DEMOCRACY: DEFINITION AND PRESUPPOSITIONS

DEMOCRACY: DEFINITION AND PRESUPPOSITIONS

Democracy:-

Democratic government is government in which the people and the government are connected in terms of both the input and the output dimensions of government. That is, the people are self-governing in terms of input (people have freedom to put ideas into government and to shape government through elections, contacting officials, lobbying, and so on), and the output (laws and policies) of government indicates that government is in the hands of a self-governing people.

Democracy Presupposes:-

• People are free to participate in the governing process (participatory democracy).

• All the people are free to participate in the governing process (pluralist democracy).

• People are aware of what they are doing when they participate in the governing process so that their participation is a process of achieving self-government (developmental democracy).

• Government is not tyrannical and oppressive toward the people (protective democracy).

• Governmental outputs in the form of laws and policies are a reflection of self-governing people’s desire for well-being (performance democracy).