Pillars of Democracy
Democracy is a political form of government in which governing power is derived from the people, by consensus (consensus democracy), by direct referendum (direct democracy), or by means of elected representatives of the people (representative democracy). The term comes from the Greek word (dēmokratía) "rule of the people", which was coined from (dêmos) "people" and (Kratos) "power".
There is no universal definition of the term democracy, people like the late USA president ABRAHAM LINCOLN define democracy as “The government of the people, for the people and by the people” which means :
Of the people means the government derives all its powers from the people
For the people means the government is there to serve the interest of the people
By the people means the people elect those who are to govern on their behalf
According to Nnoli(20033) he defined democracy as the system of government usually involving freedom of the individual in various aspects of life, equality among citizens, justice in the relations between the people and the government and the participation of the people in choosing those in government.
Democracy is devided into direct democracy where by all adult citizen of a community participate fully in a decision making on matter brought for discussion.Decision are by the popular vote YES or NO.The Anthens are the first people to practices direct democracy. It is mostly conducted in the small populated areas like classrooms in the election of the Class representative. The other type of democracy is indirect democracy where by different groups in community elect reoresentative and give them mandate to make public decision on their behalf.The representative may be one person or small group of people.Indirect democracy originated in Europe during the emergence of capitalism. In this kind of democracy periodic elected leaders are placed into power and are removed from the power through periodic election, it mostly done in highly populated
There is no universal definition of the term democracy, people like the late USA president ABRAHAM LINCOLN define democracy as “The government of the people, for the people and by the people” which means :
Of the people means the government derives all its powers from the people
For the people means the government is there to serve the interest of the people
By the people means the people elect those who are to govern on their behalf
According to Nnoli(20033) he defined democracy as the system of government usually involving freedom of the individual in various aspects of life, equality among citizens, justice in the relations between the people and the government and the participation of the people in choosing those in government.
Democracy is devided into direct democracy where by all adult citizen of a community participate fully in a decision making on matter brought for discussion.Decision are by the popular vote YES or NO.The Anthens are the first people to practices direct democracy. It is mostly conducted in the small populated areas like classrooms in the election of the Class representative. The other type of democracy is indirect democracy where by different groups in community elect reoresentative and give them mandate to make public decision on their behalf.The representative may be one person or small group of people.Indirect democracy originated in Europe during the emergence of capitalism. In this kind of democracy periodic elected leaders are placed into power and are removed from the power through periodic election, it mostly done in highly populated
References: Mmuya and Chaligha(1994) Political parties and Democracy in Tanzania, Dar-es-salaam University Press Tanzania Nnoli(2003) Introduction to politics, Enugu Nigeria www.nationmultimedia.com