Democracy: form of government in which the rulers

are elected by the people

Undemocratic Countries
- The final decisions must be taken by rulers elected
by the people.
Pakistan: final decisions taken by rulers NOT
elected by the people(Pervez Musharraf and the
National Security Council)
- Elections must offer a choice and fair opportunity
to the people to change the current rulers.
China: elections DID NOT offer a choice to the
people to change the current rulers(had to choose the
ruling party and the candidates approved by it)
Mexico: elections DID NOT offer a fair opportunity
to the people to change the current rulers(ruling party
could never be defeated, even if the people were against
it)
- Each adult citizen must have one vote and each
vote must have one value.
Saudi Arabia, Estonia: NOT every adult citizen had
one vote(Saudi Arabian women, Russian minority in
Estonia)
Fiji: NOT every vote had one value(native Fiji’s
vote had more value than Indian-Fiji’s vote)
- A democratic government must rule within limits
set by constitutional law and citizens’ rights.
Zimbabwe: DID NOT respect the basic rights of the
people(which were not protected by a judiciary whose
orders are to be obeyed by everyone)
Arguments Against Democracy
- Leaders keep changing, leading to instability.
- Lots of people have to be consulted, leading to
delays.
- Elected leaders do not know the best interest of the
people, leading to bad decisions.
- Based on electoral competition, leading to
corruption and no scope for morality.
- People do not know what is good for them, leading
to bad decisions.
Arguments For Democracy
- more accountable form of government(rulers have
to attend to the people’s needs)
India did not have a famine of the kind China did
because it responded to food scarcity in a way China
DID NOT
- improves the quality of decision-making(based on
consultation and discussion, thus reducing chances of
rash or irresponsible decisions)
- provides a method to deal with differences and
conflicts(‘no party is a permanent winner or loser’)
- enhances the dignity of the people(‘the poorest and
the least educated have the same status as the rich and
the educated’, since they all have the right to vote)
- allows us to correct its own mistakes(‘either the
rulers change their decisions, or the rulers be changed’)
Representative Democracy: most common form of
democracy, when the people rule through their
representatives
- involve such a large amount of people that it is
physically impossible for them to sit together and
take a collective decision
- the people might not have the time, desire or skills
to take part in the decisions