Does Democracy Work?
Democracy has always been the desire of many people, but did not come into effect in government systems until used by the Greeks and Romans in the early years B.C. Unlike the representative type democracy used in the United States, the Greeks and Romans used a direct democracy, one in which every citizen votes on every issue. Citizens cast their votes using ballot coins. Some coins had holes in the center while others were solid. The solid and hollow centers of the coins represented “yes” or “no”. This was the very beginning of democracy.
Before democracy, many countries were ruled by autocracy, monarchy, theocracy, or oligarchy. Autocracy is rule by one person who has total power, like a dictator. Like autocracy, monarchy is rule by one person, but he/she is of a Royal Family. Theocracy on the other hand is a government system in which religious believers control the government. Finally, oligarchy is rule by a small, privileged ruling class.
While governments ruled by one person or a ruling class worked for many years, they often resulted in wars, unhappy citizens, separation of families, and frequent change of ruthless rules. The answer to most of these problems was democracy. Democracy spread the powers of the government between two or more branches, to insure that one person or department would not become too powerful. Also, democracy allowed citizens of the city state or country to vote on issues regarding their town. At first, the citizen class was much like a very confidential “club”. Only men were allowed to be citizens and vote in the government, and the only way to be a citizen was to be born one. Women, foreigners, or slaves could not become citizens.
The Term Paper on Athenian Democracy Citizens Political Government
... citizens. Democracy in the classical Greek sense signifies a particular type of society not a particular form of government. Athenian democracy ... public prosecution against any other citizen whether a private person or a magistrate (in the ... Assembly with the right to speak and vote on all matters of domestic and ... as a government of, by and for the people. Originally, democracy meant rule by the ...
Whereas the first democracies were only open to born citizens, modern governments allow foreigners and women to become voting citizens. In the USA, a citizen over the age of eighteen is allowed to vote. The USA is controlled by a representative type democracy, one in which the people vote for representative to vote on their behalf. This system works well, as our government is also divided into three branches with equal power over each other. The three branches of the government are the legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative branch makes the laws, the executive branch carries out the laws, and the judicial branch interprets the laws. This provides for a check and balance system.
Answering the title’s question, “Does Democracy Work?”, yes it does. Although it may seem like a complicated governing system, people can be trusted to govern themselves through democracy. Even though it is a well known fact that voted representation does not always follow through on campaign promises, democracy continues to be a reliable governing system. Although some types of democracies have not always worked out in history, the vast majority of nations controlled by people have more compliant citizens who enjoy numerous freedoms.
Bibliography
Cervantes, Ernie. World History Class Lecture, 9/7/10
Document: http://www.classzone.com/
Domain:cz/books/wh_modern05/book_home.htm;jsessionid=4GXDMTLf2g9VcdvstM3FQ41DV916KcmGQ236BptF23fhSGdfK2yT!1393057607?state=CA
Document: http://letters2lily.blogspot.com/
Domain: 2007/03/15-how-well-does-democracy-work.html
The Term Paper on Democracy At Work: The Differences Between Our Political Parties
Democracy at Work: The Differences Between Our Political Parties America is a land of very diverse people from all parts of the world. They all have wide varieties of interests, which are represented by both parties of its political system. The Democrats and Republicans represent two different standpoints; although they concentrate on the same issues both of them have different views on how the ...
Littell, McDougal. Modern World History: Patterns of Interaction. Illinois: Evanston, 1999
Document: http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/
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