Democratic Society

Democratic Society

Democracy is a principle that the control of authority comes from public, and ruler and non-ruler are the same. It is derived from the Greek , "popular government", which was coined from, "people" and, "rule, strength" in the middle of the fifth-fourth century BC to denote the political systems then existing in some Greek city-states, notably Athens following a popular uprising in 508 BC. A democracy can denote either direct or indirect rule by the people.

In political theory, democracy describes a small number of related forms of government and also a political philosophy. Even though there is no specific, universally accepted definition of 'democracy', there are two principles that any definition of democracy includes. The first principle is that all citizens, not invested with the power to govern, have equal access to power and the second that all citizens enjoy legitimized freedoms and liberties.

There are several varieties of democracy, some of which provide better representation and more freedoms for their citizens than others. However, if any democracy is not carefully legislated to avoid an uneven distribution of political power with balances, such as the separation of powers, then a branch of the system of rule could accumulate power and become harmful to the democracy itself. The "majority rule" is often described as a characteristic feature of democracy, but without responsible government it is possible for the rights of a minority to be abused by the "tyranny of the majority". An essential process in representative democracies are competitive elections, that are fair both substantively and procedurally. Furthermore, freedom of political expression, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are essential so that citizens are informed and able to vote in their personal interests.

Popular sovereignty is common but not a universal motivating philosophy for establishing a democracy. In some countries, democracy is based on the philosophical principle of equal rights. Many people use the term "democracy" as shorthand for liberal democracy, which may include additional elements such as political pluralism, equality before the law, the right to petition elected officials for redress of grievances, due process, civil liberties, human rights, and elements of civil society outside the government. In the United States, separation of powers is often cited as a supporting attribute, but in other countries, such as the United Kingdom, the dominant philosophy is parliamentary sovereignty (though in practice judicial independence is generally maintained). In other cases, "democracy" is used to mean direct democracy. Though the term "democracy" is typically used in the context of a political state, the principles are also applicable to private organizations and other groups.

Democracy has its origins in Ancient Greece. However other cultures have significantly contributed to the evolution of democracy such as Ancient Rome, Europe, and North and South America. Democracy has been called the "last form of government" and has spread considerably across the globe. The Right to vote has been expanded in many Jurisdictions over time from relatively narrow groups (such as wealthy men of a particular ethnic group), with New Zealand being the first major nation to achieve Universal suffrage. Suffrage still remains a controversial issue with regard to disputed territories, areas with significant immigration, and countries that exclude certain demographic groups.

Definition of a Democratic Society

Democracy Watch's mandate, 20 Steps towards a Modern, Working Democracy, is based upon the following definition of a democratic society (Click here to see other organizations' definitions of the key elements needed for a democratic society):

A DEMOCRACY IS a society in which all adults have easily accessible, meaningful, and effective ways:

to participate in the decision-making processes of every organization that makes decisions or takes actions that affect them, and;

to hold other individuals, and those in these organizations who are responsible for making decisions and taking actions, fully accountable if their decisions or actions violate fundamental human rights, or are dishonest, unethical, unfair, secretive, inefficient, unrepresentative, unresponsive or irresponsible;

so that all organizations in the society are citizen-owned, citizen-controlled, and citizen-driven, and all individuals and organizations are held accountable for wrongdoing.

All children should also have easily accessible, meaningful, and effective ways to hold organizations accountable as set out in #2 above, but it is acceptable in a democracy to limit children's participation rights until they reach adulthood, mainly because psychological research has shown clearly that almost all children below a certain age do not have fully formed brains, and are not capable of reasonable deliberation and discussion.

The following participation and accountability measures need to be in place in every organization (both government and corporate, public and private) in any society to fulfill the definition set out above (and Democracy Watch's campaigns push governments and corporations to implement these measures):

a constitution that sets out the essential operating rules for the organization (or the country, province/state, and municipalities), including strong protection of fundamental human rights;

an election system for choosing representatives that is fair and results in a governing body that represents citizen votes accurately;

a direct decision-making process (initiative and referendum, for example) that allows citizens to initiate decisions and actions on issues that their representatives refuse to address;

strong requirements with no loopholes that apply to every organization (especially every government or government-funded institution, but also every corporate organization (especially large corporations -- for details, go to the Bank Accountability Campaign and the Corporate Responsibility Campaign), non-profit citizen group, and charitable social service agency) in the areas of:

