The Benefits and Problems of Democracy
The benefits and Problems with Democracy
In the famous words of Sir Winston Churchill, “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” As a staunch supporter of democracy, Churchill is admitting that although there may be a variety of flaws in a democratic government, it is still a far more suitable choice of governing as opposed to alternate forms of government. Widely accepted as the most popular and working form of government, democracy is, in a nutshell, a political system in which the power is given to the popular vote of the people. In fact, the very origins of the term democracy hail from the Greek term for ‘ruled by the people’. The basic form of our modern democratic system originated in Greece as a polar-opposite alternative to a dictatorship. This form of democracy is by far the most purest in its original form as there were no elected representatives, and every eligible citizen voted on all issues in the government. Unfortunately, women and slaves were not considered eligible to vote at this time even though they made up more than 50% of the population. Despite this, the basic principle that the power of the government is directly influenced by every eligible citizen was most strongly incorporated at that time. Nowadays, many of our modern democratic governments have altered this form of government by electing a few official representatives to vote on issues which makes many of our modern democracies more of an elected oligarchy as opposed to being a democracy. The question at hand then, is what the benefits of this modern form of democracy are as well as the issues and potential problems that a democratic society would have to face. To start off, we can look at some of the clear advantages and disadvantages of having a democracy in terms of dealing with corruption, a serious issue in both democratic
In the famous words of Sir Winston Churchill, “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” As a staunch supporter of democracy, Churchill is admitting that although there may be a variety of flaws in a democratic government, it is still a far more suitable choice of governing as opposed to alternate forms of government. Widely accepted as the most popular and working form of government, democracy is, in a nutshell, a political system in which the power is given to the popular vote of the people. In fact, the very origins of the term democracy hail from the Greek term for ‘ruled by the people’. The basic form of our modern democratic system originated in Greece as a polar-opposite alternative to a dictatorship. This form of democracy is by far the most purest in its original form as there were no elected representatives, and every eligible citizen voted on all issues in the government. Unfortunately, women and slaves were not considered eligible to vote at this time even though they made up more than 50% of the population. Despite this, the basic principle that the power of the government is directly influenced by every eligible citizen was most strongly incorporated at that time. Nowadays, many of our modern democratic governments have altered this form of government by electing a few official representatives to vote on issues which makes many of our modern democracies more of an elected oligarchy as opposed to being a democracy. The question at hand then, is what the benefits of this modern form of democracy are as well as the issues and potential problems that a democratic society would have to face. To start off, we can look at some of the clear advantages and disadvantages of having a democracy in terms of dealing with corruption, a serious issue in both democratic
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