Democracy Vs a Republic
Democracy is a one of the many forms of government for any country. Like every other form of government it has its own political setup and social order. A democracy is popularly defined as
“Government of the people, by the people and for the people.” In the words of Aristotle, democracy
is a form of government that strives for the interest of the majority. As majority of a population isany society is generally poor, therefore it would not be wrong to classify democracy as governmentwhich caters for interest of poor. In short democracy means that poor of a country get to rule thecountry, while rulers are paid attend the assembly. But again this is not always true; there can be asociety where majority of the population is rich. In such a case democracy would change into anoligarchy. Then again if majority of a certain state is racist or barbaric in nature, these people wouldget to rule the state. Not to mention if most of the population is illiterate and uneducated, likewould be the people ruling them. This is because majority of the people get to have their say andthere are boundaries to what majority can do when together. In words of Aristotle from his famous
work “Politics”:
“
Tyranny is a kind of monarchy which has in view the interest of the monarch only; oligarchy has inview the interest of the wealthy; democracy, of the needy: none of them the common good of all
”
As already stated democracy is a form of government that takes care of the majority of thepopulation or serves the interests of the majority only. This would mean that majority of thepopulation if they want can and will make or change laws of the land as and when they want. Thisgives the majority the power of a monarch and thus of a tyrant ruler, in other words tyranny-by-majority. If we have learned anything from the history it is that power corrupts and absolute powercorrupts absolutely. If for example we assume that majority of people of a certain state are fascist orracist, they can try and eliminate all other minority nationalities from their society. This would bring
misery and injustice to the people and would morally not be correct, otherwise what Nazi’s did in
Germany should not be looked down upon as Germans were a majority in that land and thusexercised the right of majority to dislike or hate the minority races and thus take any action theydeemed necessary.Republic on the other hand, although generally confused with democracy, is a totally different kindof government. Today almost all of the countries in the world, with the exception of a handful, aredeclared republics. But still most people do not know what a republic is. A republic on the contrary isa form of government that is governed by laws. It controls the majority and ensures the rights of theminorities. It protects the minorities from the wrath of majority. It provides civil liberty to thepeople, especially minorities. The republic can therefore be defined as a constitutionally limitedgovernment, created by a constitution.
In democracy the majority’s power is absolute and unlimited
its decisions are not appealable underthe legal system established to give effect to this form of government. This is because majority is theauthority for making of laws and therefore majority and make or bend laws in their own favour andthus achieve their own objects. As for example if in some country majority decides that a certainrace or a religious group is unwanted and should not be allowed to live in that country after a certainperiod of time and the crime is made punishable by death. It does not matter if those people have
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