Democracy

Democracy means rule by the people. There are different ways this can be done:
People meet to decide about new laws, and changes to existing ones. This is usually called direct democracy. It is never used except in small countries, or perhaps in towns. Modern populations are usually too large to do this.
The people elect their leaders. These leaders take decisions about laws. This is commonly called representative democracy. Elections are either held periodically, or when an officeholder dies.
Sometimes people can propose new laws or changes to existing laws. Usually, this is done using a referendum, a vote.
Sometimes, people are chosen more or less at random. This is common, for example, when choosing a jury for a trial. In Europe, trials with a jury are usually used for serious crimes. However, many legal cases are not about crimes. They are about commercial issues. They are usually held without a jury, and decisions are made by the judge or judicial panel.
The type of government where power is in the hands of a single person is called a dictatorship. Democracy is the opposite of a dictatorship. The Soviet Union almost always was a dictatorship, as Russia is today. Dictatorships often act against freedom of expression.
An important source of information is the Democracy Index published by the Economist periodical.
Types of government
Elections are simple: The candidate with the most votes gets elected. Very often, the politicians being elected belongs to a political party. Instead of choosing a person, people vote for a party. The party with the most votes then picks the candidates.
Usually, the people being elected need to meet certain conditions: They need to have a certain age or a government body needs to determine that they are suitably qualified to perform the job.
Not everyone can vote in an election. Suffrage is only given to people who are citizens. The young are usually excluded, and some other groups such as prisoners.
For some elections, a country makes voting compulsory. Someone who does not vote and who does not give a good reason, usually has to pay a fine.
Kinds of democracy
Democracy may be direct or indirect.
In a direct democracy, every adult has the right to vote on individual laws. A modern example of direct democracy is a referendum, which is the name for deciding a law where everyone in the community votes on it. Direct democracies are not usually used to run countries. It is not practical to have everyone voting on everything.
In an indirect, or representative democracy, people choose representatives to make laws for them. These people can be mayors, councilmen, members of Parliament, or other government officials. This is the usual kind of democracy. Large communities like cities and countries use this method, but it may not be needed for a small group.
Pseudo-democracy
A term for democracies which are not actually democracies. For example, a constitution of a country may be democratic, but ways are find to interfere with elections. The classic case is Russia, where opposition candidates are not allowed to state their case on any of the state-controlled media. Elections for President are fixed, but the state can claim democratic legitimacy, because in principle other candidates may stand for election. Opposition candidates have no access to the media, and may be harassed in various ways. This is the way all the former parts of the Soviet Union are governed. This does not mean the governments are always bad governments. It does mean that holding "fixed" elections deprives the people of a fair vote. Not surprisingly, these countries have Presidents who are never beaten in an election. They may serve for eight years or longer before retiring. The next leaders are pre-chosen by discussion between the leading families.
The European Parliament says Russia functions as a unitary state despite officially being a federation.
History
Ancient origins
Democracy was developed long ago by the ancient Greeks in classical Athens. There, everyone who was a citizen (not slaves, women, foreigners, and children) got together in one area. The assembly would talk about what kinds of laws they wanted and voted on them. The council would suggest the laws. All citizens were allowed in the assembly.
The council were picked by draws (lottery). The participants in the council would change every year, and the number of people in the council was at the most 500. For some offices, the Athenian citizens would pick a leader by writing the name of their favorite candidate on a piece of stone or wood. The person with the most votes became the leader.
Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, there were many systems, although only a few people could join in at this time. The Parliament of England began from the Magna Carta, a document which said that the King's power was limited, and protected certain rights of the people. The first elected parliament was De Montfort's Parliament in England in 1265.
However, only a few people could actually join in. Parliament was chosen by only a few percent of the people (in 1780, fewer than 3% of people joined in). The ruler also had the power to call parliaments. After a long time, the power of Parliament began to grow. After the Glorious Revolution in 1688, the English Bill of Rights 1689 made Parliament more powerful. Later, the king or queen became a symbol instead of having real power.
Democratic consolidation
Democratic consolidation is how a new democracy matures. Once mature, it is unlikely to revert to dictatorship rule without an external shock.
The idea is that unconsolidated democracies suffer from intermittent elections which are not free and fair. In other words, powerful groups are able to prevent the system working fairly.
Related pages
Democracy Index
Majority rule
Direct democracy
Political party
Constitution
Constitutional economics
Political economy
Election
Pluralism
Rule of law
Citizenship
Activism
Politics
References