• What is democracy?
• Characteristics of democracy
• History of democracy
• Principles of democracy
• Types of democracy
• Importance of democracy
• Examples of democratic nations
• Democracy and dictatorship

We explain what democracy is, the types that exist, their history, principles and characteristics. Also, what is a dictatorship.

In democracy, the leadership of the State depends on the will of the majority.

What is democracy?

Democracy is one of the most popular political and social organization systems in the contemporary world, despite having been invented in the Antiquity Classic Its fundamental feature is that it confers decision-making power in the conduct of the Condition (i.e. the sovereignty) to the people, which is expressed through the will of the majorities.

This means that, in a democracy, institutions They are there to execute and defend the will of the people, since the latter transfers or delegates control of the State to them to a greater or lesser extent.

For example, transcendental decisions of national life must be submitted to popular consultation or vote, such as the appointment of political offices of the powers. executive Y legislative. For this method query is valid, all citizens of age and legal conditions to choose should be able to do so freely, secretly and universally.

It is common to confuse the idea of ​​democracy and the republic, since the latter implies the separation of public powers and the equality before the law, elements that today we consider essential for the existence of a democratic government. However, these are different notions, so in principle there can be non-republican democracies and non-democratic republics.

Characteristics of democracy

In general, democracy is characterized by:

• Elect their political representatives through popular suffrage, either directly or indirectly.
• Respect the republican institutionality, that is, the independence of powers and the rule of lawRule of law).
• Completely separate the spaces of the legal (State) and the moral (Religion), and therefore be guided by a National Constitution instead of a sacred book.
• Respect the human rights fundamental rights and guarantee basic civil liberties, as contemplated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in its own constitutional text.

History of democracy

In Ancient Greece there was one of the oldest democracies in the world.

The very origin of the word "democracy" gives certain indications as to when the system was invented. Composed of the Greek voices give, "Town", and krateîn, "Power", so it would be equivalent to something like "the power of the people."

The word was first used in the Athens of the Ancient Greece, governed by an assembly of citizens in which free Athenian men could participate (that is: neither women, nor slaves, nor foreigners), around the 6th century BC. C.

Athenian democracy was not governed by the same moral values of modern democracy, but it did administer power through popular vote and majority criteria. It also directly involved (chosen by lottery) the citizens in the performance of the management of the State. There were no ruling kings or priests, unlike other civilizations of the time.

More or less democratic republics are also known in Ancient India, some of which were even prior to Athenian democracy. However, they were conquered by military leaders and disappeared around 400 BC. C. Many of its early democratic precepts remain in the literature of the Bans.

For its part, modern democratic theory began to take shape in the ancient Roman republic, whose democratic mechanisms were in some respects more lax than the Greeks. The moral point of view of Judaism and early Christianity, moreover, helped to build a sense of equality that had never existed before in the Ancient world, ruled since its inception by the aristocracy.

However, the Roman Republic degenerated into imperial despotism and then disappeared, turned into dozens of small feudal reigns. Many of them, such as cities free from Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, were administered by governments more or less democratic during the Middle Ages, through the power of municipal institutions.

Only after Renaissance, on the Modern age, the republic as a system of government re-emerged in the West, hand in hand with the bourgeoisie and of the nascent capitalism.

The collapse of the Old Regime and the Absolutist Monarchy, in that sense, marked the return of democracy as a method of choosing authorities and institutions. In many cases they coexisted with the power of royalty, assigning to the latter more and more symbolic and representative functions.

The first modern democratic governments of Europe they were the Republic of the Two Nations (Lithuanian-Polish), predecessor of the Constitutional Monarchy, during the 16th and 17th centuries; and the French Republic after the Revolution of 1789.

From then on, the winds of democratic change would not stop blowing throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, bringing down Empires to become the most popular political system not only in the West, but in the entire world.

