A government must conform with some basic rules if it wishes to call itself a democratic state. These rules although binding can be ignored in certain crucial situations such as in time of crisis like war or terrorist attack. An example of this was when in the second world war the acting government stayed in power even though they had completed their four years.
The first rule is that the government must answer to public opinion which entails regular (four year) elections in this country. An example of this rule being put into practice recently is on the debate over Iraq. The Prime Minister, Tony Blair is facing fierce opposition and public opinion to go to war with the U.S. Now unless Blair can change there minds which he has been trying to do with the release of a dossier claiming that it shows the truths about Iraq’s military capability particularly NBC elements.
The second rule is that the society has to be composed to has to be allowed to be composed of numerous autonomous sections and associations. This means that the formation of unions to represent a group of people for example farm workers to the government would be allowed unless there was evidence of that union or group being a threat to the state such as pro-Nazis groups.
The third is that there is to be no imposition of any creed, philosophy or ideology. The majority view of truth will vary and the government must remain representative to the public. If there was an imposition of any of the above the government would no longer be democratic but would be more Fundamentalist. Because Democracy is not perfect which will be explained in more detail below, there was major problems in Northern Ireland because of conflicting beliefs between Catholics and Protestants. As a result the IRA terrorist group was formed with left and right extremist groups attaching themselves to the cause (such as the more violent PIRA), its aim being to harass and blackmail the British government into releasing N.I back into the Republic.
To stay a democracy a state must have checks and be under continual assessment. An example of this implementation was when Clinton was found to have been having an affair. Their was a lot of discussion within congress to whether or not this relationship affected the running of the U.S.A. An example of this not been implemented can be found in any dictatorship such as Iraq where Saddam is able to do much of what he wants to do. There is also North Korea where there are strict laws limiting what the people can do punishable by death. Such as foreigners who are actually let in are not allowed any cameras to show what is happening inside the country.
Elections inside a democratic state must be in secret and uncoerced. This is to prevent rigging of elections or making people vote for people they do not want. Zimbabwe’s president elections have been suspect for this reason.
Important areas of decision making in a state should be controlled by private companies, professional associations, churches, political parties and other pressure groups. The governments task is only to co-ordinate the due arguments and opinions and to decide which is best for the state and which is wanted in the public majority. The only exclusion to this is in extreme cases and should only be used as a last resort. This happened in the wake of September eleventh when the Terrorism Act was implemented by the Government. This allowed the police to hold potential terrorists in custody for longer than normal suspects. Human rights protest groups opposed this decision but because it was thought another terrorist attack was likely in the west the decision was made regardless. On the whole government intervention can and does vary considerably.
In a democracy there are constitutional checks and balances. A separation of powers. What this means is that the power of a state cannot be all in control of by one person. The U.K’s power is controlled by three factions each with a separate function. These are Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary. In Britain these three overlap each other like the Olympics logo. This represents that each has a part or say in what each other does. This would effectively prevent in the unlikely event that an person with extremist views would be able to implement them on their own.
Although the Democracy sounds good on paper it is not a perfect way to run a state and does have flaws which in the past equated to major problems as in N.Ireland. Democracy has inherent contradictions such as the liberty of the individual and equality of the majority and also government by the majority versus minority rights. The latter applies to Northern Ireland where one third of the population was catholic and wished to be part of the Republic of Ireland and two thirds of the pop. was protestant and wanted to stay as the U.K. This ironic minority was not happy with the decisions of the majority being protestant and as a result formed the IRA.
In conclusion a Democratic government despite its deficiencies remains to be the best way of running a country without the threat of arbitrary ruling and tyranny.