Thursday, July 10, 2008

A democracy is a form of government where people choose who to represent them, which indirectly leads to the choosing which policies they want implemented in their society.

Democracy would create stability in a society if the majority is of one mind and share a similar set of values and principles. If the majority feels this way, the government will also feel the same way, as they would have to in order to be voted into power. Also, since democracy is power to the people, the government would be more motivated to work for the welfare of the people instead of only concentrating on economic and political growth. The social aspect would be more taken care off and thus the people would be less likely to revolt and cause trouble for the government.

However, there are cases where democracy does not necessarily work, or create stability for that matter. In fact, it can sometimes cause more trouble. This is especially the case when there is no clear majority in the society. When the people are of different minds and have conflicting values that they uphold. In such a case, the government would probably have won by a very close margin, and if they do not strike a careful balance in their policies, they would soon be seeing violence everywhere. When there is no clear majority, there will be a big number of people who either oppose or are for a certain view. With democracy, on can be almost certain that the government voted in would take either side and thus cause much commotion as the opposition revolts.

Also, for a democracy to create stability, not all the power can go to the people. The public is there to choose their leaders, in the end, the leaders still have to lead. The government has to take a firm hand in leading a country. Even if certain ideas go against the public’s thinking, to make a society firm, the government must know how to balance between “safe” and “free”. Total freedom cannot be given as that would result in chaos of unheard proportions. Yet the government cannot be totally controlling the lives of every individual. Democracy solves that problem. It allows the people’s voice to be heard so that the government knows what to change. Not only that, because the people provide the power, the government is more likely to listen to the needs of the average man and try to improve his welfare.

Thus I can conclude that while democracy can create stability in a society, it can only do so in certain societies, within certain circumstances. In other cases, other forms of government may be preferred as compared to democracy.