Read carefully the three descriptive texts below
Text 2 (M2 LA 1)
Instructions
Democracy
Democracy,
in modern usage, is a system of
government in which the citizens exercise power
directly or elect representatives from among themselves to form a governing
body, such as a parliament. Democracy is sometimes referred to as "rule of
the majority". Democracy is a system of processing conflicts in which
outcomes depend on what participants do, but no single force controls what
occurs and its outcomes.
The
uncertainty of outcomes is inherent in
democracy, which makes all forces struggle
repeatedly for the realization of their interests, being the devolution of
power from a group of people to a set of rules. Western democracy, as
distinct from that which existed in pre-modern societies, is generally
considered to have originated in city states such as Classical Athens
and the Roman Republic,
where various schemes and degrees of
enfranchisement of the free male population were observed before the form
disappeared in the West at the beginning of late antiquity. The English word dates to the 16th century, from
the older Middle
French and Middle Latin equivalents.
According
to political scientist Larry Diamond,
democracy
consists of four key elements: a political system for
choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections; the active participation of the people, as
citizens, in politics and civic life; protection of the human rights of all citizens; a rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to
all citizens.
The term appeared
in the 5th century BC, to denote the
political systems then existing in Greek
city-states, notably Athens, to mean "rule of the people", in contrast
to aristocracy
(ἀριστοκρατία, aristokratía),
meaning "rule of an elite". While theoretically these
definitions are in opposition, in practice
the distinction has been blurred historically.
The political system of Classical Athens, for example, granted democratic
citizenship to free men and excluded slaves and women from political
participation. In virtually all democratic governments throughout ancient and
modern history, democratic citizenship consisted of an elite class until full
enfranchisement was won for all adult citizens in most modern democracies
through the suffrage
movements of the
19th and
20th centuries.
Democracy contrasts with forms of
government where power is either held by an individual, as in an absolute monarchy, or where
power is held by a small number of individuals, as in an oligarchy. Nevertheless, these oppositions, inherited from Greek
philosophy, are now ambiguous because contemporary governments have
mixed democratic, oligarchic, and monarchic
elements. Karl
Popper defined
democracy in contrast to dictatorship
or tyranny, thus focusing on opportunities
for the people to control their leaders and to oust them without the need
for a revolution.
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