Essay On Successful Democracy

Conditions for a successful democracy

Introduction

Democracy, like every other concept belonging to the social sciences has umpteen definitions given by scholars belonging to several diverse fields. Democracy is that idea which means a lot of things to different thinkers, undesirable to some and unattainable to others. Even though it is adopted in most countries of the world, we yet haven’t arrived at a model for it or even a universal definition that can possibly encompass all its aspects under an umbrella. The forms of democracy, its institutions and its ideals all differ from state to state and even though they may have similar constitutions or even borrowed constitutions, the practice of democracy differs without doubt. For some thinkers democracy is

They assume that equality among the people exist to the level where the individual will fulfil his responsibility keeping not just his motives in mind but that of society. There is also the assumption that individuals in a democracy will either be provided with or have already acquired the sense of politics and civic action through various levels of education. All these suppositions are what make the theories of democracy seems possible or even viable. Without them, the ideas would be lost on the public and democracy reduced to a rubber stamp that exists but cannot exert its rights. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (‘97-‘06) states No nation is born a democracy.” By this he means, that nations need to build on their idea of what democracy should include and aspire to maintain that standard. It needs sufficient time, effort and maintenance to result in success and that too, this success will always be relative. Moreover the government needs to enter into a ‘social contract’ of kind wherein the people give it the legitimacy it needs to govern