Freedom And Democracy Essay

This paper aims to discuss the relationship of freedom to democracy and the assumption of development in a democratizing country. Furthermore, it also intends to discuss how freedom affects development and vice versa. The word democracy is one of the commonly used terms in the political vocabulary. Democracy is a word that has been given different meanings by different people. The term has originated from the Greek word demokratia: a combination of “demos” and “kratos.” Demos can be translated as consisted of exclusively free adult males of strictly Athenian descent and kratos as power (Held, 2006, p. 11;Ober, 2007, p. 2). On the other hand, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary (Democracy, n.d.), it is an organization or situation in which everyone is treated equally and has equal rights. The word democracy has, therefore, come to imply universal suffrage, competition for office, freedom of speech and the press, and the rule of law. Furthermore, it is a

Since, as stated in Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last man (1992), there is a rule of law that simply recognizes certain individual rights or freedoms from government control. (p.42). Moreover, because our freedom is restricted in some ways due to the rights imposed, Lord Bryce’s (as cited by Fukuyama, 1992, pp. 42-43) classic work on democracy limited them into three: the civil rights, the exemption from control of the citizen in respect of his person and property; religious rights, exemption from control in the expression of religious opinions and the practice of worship; and what he calls political rights, exemption from control in matters which do not so plainly affect the welfare of the whole community as to render control necessary, including the fundamental right of press freedom. Hence, this thing that we call freedom that we currently enjoy may be pertained to as the fundamental rights provided by the