DEMOCRACY
Democracy is a system of government by which political sovereignty is retained by the people and either exercised directly by citizens or through their elected representatives. In a democratic state, citizens have the right to make decisions of civil issues either directly or indirectly. The authority is usually controlled by most of the public in this countries.
Democracy is a relatively advanced government system. In which it is advanced is that citizens can propose their own opinions. These opinions may not be the same, sometimes they may even be opposite, but this is exactly democracy's advantage. Apparently, it may look disorder, but finally it would be alleviated by understanding and appreciation. The result is shouldered by all citizens. Democracy respects everyone, but not blindly follow some individuals instruction. In such doing, people can at least express their personally views.
Democracy is a good government system. So I believe democracy would create stability.
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6 comments:
I also agree that democracy is a good policy of a government in the modern world, but saying that democracy can create stability in a society is a little harsh. First of all, we should know the definition of "stability in a society".
Basically when we say a society is stable, we are talking about its process of development, whether it's smooth or not. The "stability" also includs economic development and political development. Using a general phrase to simplify the concept is "fine all the time".
For example, we always say China was stable because every part went fine and the economic development is very fast. However, when the boycott against Beijing Olympics and when the Earthquake came, we say that "China now is in trouble but not stable". The reason why we change our mind is because the stability in a society is not only about GDP or the condition of the human rights.
Sometimes democracy really cannot create stability but only continuous argument or conflict because everyone and groups are claiming for "equality" although they have already got the benefit.
Therefore I think we have to consider more about the impact of practicing democracy in a society, and we should not give a harsh generalization.
Li Baiyang
YIKANG:
Baiyang is right. Although democracy is good in some aspects, it won't directly lead to stability of society. Stability is something that makes up of many components, such as economic stability, social stability, political stability and so on. Democracy is only a method, but not the final result. Whether a society could achieve stability or not mostly depends on its own condition. For example, if there is a country which has just undergone a war, People‘s lives are poor; Education standard is low; Different political groups are hostile against other, it may not be necessary or suitable for this country to implement democracy because the people cannot even fill up their stomach. The priority for them at this moment is to survive. If they implement democracy now, it may cause more turmoil. Such can only worsen the situation. They may even implement wartime communism rather than democracy. Therefore, although democracy is workable most of the time, it depends on the condition of the country itself.
However, despite the conditions of the countries, it also concerns democracy itself.
As a matter of fact, there are various types of democracy. Different type of democracy should be applied appropriately in specific countries; otherwise, it will not work.
For instance, direct democracy, classic termed pure democracy, is a political system where the citizens participate in the decision-making personally. Representative Democracy is a form of government founded on the principles of popular sovereignty by the people's representatives. Basically, these two forms of democracy are contrary to each other. Direct democracy is applied in countries such as Switzerland while representative democracy is applied in Canada, UK and USA. If these two groups of countries exchange their form of democracy that they apply, it will not work. Hence, it is important for government to choose a suitable form of democracy for the country in order to create a stable society.
Zhongyuan 25 3I
Well, as Zhongyuan said, different countries have different formations of democracy. However, we are now encouraging the use of democracy; I think the reason is very important if we want to analyze democracy.
I think the most important point is that democracy is a symbol of the civilization and it can bring the country a long-term benefit. Compared to totalitarianism which is used in the war or special period, democracy is a kind of ideology that can help develop the countries in the peaceful world. As its name shows us, democracy tries to ensure the equality and reduce the rate of conflict within the country.
I say it can bring us a long-term benefit is because democracy can develop the country by uniting everyone’s power and intelligence as it gives everyone equal rights to vote or do something else in a legal way. From the peasants all the way to the president, they all know that they have to work harder to be promoted or to keep his position because others have the chance to replace them. In term of freedom, democracy gives the public the freedom to give speeches or to perform, that’s also a modern way to entertain and to improve the arts appreciation of the public.
Li Baiyang
Baiyang said that democracy should be encouraged as it can contribute a part of stability in a country. However, I don’t think so. My viewpoint is that democracy does not create stability. First of all, democracy follows might-makes-right mob rule, which means majority impose laws on the minority. I think the main way of democracy is voting, so majority will decide the rules. Moreover, if the majority is constant, the democracy will bring instability. Such as in Northern Ireland, the Protestants are majority, so when Protestants and Catholics voted to decide if Northern Ireland would belong to British, the result was definitely yes. If you were a Catholic which was minority, what would you do? You would protest as if you didn’t do that, you would follow the majority rules. So democracy can also create instability.
Furthermore, in modern world, the way of democracy is mostly that the populace vote to elect their representatives and representatives vote to decide rules. This way has some disadvantages. In USA, the state Chief Executives is like representatives. However, some of them give money to the populace to get the vote which means if you have money then you can be representatives. As the root theory of democracy is voting, so if one (can be a person or a rule which is not decided yet) can get the most votes, he/she/it will win. So many concentrate on votes but not democracy, I think it can no longer be called ‘democracy’. The result of this kind of ‘democracy’ is that people may under the rules/person which is against them, so they will also protest to protect their might.
Therefore, I think democracy has some disadvantages and it cannot create stability.
So our conclusion of the discussion of the democracy is that democracy has some advantages as well as disadvantages, but it should be promoted as it can contribute a part of stability of a society.
The advantages of democracy are: First, citizens have the right to make decisions of civil issues either directly or indirectly, so the authority is usually controlled by most of the public. Second, it can bring the country a long-term benefit compared to totalitarianism.
The disadvantages of democracy are: First, in a democracy society, the majority imposes laws on the minority. Second, the indirect way of democracy which is populace vote to elect representatives, some candidates of representatives concentrate on the might of representatives instead of thinking about populace, so it can become no longer democracy.
In addition, the stability of a society is not fully influenced by whether it is democracy or not, the economic and political development also contributes a part. However, as it can bring the country a long-term benefit and most of countries in the world are democracy now, we think democracy can contribute a part of stability of a society and it should be promoted.
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