Democracy is understood in many different ways.

It is seen as not merely a form government but a form

of state and society as well. It is closely tied with concepts of participation as it allows active
participation of the population in the voting process, competition as political parties are seen to be
constantly competing with each other in order to gain power, and civil and political liberties.

It is defined as a form government in which supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by
them directly or indirectly through a system of representation involving periodic free elections. After a
fixed period of time, systematic elections are carried out in which people exercise the power of voting in
or voting out political leaders and political parties, these parties are then expected to represent their
voters and work for their interest and wellbeing.

A democratic system allows people to choose their own leader, unlike dictatorships or authoritative
systems in which a leader is imposed upon the people.

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Democracy is defined as a system of government created by the population or all eligible members of
the state typically through elective representatives

The word Democracy itself originates from a Greek word “Demokratia” which literally means “The rule
of the people”

Raymond G Gettel defines democracy as a form of government in which the masses of the population
(meaning the majority of the people) having the right to share in the exercise of sovereign power

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There are some key features of democracy that make up the base of the system. These are

Constitution: a democratic government will have a set of laws called the constitution, which the
population of the country has to abide by. These constitution is considered almost sacred and through
the eyes of the constitution, everyone is equal.

Free and Fair elections: The basis of democracy lie on the concept of voting parties into power. This
process of voting takes places in elections. These elections must be free and fair, and not subject to any
kind of rigging for them to be considered valid.

Rule of the Majority: Democracies depend solely on the choice of majority. Majority is given authority,
while the protection of minorities is still an important feature.

Rights and Freedom: Every democracy promises its citizens some rights and freedoms, be it the right to
free education and healthcare or the freedom of speech or religion.

Political inequality: Democratic governments consist of not just one ruling party, but other parties as
well. Within the government there is a certain hierarchy of the party over the non ruling parties, as they
are in power and in majority in the assembly

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There are two main kinds of democracies; direct and indirect.

Direct democracy refers to a system of government where each and every adult in the state is directly
involved in decision making or exercising power. Here people do not delegate power in hands of
representatives like in indirect democracy. This system was prevalent in Ancient greek city states where
every individual had a direct say in decisions of the government, although this system is widely outdated
and impractical for modern times, we can still see some devices of direct democracy at play such as
Referendums; an example is of the referendum held in Junagarh asking them whether they want to be
part of India or Pakistan, another Device of direct democracy is that people in some countries can still
send in their proposal to the legislature directly to pass a law of their choice.

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Indirect democracy. Indirect democracy is also called as “Representative democracy”. As in

contemporary times the whole population cannot gather up to make decisions, they advocate power
into the hands of representatives of their choice who in turn take decisions in their interest. These
representatives are elected through voting and people take part in decision making through these
representatives.

Forms of indirect democracy include 1: parliamentary and cabinet form, 2: presidential form 3: Unitary
form 4: federal form

Examples of indirect democracies include, USA, Canada, india, Pakistan and many other democratic
countries in the world right now.

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As any other system of government, democracy too has merits as well as demerits.

Merits of democracy include that it works in the interest of the population. In theory, the primary goal
of democracy is not of accumulating power but working for the welfare of the citizens of the state.

Secondly, in a democracy, the leader is chosen and not imposed. This gives the people both a sense of
security and responsibility, as the person who is ruling over them is chosen by themselves and if he or
she is incompetent then they are the ones responsible for it. This leads to more informed and rational
choices by the population. It also gives people the authority to vote in or vote out governments
according to their will.

Another important merit of democracy is that it promotes accountability as the leader of the state can
be held accountable in front of people unlike in other forms of government where the leader is the
supreme authority. The laws of the constitution apply to the party in authority as well, and they too are
held accountable in front of these laws just like everyone else. This way the system promotes equality.

Democracy also gives chance to the majority to exercise control. The group in Majority in the society
greatly influences the government and government policies, and can make them work in the interest of
the majority.

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Even though democracy is currently the most popular system in the world, it still has demerits.
Due to the constant change in the party in power in the government, no party gets enough time to bring
about the changes it intends to. Economic changes and advancements take time in order to work.
Constant changes in leadership leads to instability.

In a democratic system, political parties sometimes become too occupied with competitions and
rivalries and focus too much on bringing down the rival party, and forget their real responsibility which
is the welfare of the people.

Corruption is one of the major issues faced by many democratic countries. As there are too many people
in the federal and provincial bodies, the credibility and honesty of everyone cannot be judged. As money
trickles down through many hands, the chances of corruption increase.

The concept of the rule of majority can be problematic. As majority rules, there is chance of minorities
being undermined, often times minorities are discriminated and their interest is overshadowed by that
of the majority.

One of the major issues of Democracy is the equality of the value of the vote. It can be seen as a good
thing that everyone gets a chance to cast vote and every vote is considered equal, but it can be really
problematic in practice. Not everyone is rational or educated enough to know what is right, to cast the
right vote, or to make the right choice. Many times political parties buy the votes of the poor for as low
as a 100 rupees. This leads to wrong people assuming power in the end.

So this is the end of my presentation

Thankyou so much.