what is democracy?(short answers)?
90551
A government of the people, by the people, for the people.
204252
Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.\n\nGeorge Bernard Shaw
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There are different models of democracy in the "West". Three useful categories are DIRECT democracy, REPRESENTATIVE democracy and PARTICIPATORY democracy.\n\nA direct democracy is one where the citizens are directly involved in making policy decisions. This means people will effectively vote to decide what should be done.\n\nA representative democracy (eg. US and Australia) is one where leaders are elected to make decisions and have a responsibility to pursue the interests of those who elected them. \n\nIn a participatory democracy, government will make an effort to include citizens in decision-making. They may conduct polling, or run policy forums to inform people but ultimately the decision rests with government, guided by the public. This style of democracy is evident in some Scandinavian countries.\n\nThe reality of the system? It's not a perfect system of government. Sometimes governments ignore the public. Sometimes governments with alot of financial support from interest groups will look after their needs before the needs of the rest of the population and then have the funds to run massive media campaigns for their re-election. Sometimes people are malleable enough to forget that they were lied to or disadvantaged around election time. But when the day comes that people have had enough and decide it's time for a change, they can vote for a new leader. And that is why Churchill said "Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried". \n\nCheers!
794060
Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy always followed by dictatorship. \n\nWhen important issues affecting the life of an individual are decided by somebody else, it makes no difference to the individual whether that somebody else is a king, a dictator or society at large.
801155
Democracy goes against all the laws of the jungle that guide human nature. It is the one form of government that tries to rise above petty selfish motves. The entire group decides what is in everyone's best interest, or tries to pick a leader best qualified to speak for it and make the best choice available. The leader rules by the people's pleasure, and may pay the ultimate price if found wanting.\nIt would be nice if we had a real democracy. (sigh)
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Democracy:  Everyone votes for everything.\n\nRepublic:  Voters choose representatives to vote on issues.
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In the future...\n\nthe strong will define what democracy is.
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The definition of a democracy, in its most basic form, is a government of the people, meaning the people make the decisions.\n\nIn Athens, the people who were included were free men of 18 or older. Slaves and women were not allowed to vote. The men gathered together and everyone was allowed to speak his mind on an issue. After everyone who wanted a say had had time to speak his mind, the entire group voted on the issue at hand.\n\nModern democracies tend to be representative democracies. Both men and women are allowed to vote after they reach the age of 18. Usually, they vote for representatives who represent them and speak for them at government meetings. There are a few isolated small towns in the US that still practice the older form of democracy. They hold town meetings and everyone who wants to speak gets a chance, and then they vote on the issue at hand. But for the most part, in a modern democracy, decisions are made by representatives. At the local level (state, county and city) people often vote directly for an issue that has been proposed by representatives, such as tax levies for schools or roads, amendments to state constitutions, etc. But issues at a national level are decided by elected representatives.\n\nTo sum up, the biggest difference between the two kinds of democracy is that the Athenian democracy was a direct democracy, where each individual was allowed their say and voted directly on the issue. Modern democracies are representative democracies, where the people vote for a representative who speaks and votes for them when it comes time to decide an issue.
89260
too many people want to be in charge, old saying "too many cheifs not enough indians" democracy is a system for the people and by the people. if the common person does not stand up for it it will falter.
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Our form of democracy is not genuine democracy.  And it works just fine, thanks.  \n\nThe US is a democratic-republic.  Our own concept.
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It would help if you told us where you saw those terms used because academics like to throw random words like that around all the time. I've heard of developmental democracy, implying that a democratic political system hasn't been fully formed yet and only includes some elements of democracy (usually formal processes like elections, but no change of government). I would say a "developmental state" has the same idea behind it, maybe to include economic and social development.\n\nA minimal state, though, often referenced alongside "neoliberalist" economic policies refers to instances where governments limit their role in citizens lives. Accordingly, governments are only responsible for national security, law and order and regulation of market (but only to prevent corruption and economic crises).
109704
To control the world thru "democracy"
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where is democracy? out of 100 voters 50% give vote in that who get majority wins.finally a winner never get total majority. they just say the word to mesmerize public.don't think that way.