representativeness (elections, public consultation and direct decision-making processes -- for details, go to the Voter Rights Campaign);

openness (disclosure requirements and access-to-information laws -- for details, go to the Open Government Campaign);

honesty (including an honesty-in-politics law with an easily accessible complaint filing process -- for details, go to the Honesty in Politics Campaign);

ethics (including limits on donations, gifts and other money-related ways of influencing decision-makers, and strict regulations on lobbyists -- for details, go to the Government Ethics Campaign and the Money in Politics Campaign), and;

spending (strict waste-prevention measures), responsiveness and responsibility in general operations (including publicly disclosed performance standards and performance reports -- for details, go to the Voter Rights Campaign, AND that apply to every individual in the areas of relationships with other individuals and individual responsibility;

to emphasize, the requirements must be strong enough and comprehensive enough to ensure that citizens not only own governments (as voters and taxpayers), corporations (as shareholders), unions and citizen groups (as members), and public resources (land, water, air, TV/radio airwaves, publicly generated research and infrastructure), but also that citizens effectively control governments, corporations, unions and other citizen groups, and public resources;

watchdog agencies (including police) that are fully independent (from political or other biased influence), fully empowered (to investigate and penalize), and fully resourced (to ensure a high chance that violators will be caught) that strictly enforce the strong requirements in the areas of elections, public consultation and direct decision-making processes, access-to-information, honesty, ethics, spending, and general operations, and the strong requirements for individuals concerning relationships with other individuals and individual responsibility;

courts/tribunals that are fully independent (from political or other biased influence), fully empowered (to investigate and penalize), fully resourced (to ensure justice is not unreasonable delayed) to handle disputes about rights and responsibilities in every other area of society (including protection of fundamental human rights);

a clear right for anyone to "blow the whistle" on any violation of any requirement, and to be protected from retaliation and rewarded if the requirement violation is proven true;

a clear right for citizens to complain to the watchdog agencies, and to the courts/tribunals, if any requirement is violated, including the right to sue as a group (known as "class actions");

penalties for the violation of requirements that are high enough to actually and effectively discourage violations of the requirements;

every large organization (especially government and large corporations) required to assist the citizens affected by it to organize into, and sustain, a citizen group that will advocate for the interests of the citizens and help them hold the organization accountable (For details, go to Citizen Association Campaign);

an easily accessible means (TV, radio, print publications, Internet sites) for citizens to share key, accurate information with each other about every organizations' record in complying with the strong requirements set out above;

an economy large enough to finance the operation of all of the above organizations/investigative agencies/courts/citizen groups, and equitable enough so that every citizen (adults and children) has easy access to the above participation and accountability rights, and;

enough people with the needed skills, knowledge and integrity to ensure that the operation of the above organizations and agencies, and participation and accountability rights, actually functions.

However, it is important to note that even if all 14 measures set out above are in place and functioning effectively, it is still essentially impossible to stop three key undemocratic activities, and as a result these three activities (even if they only occur at infrequently) will always remain a threat to all societies aspiring to be democracies, as follows:

it is essentially impossible to stop secret gifts of money and favour-trading corrupting politicians and government officials;

it is essentially impossible to stop secret lobbying of politicians and government officials, and;

it is essentially impossible to stop police, security and armed forces from abusing their investigative powers by invading people's privacy and rights.

International Definitions of Key Elements of a Democratic Society

• Global Integrity (non-governmental organization that, through an international research effort involving local organizations, individuals and journalists, rates countries good governance and anti-corruption systems and democratic processes)
• June 2000 Warsaw Declaration of the Community of Democracies (PDF format, to see the Declaration in HTML format, click here) -- the Community of Democracies is a coalition of more than 100 countries initiated in 1999 with the common goal of strengthening democratic institutions and values at the national, regional, and global levels -- the Warsaw declaration resulted from the first meeting of the countries' governmental representatives in Warsaw Poland in June 2000, a plan of action was developed and endorsed by 95 countries at the 2nd meeting of the governments in Seoul, South Korea in November 2002, and the 4th meeting of governments was held in Bamako, Mali in November 2007)
• Founding Statement of the World Movement for Democracy (the World Movement for Democracy is a network of non-governmental organizations, politicians, academics and others supporting the development of democracy world-wide)
• The International Endowment for Democracy is a networking organization formed in spring 2006 in the U.S. to push for democratic reforms in the U.S.