Assess the problems in achieving democratic government by the election of representatives

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Assess the problems in achieving democratic government by the election of representatives

Democracy can be defined in a short phrase of ‘government by the people.’ It originates from the Greek word kratos meaning power or rule; therefore Democracy means ‘rule by the demos’ (demos referring to ‘the people’). Abraham Lincoln famously stated in 1864 at the height of the American Civil War; ‘government of people, by the people, and for the people.’ He makes it clear that democracy links government to the people, but this link can be forged in a number of ways: government of, by and for the people. Being so, it seems obvious that to achieve a democratic government, the election of representatives is necessary; however many argue that this is not the case.

The first question that needs to be addressed in tackling this debate is ‘who are the people, and who should vote’? The core feature of democracy is the principle of political equality. This therefore suggests that political power should be distributed as widely and as evenly as possible. The original Greek definition of ‘the demos’ meaning ‘the people,’ surely refers to all the people, i.e. the entire population of the country. In modern democracies, evidently political participation has been restricted, and some cases severely. History has proven that in the USA and UK especially, election of representatives has been far from democratic. For example, it was only until 1928 when women in the UK were gained full voting rights.  It was only until the early 1960s when African Americans in many southern states where granted full voting rights. In addition, in Switzerland it was established in 1971 when women were eventually enfranchised.  Even in today’s world important restriction continues to be practised in all modern democracies, in the form of the exclusion of children from political participation and technical restrictions such as, the certifiably insane and imprisoned criminals. The term ‘the people’ has been clearly adapted and modified; however it is certain that there are problems in the democratic nature of achieving government by the election of representatives.

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There are many different models of democracy; however many take the view of theorists such as Rousseau who focuses on the ‘general will’ or ‘collective will,’ as opposed to the ‘private will’ of each individual. Alternatively, ‘the people’ may in practice be taken to mean ‘the majority.’ In case, the will of the majority or numerically strongest overrides the will of the minority. Furthermore there are two main forms of democracy, being representative and direct. Representative democracy is a limited and indirect form of democracy. It is limited in that popular participation in government is infrequent and brief, such as ...

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