system is a bicameral system with two chambers of parliament, House of Senate and House of People. The representative mostly from the election, who won the voted. This system were divided into three component executive, legislative and judiciary. Normally parliamentary system related with constitutional monarchies, this mean the ruler as head of state in the country while the head of government usually a member of the legislature.
In the United States, people always talk about freedom and equality. Especially they want elections could be more democratic. In American Democracy in Peril, Hudson’s main argument regarding chapter five “Election Without the People’s Voice,” is if elections want to be democratic, they must meet three essential criteria, which are to provide equal representation of all citizens, to be mechanisms for deliberation about public policy issues, and to control what government does. Unfortunately, those points that Hudson mentions are what American elections do not have. American elections do not provide equal representation to everyone in the country.
“Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy,” said Benito Mussolini. By the time one enters the third grade they become aware of concept of democracy. Specifically in America, one is taught that they live in a democratic society. When asking what is democracy, the answer is never truly defiente. The answers given may be; a society where everyone votes, or by dictionary definition “a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of the state; typically through elected representation.”
Liberal Democracy is a democratic system of government in which individual rights and freedoms are officially recognized and protected, and the exercise of political power is limited by the rule of law. The word democracy is greek, the word “demos” means people and “kratos” means power. The idea of liberalism first began in the 1600’s with John Locke as he believed that the people should be allowed to remove the government currently ruling when they have misused their power for ulterior motives. Although the seed was planted in the 1600’s, liberal democracy only properly took form in the 1840’s in Canada. Australia and New Zealand followed not long after as they began to use the secret ballot system to elect political leaders.
First of all, it is important to know the definition of democracy and its aspects. According to Peter Joyce (2005), the democratic government was initiated in the Greek city state of Athens in the fifth century B.C., so as a consequence, the word ‘democracy’ derived from two Greek words, demos (meaning ‘people’) and kratos (meaning ‘power’) , which means ‘government by the people’. Secondly, Giovanni Sartori (1997), a Political Science Researcher states that ‘democracy’ is an abbreviation that means Liberal Democracy. He distinguishes three aspects: democracy as a principle of legitimacy (power not derives
After all, Singapore was named as an example to an “illiberal democracy” in a regularly cited article in the journal Foreign Affairs. So do the citizens in Singapore really have true democracy? In this essay, I will develop on why Singapore is an illiberal democracy and then discuss on whether a liberal democracy is the way forward for Singapore. Firstly, a liberal democracy is one that embraces liberalism through the fairness of elections between different political parties and also the protection of human rights and liberties for everyone.
Conclusion: Page 6 6. Bibliography: Page 6 Introduction: This an age old argument on whether the people should be ruled by one single all powerful leader who isn’t challenged or a leader who is democratically elected into power. In this academic piece I will be looking at the benefits and pitfalls of each form of government as well as give a few examples of each and decide if they were successful.
A democracy is a system of government that gives the people the power to govern. This can either be done directly, where citizens actively participate in the decision making of the country, or indirectly through elected representatives. The purpose of the democratic process is to protect the interests of all citizens of a country. In order to do so, every citizen in the country needs a medium through which to express his political opinion to defend his interests. This is the role of political parties.
Many people believe that the election plays the most important role in democracy. Because a free and fair election holds the government responsible and forces it to behave on voter's interest. However, some scholars find evidence that election itself is not enough to hold politicians responsible if the institutions are not shaping incentives in a correct way. In other words, the role of the election on democracy, whether it helps to serve the interest of the public or specific groups, depends on other political institutions. I