The 20th Century The Triumph of Democracy

    Democracy is a form of government, a way of life, a goal or ideal and a political philosophy. The term also refers to a country that has a democratic form of government. The word democracy means rule by the people. United States president Abraham Lincoln described such self-government as 'government of the people, by the people, for the people'. The citizens of a democracy take part in government either directly or indirectly. In a direct democracy, the people meet in one place to make the laws for their community. Such democracy was practiced in the ancient Greek city state of Athens. Most modern democracy is representative democracy. In a large communities, cities, states provinces or countries it is impossible for all the people to meet as a group. Instead, they elect certain member of their fellow citizen to represent them in making decisions about laws and other matters.

    The first democratic governments were established in Greeks in the 5th and 6th century BC but they could not sustain for a longtime. The true ethoses of democracy were dismantled by internal conflict, oligarchs or by the attack of external enemies. The ancient Roman experimented with democracy but they never practiced it so fully as did the Athenians. Roman political thinker Cicero contributed the idea of a universal law of reason that is binding on all people and governments everywhere. He suggested that people have natural rights which every state must respect.During the middle Ages, Christianity taught that everyone is equal before God. This teaching promoted the democratic ideal of brotherhood among people. In Renaissance period, a new spirit individual thought and independence developed. It influenced political thinking and hastened the growth of democracy.The true democratic governments did not come into existence until the revolutions of 17th and 18th centuries. The Glorious revolution of 1688 in England paved the way to the government of laws. William of Orange and Mary became the constitutional monarch. They enjoyed the power in the prescribed limitation by law made by the parliament. After that Thomas Jefferson facilitated for the development of democracy. By defying the despotic government of King George III of England, he asserted that true function of the government is to provide unalienable rights of people that are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.In the 20th century almost, every countries have democratic system of government and people are exercising their freedom but that are three competitions which are threatening to the democracy. These are

(1) Communism (2) Totalitarianism (3) Theocracy

1) Communism: A concept or system of society in which the major resources and means of production are owned by community rather than by individuals. There is an enormous difference between communist theory and communist practice when it comes to government. Question is always raised that can the kind of communist government of which Marx and Lenin dreamed ever come into existence? Perhaps not. In reality, true sense of communism can hardly be established in the world. Communist leader wanted to give leadership to the proletariat and also wanted the equal distribution of wealth and other facilities leading to the egalitarian state. But ultimately in the name of equal distribution of means of production the system change into dictatorship of the proletariats. For instance, Russia is the first communist country under the leadership of Stalin. During his time, the independent farmers or Kulaks wanted to own their lands and sell whatever they produced, in the free market. But Stalin regarding kulaks as a class gave emphasis to the collectivization of agricultural land but they objected it, as a result either they had been killed or deported to remote regions of Siberia. Finally the government of Stalin supposed as being despotic. In practice communism has always been, in every country that has existed, the bruited tyranny of a very small minority over the vast majority of the rest of the citizens or subjects. Communist government ever conceded that its tyranny was temporary as Marx and Lenin had also said it would have to be. But in course of time under the guise or so-called temporary tyranny, people suffered great tyranny. In the communist tyrannies of the 20th century, revolution always seemed nearly impossible, since the ruling class (minority) exercised control not only of the economy in all its aspect but also of the police and the army. How could the people ever rise up and rule themselves in such circumstances? But people in East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and in Romania revolted against communist government. People tried to rebel in China and they sought independence in Soviet Union in 1989 and 1991. Communist government came into existence in countries where the people had always been subject to unjust, tyrannical rule. The Soviets imposed communism to those people who were eager to be free but naive about freedom meant. They were tricked cheated, defrauded by their communist masters who did know about freedom. They concealed this knowledge from their people. But the people still learned about freedom. The knowledge of freedom is like a raging river, tumbling down the mountainside and inundating the plain. At last freedom will flood the whole world. And the promise of communism that is full of idealism rather than pragmatism will have died due to few men's narrow greed for power. The principles of communism are very good from which Democracy has taken so many things but still it failed because the power is in the hands of minority in communism.

2) Totalitarianism: It is a form of government in which the state has absolute control over almost every aspect of people's lives. The individual is considered a servant of the state and is allowed almost no freedom of choice of expression. A totalitarian government is ruled by one political party headed by, in most cases, a dictator. The party sets certain economic and social goals for the state, and it outlaws any activity that could interfere with the achievement of these goals. Under a totalitarian system, the government uses terror tactics to suppress individuals or groups who oppose the state. These tactics are carried out by a secret police force and the armed services. The government also uses censorship to silence anyone who criticizes its policies. The media spread government propaganda, and the schools teach absolute loyalty to the state. Read More...