Question: Does democracy produce worse government than dictatorship produces?
Introduction
For the sake of ruling a country, we demand a system which can provide justice and also protect the basic rights of people. Basically, there are two systems in the contemporary world, democratic system and dictatorship. When people determining which form of government is better, it always comes to a fierce debate. For instance, America, United Kingdom, India are the countries which have a democratic form of government. On the other hand, countries like China, Egypt, and Cuba etc are following the dictatorship form of government. Thus and so, which one is better among these two types of government? Now, let’s have an in depth analysis of democracy
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To begin with, most of the democratic forms of government have both rule of law and transparency. Also, it is accountable to the public. For instance, the first case is the Japanese prime minister, Naoto Kan has resigned in August 2011 because he was strongly criticized by the people for failing to handle the aftermath of Japan’s tsunami, earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster on 11 March 2011 which ruined the northeastern of Japan and resulted 20,000 deaths.
Furthermore, the second case is the Japan’s new trade and industry minister Yoshio Hachiro has announced his resignation in September 2011owing to the people were outraged by his disobliging joke about radiation.
The above two cases verify the democratic form of government is accountable to the public.
At contrast, the dictatorships have inadequate rule of law and less transparency and they are not accountable to the public. Such as in 2008, a strong tropical cyclone named Nargis resulted the most destructive natural disaster in Burma which killed over 100,000 people. Although the United Nations urged Burma to receive a comprehensive aid, but the Burmese government still refused to accept the international assistance. Despite the Burmese government suffered from criticism of failing to deal with this issue, there were no officials have to take responsibility and no one resigned. Therefore, it proved the dictatorships do not have accountability and the government is not accountable to the
Comparing the U.S. governments ability to meet the needs of its citizens compared to that of a dictatorship is far superior. A dictatorship is designed to benefit one or few individuals that have achieved power using capital or force. Their only concern is for themselves and what will increase their power. The U.S. form of government is restricted to the power of the constitution.
Which system is better, a Democracy or Constitutional Republic? At first, it might seem that Democracy is the better system, as it gives the people a better voice in government. However, Democracy has some serious weaknesses. It enables the majority to totally dominate and oppress the minority (Hospers). As was seen with Socrates, the minority is not protected in a democracy. Because, in a true democracy, there is no check on the power of the masses, it is as if there is no rule save for mob rule. A good orator, such as Alcibiades, architect of the disastrous attack on Syracuse, could manage to sway the masses into making unwise decisions. Perhaps democracy's greatest flaw
In a democratic government also depends on freedom of press and freedom of assembly. Freedom of press is the occurrences that happen every day that are informed or detailed through television, newspaper, internet, magazines or speech without adding or removing any type of information that do not benefit a particular sector. And also is that the people have the right to have their own type of press to express their ideas. Today, freedom of press is a utopia because every country has their own secrets, and covers important information to their citizens. With freedom of press, the countries will have a perfect government not so perfect but the people need to know the truth. The democratic government is a form of government in which the people, either directly or indirectly, take part in governing. “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.” This is because there is no system that can perfectly order society. Usually the purpose of democracy is to prevent tyranny (the accumulation of
A dictatorship is a singly ruled government. One person is in charge of everything and makes the rules. Everyone has to go by what the dictator says. Nobody has a say in what goes on regarding anything. The dictator can make up whatever laws he or she wants and they do not have to be run by anyone. In a Democracy the president still has to run things by the congress and there are steps that need to be done in order for something to be approved. In a dictatorship what the ruler says goes and that is the end of it. The United States is not really similar to a dictatorship at all. The only things that are kind of similar are laws, because in either case the community still has to follow the laws or else there will be consequences. Another thing
A democracy is when the common people are considered as the primary source of political power. Although democracy and absolutism had advantages and disadvantages, democracy was a more effective type of government for it limited royal power and protected the rights of the people socially, politically, and economically. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, tension arose between the two different types of governments, the democracy and absolute monarchs.