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Hass J, You ask an important question, and you deserve a respectful answer.\n\nWinston Churchill once said, "Democracy is the worst form of government -- except for all the rest."\n\nThe legendary journalist, H. L. Mencken once said, "Democracy is the theory that the common man knows what he wants, and deserves to get it -- good and hard!"\n\nThe sentiments in your question are the core issues that have animated political philosophy since the days of Socrates. How best to govern. People like Socrates and Plato believed that the people couldn't be trusted because they were basically ignorant; and therefore Democracy leads to mob rule. They argued for the rule of the "rational elite."\n\nLater, men like John Locke argued that since the people have to live with the policies of government; and since all sovereignty flows from the the people anyway, the people have the absolute rights.\n\nThe problem is, both groups are correct. The people are the ones who have to pay, and therefore they should have a right in determining the people who make them do the paying. And yet, most people don't pay close attention to politics, and therefore are subject to stupid rhetoric that has no basis in fact. And this leads to fools being elected to powerful offices.\n\nActually I think Clint E is being conservative in his estimates. I think the figure is actually closer to 50%. In most presidential election years, you're lucky if you get half of the electorate to show up. And when they do, there's no guarantee that the decisions they make weren't based on hearing some stupid 30 second sound-bite on TV. \n\nThe answer is education. People have to made aware of the consequences of being uninformed. It's not that people are retarded -- it's that they ACT like they're retarded. That's why some of us come on forums like this. We're trying to raise levels of awareness.\n\nSuperior Question. Hope this answer helps. \n\nCheers, mate
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Democracy has roots in Greece.\n\nDemos- the common people\n\nBelow is a very informative article. Please take a look \n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy
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Democracy means decision making by the people, and always has.  But the definition leaves a lot of wiggle room, since there are questions it does not address, such as "who are the people?", "which decisions do they make?", "when there is a decision to be made, how are possible courses of action proposed and considered?", and "how are conflicts resolved?"\n\n"The people" has evolved.  In England at one time, only landowners could participate in elections.  In many countries two hundred years ago, only men could vote.  Today, every adult is allowed to vote in most (all? I have no idea) countries.  I'd count this as a positive change.\n\n"In which decisions do the people participate?"  Usually, people only get to choose candidates to make decisions for them (representative democracy) and this has been the case throughout the modern era.  The people are only allowed to make decisions directly in rare cases (usually called referendums.)  Even then, the set of choices, and the way the outcome is computed, is not decided by the people. Here, democracy has not evolved, even though modern technology could allow the public to make decisions easily and regularly, at low cost.\n\n"When there is a decision to be made, how are possible courses of action proposed and considered?" Concerning the decision of who to elect, almost anyone is typically allowed to run for office, and each candidate must find some way to convince voters to vote for them.  Once in office, an official then helps make decisions on behalf of the people. The details vary from country to country, but generally, one person proposes a bill and then it goes through a period of revision and debate in a legislature.  The process is often declared in the constitution, so if the process works poorly, the country is permanently hurt by it.\n\nIt seems to me that all of these things--the way candidates are chosen, how they win the hearts of the people, and how decisions are made in legislatures--change very little over time, even when the problems are obvious (e.g. the U.S. electoral college).\n\n"how are conflicts resolved?" is an important question that is often ignored, and therefore does not evolve over time.  To choose one candidate among several, for example, many countries including the U.S. and Canada use Single Plurality (first-past-the-post) voting.  Yet people familiar with the properties of alternatives know that Single Plurality is one of the worst possible systems.  Australia actually recognized this and tried to fix it by introducing Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), yet this system doesn't work much better in practice and from a purely mathematical perspective, it is utterly nonsensical.  Mathematically and intuitively, Ranked Pairs is arguably the best system for choosing one candidate among several, but for choosing many candidates (e.g. for a legislature), a proportional representation system would probably be better (I would say so definitively, except that I know less about it).\n\nFinally, I would add that whether "democracy is getting better or worse" is not a question we should be concerned with per se.  In my opinion, democracy should not be an end in itself, but rather a means--one of many--to maintain/improve the overall happiness and contentedness of society's people.  It accomplishes this primarily by ensuring that small numbers of people do not have excessive amounts of power, because the decisions of small groups tend to be at the expense of everyone else.  If democracy fails to assist general happiness, then we may as well dump it.  Direct democracy is certainly more "democratic" than representative democracy, but we should only want it insofar as it would result in better decision-making.
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Democracy comes from two greek words - Demos (people) and Cratos (rule). So it means "rule by the people".\n\nDemocracy simply means that the people are the ones who make decisions. In that sense, the United States has only on rare occasions been a democracy.