Lala

Democracy and Security: Midterm Assignment.

1. Evaluate definitions and phases of democracy.

“Democracy is any form of government in which the rules of society are decided by the people who will be bound by them.”
  So in democracy society people are governing themselves. It was a primitive type of democracy which existed for tens of thousands of years. When the state appears 5,000 years ago, it was trying to take decision-making power out of society.
In true democracy there must be: regular, contested elections; alternation of governments; rule of law; freedom of speech; pluralism/polycentrism/civil society; privacy; separation of powers/checks and balances.
There are three main phases of Democracy: Assembly Democracy, Representative Democracy and Monitory Democracy.
The first phase was creation and diffusion of public assemblies. Assembly Democracy starting around 2,500 BCE, in lands now
within the territories of Iran, Iraq and Syria.
The best example is Athenian democracy. Citizens participated directly in initiating, deliberating, and passing of, the legislation. The Assembly,
no less than 6,000 convened about every 10 days. And also they had juries so justice is responsibility of citizens. Every citizen had a duty to serve in the army. The best thing in Athenian democracy is Ostracism, so a bad politician could be kicked out of office by the people.
The second phase was Representative Democracy and it started around 10th-12th centuries in Western Europe with the invention of parliamentary assemblies. Reaches its classic forms in the 18th century. Officially regarded as normative today.
The third phase is Monitory Democracy which started after World War II. Invention of about 100 power-monitoring devices which had never
existed before. Increase citizen ability to control the state which is organized on the basis of representative democracy. Examples of power-monitoring devices: Public integrity commissions; Judicial activism; Local courts; Workplace...