Dorota Giżyńska What Is Democracy?

A democracy is a system of governancegovernancegovernance that gives people the ability to exerciseexerciseexercise political influencepolitical influencepolitical influence and restrictsrestricts [restrict]restricts the authority of the head of statehead of statehead of state. It allows for the separation of duties among different branchesbranches [branch]branches of government and protects the preservationpreservationpreservation of basic rightsrights [right]rights and libertiesliberties [liberty]liberties.

Democracy continues to be the most often used type of governance around the globe, despite the prominenceprominenceprominence of non‑democratic, authoritarian regimesauthoritarian regimeauthoritarian regimes like China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. The terms “people” (dēmos) and “rule” (kratos), which are both Greek words, are the roots of the word democracy. Perhaps the best definition of democracy is found in U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's renowned 1863 Gettysburg Address, which is a “government of the people, by the people, for the people…” The easiness of the idea would lead one to believe that establishingestablishing [establish]establishing and maintainingmaintaining [maintain]maintaining a government of, for, and by the people – a “popular” government – is not very difficult. However, a number of important political and practical concerns must be discussed while draftingdrafting [draft]drafting a constitution, which normally serves as the frameworkframeworkframework within which a democracy will operate.

Political scientists generally agree that the following six factors provide the basis for most democracies:

A. ... is the idea that the people, acting through their elected representativesrepresentatives [representative]representatives, establish and maintain the government.

B. ... is a framework for holding free and fair elections, and in accordance within accordance within accordance with the popular sovereignty concept, it is the people who are the source of all political power.

C. ... is based on a belief that democracies rarely thrivethrivethrive in the absence of the population’s active involvement. The ability and encouragement to participate in political and civic activities are hallmarkshallmarks [hallmark]hallmarks of healthy democracies.

D. ... defines that political authority should be split and distributed among the many governmental organisations and shouldn’t be centralised in a single person – such as a king or a queen.

E. ... are freedoms which safeguardsafeguardsafeguard each citizen’s universal privileges. In addition toin addition toIn addition to that, they are guaranteed by the countries’ constitutions. They are believed to be inherent toinherent toinherent to all people, regardless ofregardless ofregardless of their gender, nationality, ethnicity, colour, religion, language, or any other characteristics.

F. ... states that all citizenscitizens [citizen]citizens are subject toare subject to [be subject to]are subject to the regulations that are made by the public and fairly applied in a way that respects human rights by an independent judicial system.

Democracy exists in many different forms around the world. More democratic systems have been recognised throughout history than there are nationsnations [nation]nations on the planet. For instance in 2018, 96 out of 167 nations (57%) with a population of at least 500,000 had some kind of democracy. Statistics reveal that since the mid‑1970s, the number of democracies among world governments has been rising.

1 Źródło: Dorota Giżyńska, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.