Principles of democracy

It is not enough to have elections to have democracy. Any modern democratic system must necessarily be guided by the following principles:

• Popular sovereignty. The original political power must, necessarily, emanate from the people themselves, capable of ultimately deciding how they wish to govern themselves. Said sovereignty can be temporarily and partially transferred to the political representatives through free, secret and universal popular vote, but according to the same principles it cannot be taken from the people. No democracy appoints its officials through criteria other than popular election, within the framework of the law.
• The equality of the vote. Obviously, there are minimum conditions required to exercise the right to vote, such as the minimum eligible age or solvency with certain legal obligations, depending on what is stipulated in the Constitution of a country. But in principle, the vote of absolutely the entire population Voter must always be worth the same and given under the exact same conditions of secrecy and Liberty.
• The limitation of power. Similarly, all forms of political power in a democracy must necessarily have limits, and the various republican institutions of the State must ensure that this is the case. Therefore, the Constitution or Magna Carta of the country governs the legitimacy of all political authorities and will have the last word regarding the mechanisms and procedures to guarantee the I respect to the popular will.
• Respect for human rights. Although democracy consists of the decision by popular vote, not everything can be submitted to a consultation, and not everything is allowed to the elected representatives. Obviously, this means respect for the law, but also compliance with much more fundamental laws, such as universal human rights. No democracy can exist if the State systematically violates, by action or inaction, the basic rights of its population.

Types of democracy

In indirect democracy the representatives are elected by suffrage.

Not all democracies are identical, and when we speak of democratic processes we do not always mean exactly the same, as there are two main types of democracy: direct and indirect.

Direct democracy. It is the one that leaves the greatest range of decisions to the direct decision of the people, through consultation mechanisms such as referendums, elections and assemblies, so that the decision is made by the people, without intermediaries, and sometimes even executed by themselves. through popular participation institutions.

It is the type of democracy that is the closest between the people and the power itself, but it has the disadvantage of multiplying the bureaucracy and making it slower and more expensive. decision making.

Indirect democracy. In it sovereignty is temporarily transferred from the people to their political representatives, elected by direct suffrage (when the people elect their representatives) or indirect (when the people elect delegates who in turn elect the representatives).

This system considers that not everything can always be submitted to a popular consultation, if you want to have an operational and efficient State, so officials and institutions must work on behalf of the people and ensure that their wishes are respected and executed. This type of democracy, in turn, can be of several types:

• Parlamentary democracy. When the head of government is exercised by a Prime Minister (instead of a president), elected from the executive wing of the legislative branch.
• Presidential democracy. When the executive power rests on a president-elect by direct popular vote, and is totally independent of the legislative power.
• Soviet democracy. When the workers and citizens elect delegates to a local political power council (the soviets), according to their belonging to certain social, labor or geographical sectors. These councils or soviets exercise sovereignty on their behalf, to elect representatives to a higher commission of local soviets and so on up to the Presidency of the Nation or Secretary of State.

Importance of democracy

Despite its criticisms, democracy is the system of political organization that has given the best results, throughout the history, in terms of happiness, human development and national growth.

There is still no method that allows not only knowing the will of the sovereign people and organizing their practice, but also the review of the system itself and its comptroller, in order to maintain a minimum legal framework within which political disputes can be resolved peacefully.

However, it brings difficulties, such as its necessary tendency to debate and confront ideas, which can slow down the decision-making process, or even the possibility that, by executing the popular will, democracy destroys itself. . But most of these drawbacks have to do with the population's cultural or social challenges, rather than with the weaknesses of the democratic system.

Examples of democratic nations

According to the Democracy Index (Democracy Index in English) of the Intelligence Unit of The Economist, in which the democratic performance of 167 countries is evaluated, the following are the best example of democracy nations, based on its 2018 measurements:

• Norway (9.87 / 10 points)
• Iceland (9.58 / 10 points)
• Sweden (9.39 / 10 points)
• New Zealand (9.27 / 10 points)
• Finland (9.25 / 10 points)
• Ireland (9.23 / 10 points)

Democracy and dictatorship

Dictatorship or autocracy is understood to be an authoritarian form of government, in which a few (a Leader and its followers, a political party, a military junta, etc.) impose their authority over the rest of the nation by force, without going through regular channels and therefore without the legitimacy of the sovereign people. Although many can come to power democratically, that does not make them democracies.

Dictatorships generally bring great suffering and huge quotas of violence and repression, since they tend to reorder society or prevent its reordering through force. Dictatorships can be of any ideological sign and can serve any type of purpose.