Qualifiers of Democracy
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The main reason for all these freedoms and rights within modern democracy, which actually limit the power of the people within it, is that the liberal concept of representative, constitutional and limited government is prior to the concept of democracy, both historically and logically ,within the modern Western political tradition, the main source of modern democracy. When we say ‘democracy’ we are in effect using a shorthand expression for ‘liberal democracy’.
Liberal democracy is not the only qualifier for democracy – there are many different versions and varieties of the principle. Some of these have to do with the simple question of range, method or function. Hence ancient Greek democracy was a form of direct democracy, where the members of the polis took direct votes on what should be done. Some Swiss cantons still operate today with this method, and some townships in New England still exercise a residual form at town meetings. But generally speaking modern democracies, because of the numbers and distances involved, and the exigencies of the modern economy, are representative democracies, where the electorate elects representatives, who are the ones who actually vote on policy decisions. Referenda and ballot measures in various American states [and also in many European states] are attempts to replicate the direct popular control of direct democracy, but the popular will is mostly shown by voting for ‘representatives’, ‘delegates’ or ‘deputies’ to vote in legislative assemblies, or presidents and chancellors to exercise executive power, representing the popular will.
Some other ‘democracies’
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Local democracy refers to popular decision-making at the communal level; federal democracy to multi-layered structures of political power whether sovereignty is split between regional states within the federal whole and between the federal and the regional state level.
Parliamentary democracy refers to democratic systems that place popular sovereignty in an elected assembly, while presidential democracy is a system that puts most power in the hands of an elected chief executive.
Aleatory democracy, where power is distributed by lottery, was quite popular in ancient Athens, and is still present in many modern democracies in the method used to select jurors for court trials.
Participatory democracy is more a definition of hope than reality, but describes systems where the whole populace takes an active role in government, much as was the Athenian, ancient ideal.
Monitory democracy is a term coined to describe the prevalence of non-governmental organizations and watchdogs in today’s democracies trying to keep elected governments on the straight and narrow.
Banyan democracy describes the intricate complexities and contradictions within India’s democratic system, which more generally might come under the heading of pluralist democracy, democratic systems created to manage apparently self-contradicting diversity of many kinds.
Genuine People's Democracy (vs) Democracy of Opportunism
Democracy for the people (vs) Manufactured Democracy
Limited Democracy in welfare state (vs) Unlimited Democracy in Tyrannical state
Controlled Democracy for people (vs) Uncontrolled Democracy for few
Sovereignty (vs) Subservient
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For in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, "hold office"; every one of us is in a position of responsibility; and, in the final analysis, the kind of government we get depends upon how we fulfill those responsibilities. We, the people, are the boss, and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve.
To be courageous, these stories make clear, requires no exceptional qualifications, no magic formula, no special combination of time, place and circumstance. It is an opportunity that sooner or later is presented to us all. Politics merely furnishes one arena which imposes special tests of courage. In whatever arena of life one may meet the challenge of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follow his conscience - the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men - each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient - they can teach, they can offer hope, they provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul."
- President John F. Kennedy
(Profiles in Courage)
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WHAT IS A BANANA REPUBLIC
‘’In political science, the term banana republic describes a politically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the exportation of a limited-resource product, such as bananas or minerals. In 1901, the American author O. Henry coined the term to describe Honduras and neighbouring countries under economic exploitation by U.S. corporations, such as the United Fruit Company. Typically, a banana republic has a society of extremely stratified social classes, usually a large impoverished working class and a ruling-class plutocracy, composed of the business, political and military elites of that society. Such a ruling-class oligarchy control the primary sector of the economy by way of the exploitation of labour; thus, the term banana republic is a pejorative descriptor for a servile dictatorship that abets and supports, for kickbacks, the exploitation of large-scale plantation agriculture, especially banana cultivation.
In economics, a banana republic is a country with an economy of state capitalism, by which economic model the country is operated as a private commercial enterprise for the exclusive profit of the ruling class. Such exploitation is enabled by collusion between the state and favored economic monopolies, in which the profit, derived from the private exploitation of public lands, is private property, while the debts incurred thereby are the financial responsibility of the public treasury. Such an imbalanced economy remains limited by the uneven economic development of town and country, and usually reduces the national currency into devalued banknotes (paper money), rendering the country ineligible for international development credit."
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The rise and fall of ancient democracies...
’The Consent of the Governed’’ - Livingston, J.C; & R. G. Thompson; [1963]; page 421;
‘’Long ago in ancient Athens, Pericles, leader of its Golden Age, argued that involvement in public affairs was the vital element in Athenian democracy: ‘’ We are a free democracy. We do not allow absorption in our own affairs to interfere with participation in the city’s ; we yield to none in independence of spirit and complete self-reliance, but we regard him who holds aloof from public affairs as useless.’’
‘’The collapse of Athenian democracy is a tragic and complex history. But important to its decline were demagogues whipping up emotional mob passions while respectable Athenians avoided the vulgarity of the mob, lamented the extremism of its leaders, and pursued their private lives- unmindful of Pericles’ eloquent wisdom’’.
கே.எஸ்.இராதாகிருஷ்ணன்.
26/8/2019.
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