Every form of government is bound to have some shortfalls. Different people have different views about the various political systems. But in today's world, democracy is considered to be the best form of government, reason being that people are treated equally and have full rights to live a life of their liking. Unlike a Oligarchy government is not considered to be a
To conclude I feel that although democracy has its obvious flaws like all political systems it is most probably the closest that we have yet achieved in creating a perfectly fair system of shared power. Those who live under a democracy have the responsibility to ensure legitimacy through their active involvement in making decisions by voting and talking to
Aristotle says that justice is thought of as equality among all, there is a disregard to merit (p.172). In a society, there is usually more poor people and because there is this demand of equality then the majority rule (p.174). Mob rule is then authoritative. All governments have their forms, which are good and are bad. Democracy to Aristotle is not the best regime because it is ruled by the poor or the ones that need from the government. Government is not chosen by those who pursue virtue, but instead pursue wealth. The democratic principle is that of freedom, wealth, and birth. Not virtue. He believes the best regime would not be exactly a democracy but a polity that would be a combination of freedom, wealth, birth and virtue. The best regime has ideal conditions in which it becomes a predictable regime and consists of values, choices, the inanimate, elements of the class of workers, and the education of rulers. Democracy has a big defect in that it does not have intelligence or wisdom. It is the rule of many. It is based on the idea of happiness by following pleasures (p.48). Democracy comes into play when the majority revolt against the oligarchy because of the ideas of freedom. The problem with it is that people are pursuing their pleasures, not thinking of the state as a whole. There is unity based on pleasure. Before long, everyone is pursuing their own pleasures and there is an undermining of authority
Democracies have no say in what jobs citizens have, and do not force them to work for the government. In a democracy there can even be laws to get workers better treatment. A democracy is based on freedom, so using fear to control citizens will never happen. Scare tactics may work at first for communists, but the people always revolt. Democratic governments will not use the country's economy to fund their own interests, but to fund all aspects of the country. Democracies are run by a large group of politicians who are elected by the people. No one politician holds too much power stopping the chance of one person taking control. In democracies the good of the country as a whole is considered, whereas dictatorships are selfish and
Although they may not directly interact with them, democratic governing usually creates a better relationship between the government and people. Democracy has been around for hundreds of years. It started with philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, Rousseau, Locke, Machiavelli, and Hobbes. These philosophers all have thoughts about democracy and democratic governing, including what makes democracy better, "It is clear then that the best partnership in a state is the one which operates through the middle people, and also that those states in which the middle element is large, and strong… have every chance of having a well-run constitution… When one set of people possess a great deal and the other nothing, the result is either extreme democracy
Finally, democracy is the best form of government thus far because it is susceptible to change. The role of high courts, and equal rights makes change possible. For example, if the majority impedes on a minority groups’ rights, over time, the legislature will adjust, enumerating those who were previously attacked. Overall, democracy makes the necessary refinements needed to keep up with societal developments.
Democratic states nearly always have freer people than autocratic states. They obviously have the right to vote for their government so by extension deciding the policy of their nation and what their nation should be like. They have more freedom of speech and expression than in autocracies. In particular they are free to criticise their own government.
Democracies and Dictatorships are two distinct forms of government. These governments can generally be differentiated by the fact that they are complete opposite concepts from one another. A Democracy is a system of government in which power is vested in the people and is exercised directly or through elected representatives whereas a dictatorship is a government in which an individual or small group exercises absolute power within its territory. In this paper, I will illustrate key differences between a democracy and a dictatorship by using information from lectures, readings as well as showing the differences between a democratic country and a country which is ruled through dictatorship. To conclude I will provide a personal analysis of which regime I prefer using normative tools.
Before one can begin to discuss the merits of democracy, one must first answer the question what is democracy? In his essay on democracy, Robert Dahl explains how democracy cannot exist without protecting the rights of its citizens. Democracy is more than a system of government, it is also a “system of rights” because rights are “the essential building blocks” of a democratic government (Dahl 100). Democracy builds off of the idea of human rights to create a system of government shaped around a collection of powers which belong to every citizen. Because rights provide the foundation for the democratic system, it cannot be practiced without providing a guarantee of personal rights. Cornel West illustrates how democracy is more than just a type of government, it is a way of life which benefits its citizens. Democracy is a “cultural way of being” which causes people to become “empowered and enlightened” (West 115-16). Democracy changes the way that its citizens think, in democratic societies the culture is based largely around how democracy is beneficial. The cultural influence of democracy causes a change in its citizens- they develop into more sophisticated
Every nation has some type of government that regulates and establishes laws. In politics these forms of government are referred as regimes, they regulate policies and the interaction among their society including social and cultural norms. Dictatorships and democracies are examples of regimes. In a dictatorship one person or a group of people rule on the entire nation without any laws, and its citizens’ rights are extremely limited and controlled by the dictator, whereas in a democracy candidates are selected through a free and fair election and its citizens have the right of freedom. We can evaluate systems by using normative forms to analyze the effectiveness of regime type. The most effective form of government is a democracy because people have more freedom, democratic elections are fair, there are separation of powers and there are peaceful alternations in control and the authority is “the will” of the people.