Democracy

In this essay I will discuss the different kinds of democracy and its advantages and disadvantages regarding to a quotation of Englands prime minister (1940) Winston Churchill: ‘Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.’ (from a House of Commons speech on Nov. 11, 1947).

The essay argues that Churchill is right in saying that democracy has a lot of weak aspects but is still the best solution to rule a community- compared to its alternatives.

Starting with the definition of democracy itself I will explain its different kinds followed by the main existing alternatives. In addition to that, democracy’s pro and con’s will be discussed ending with a conclusion.

‘It is not the State that orders us; but it is we who order the State!’ (Hitler, 1935). This statement, taken out of a speech of the German dictator from the 1930’s Adolf Hitler, ironically explains the term democracy very well. Demos means translated the people and kratos rule; the people rule the state (Hague and Harrop, 2010).

Talking about this form of government we distinct between the direct, Classical version and the indirect, representative democracy (Hague and Harrop, 2010).

Classical democracy, based in Ancient Greece, is the ‘only pure or ideal system of popular participation’ as most decisions were made directly by the people (Heywood, 2007:76). Nevertheless, the high level of political participation also brought major disadvantages as every single decision required a gathering of all male Greeks holding the right to vote which took a lot of time (Heywood, 2007). Hence, not everyone could always join these gatherings. Moreover, the boundaries set by the rights to vote contradict today’s anticipation of equality. Another disadvantage, also criticized by Plato, is the probable lack of competence as the majority of the electors weren’t educated in the political field (Heywood, 2007). Obviously Plato wasn’t right in saying...