Democracy

A detailed Summary of Democracy

Democracy is the fastest growing type of government in the world. More and more countries are revolting against their dictators and parliaments and evolving into Democracies. Democracy means the people are sovereign, government by the people. Representative institutions, therefore, derive their authority from the people and are responsible to the people. According to democratic theory, elections, political parties, and representative legislatures are means of implementing popular sovereignty. Most Americans are not only liberals, in the classical sense of believing in individual liberty, but are also democrats since they believe in equality, majority rule, with recognition of the rights of minorities, and government that is responsive and responsible to a broad electorate. Democracy also includes freedom of speech, press, and assembly; freedom to form opposition political parties and to run for office; commitment to individual dignity and to equal opportunities for people to develop their full potential. Some communist countries tend to call themselves democratic, and the mere fact that a government is elected by a majority of the popular vote does not of itself guarantee a democracy.

5: Cook, Terrence E., and Morgan, Patrick M. Participatory Democracy. San Francisco: Canfield Press, 1971.

3: Movement for Direct Democracy. Online. Internet. 2000. http://galaxy.einet.net/galaxy/Government/Politics/Issues/Direct-Democracy.html

out 500 BC where Cleisthenes, a Greek statesman and regarded as the founder of Athenian Democracy, led the government of Athens. From this period to today Democracy has reigned as one of the most powerful forms of government. John Locke said in his 'Second Treatise of Civil Government' (1690), "all men were fundamentally equal in the sense that no man had jurisdiction over any other man. Each individual was equal and free to judge his own causes and to protect his interests against all other men."

1: The Democratic Platform. Online. Internet. August 27, 1996. http://www.democrats.org/index.html

Under the umbrella of democracy the American States and the federal government have grown politically and socially. The United States is a unique body because of how and why it started as well as its geographical location. The foundations of the democratic process in America are completely different from anywhere else on the globe. The land was virginal and the colonies had almost complete sovereignty from England from the very beginning because an ocean and financial troubles separated them. The people who came to America were the broken and unhappy in England and all were trying to find a place where they could start new and create a political structure that would facilitate an individual freedom unlike anything that they had previously experienced in Europe. The nature of democracy in the New World rested within the fact that all of the immigrants were basically from the same social strata, resulting in the first new country where there was no preliminary basis for an aristocracy. There were also outside influences lending unvoiced support for the creation of this new democracy. Being an ocean apart from its mother country, who at this time did not have the financial reserves to oversee its colonies, let the Americans govern themselves. If they had not had this sovereignty at the beginning America might have become something completely different than it is today, but that was not the case. So these immigrants now had a fertile place to plant their ideas of a country founded upon the many ideas of the Enlightenment. Another large influence was the lack of neighbors. America had no worries of guarding and protecting its borders because there was not anyo

Some common words found in the essay are:
Original American, Civil Government', North South, Democracies Democracy, Atlantic Pacific, Whereas England, , Online Internet, Athenian Democracy, Internet February, online internet, type government, political parties, creation democracy, john locke, land instead, america completely, treatise civil, forms government, north south,

Approximate Word count = 1708
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History