Democracy

**Democracy** is the principle where all voices deserve to be heard and all questions deserve a rational and unbiased inspection. As a government system, eligible citizens are granted the power to vote on policies, tactics, and leaders.

## Positives

Democracies are often viewed by populations as the most approachable form of government. People like the idea that they can have a voice and that their voice matters. Democracies, in their beginnings, are also very pro-capitalist and can experience stages of growth that even out-compete monarchies.

## Democratic Thought vs. Democracies

What many people tend to get confused about democracy is that it is not only a government system but a principle of rationality. One of the reasons democracy experienced such growth before the American Revolution was because of the Age of Enlightenment where the concepts of freedom of speech and expression allowed the scientific community to rapidly expand in intelligence. When it worked for science and art, many well-educated intellectuals expected it to work for governments as well (which was probably what the Greeks and Romans believed).

## Problems

Unfortunately, as promising as it sounds, democracy does not work as a government system beyond extreme constraint (that is not possible to maintain). Democracy is corruptible and amoral. It encourages the individual to care more for himself than for others. With hyper-individualism being rampant previous institutions that held society together degrade over time. Social trust will fall and people will tolerate sub-par or corrupt leadership in hope for a better one the next election. In republics, representative positions inevitable become held by corrupt individuals without dedication to their people or their state. In America today, we see representatives absorbing lobbyist money through charity foundations in exchange for favors. These politicians also have the ability to hold dual citizenship with countries like Israel or can offshore their wealth to the Bahamas or Switzerland.

## Types of Democracies

**Direct Democracy:** A system when taken place all citizens get to vote on all laws, there are no leaders or representatives. This system typically only works in small city states such as ancient Athens.

**Representative Democracy:**A system in which voters elect representatives to make laws for them. Often times this can create a party system in which politics will quickly devolve into a sporting match. As representatives need to battle it out for a seat they will need ungodly amounts of the applicable currency, this leads to industry control of politics and the idea that large corporations are worth more than the average citizen. Typically in this system most people will not become involved in politics aside from a few election years, when those roll around they will have no idea what has happened recently and base their entire knowledge and reasoning on campaign promises. This system is typically found in larger nations where most people would not have time to deal with voting on laws.

## Republic

Despite what edgy people may say, a **republic** *is* a democracy. It runs under the principle that eligible citizens can vote in representatives that can handle the state and its problems for them. These representatives are usually expected to cooperate in a sort of counsel or senate where more votes are held over proposed policies.

## Notable Democracies or Republics

1. Classical Greece
2. Republican and Dictatorial Rome
3. The United States of America