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A democracy has four major pillars consisting of a law, the safeguard of human rights, participation of the citizens and fair elections to choose and replace the body of government.

In a direct democracy, any an all citizens may act directly to enact public policy without the intermediary step of an elected official. In practice, this is only practical when applied to smaller groups of people. A working group, for example, may be based on this type of direct democracy.

In a representative democracy, the will of the people is to be enacted by elected officials. Free elections, the involvement of the public in all aspects of civic life, upholding human rights and the equal application of law to all citizens are cornerstones of democratic societies.

Democracy, being based on elections, is based on the notion of majority rules. What the majority of citizens vote for should be enacted. Majority rules, however, should never mean that the minority is oppressed and so most democratic states also have a constitution which enshrines the rights of all citizens, including minorities. These are called constitutional democracies, and include most of the democratic countries in the modern world.

A presidential democracy is a type of government where a president is elected by the people in a free election and gains power over the state and government, effectively gaining the majority of executive powers.

A constitutional democracy binds elected representatives to a constitution constraining the powers of officials.

A hybrid democracy uses parts of representative and direct democracies to form participatory democracies. Examples include the U.S. states of California, Vermont, the New England region and the country of Switzerland. The first democracy was a direct democracy performed by the Greek people.

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What Is Democracy? | Reference.com

Key Democratic Principles

The word democracy has its origins in the Greek language. It combines two shorter words: demos meaning whole citizen living within a particular city-state and kratos meaning power or rule.

It is generally agreed that liberal democracies are based on four main principles:

See Playing Fair, a website by the Parliamentary Education Office.

A liberal democracy (that is, one that champions the development and well-being of the individual) is organised in such a way as to define and limit power so as to promote legitimate government within a framework of justice and freedom. There are four critical elements to the framework:

A legitimate government is one that has the appropriate mandate/authority to rule. This usually means a high degree of popular support as demonstrated by a free electorate and frequent elections.

Justice is achieved when citizens live in an environment in which all citizens are treated equally and accorded dignity and respect. This may occur in a representative democracy that is tempered by constitutionalism, free elections and restraints on power.

If freedom is to exist, there must be:

In a liberal democracy efforts are made to define and limit power, often by means of a written constitution. Checks and balances, such as the separation of the Parliament, senior government and judicial power, are instituted. In addition, there are conventions of behaviour and a legal system that complements the political system.

There is no absolute definition of democracy. The term is elastic and expands and contracts according to the time, place and circumstances of its use. What follows is a short list of definitions provided by field experts.

But first, what does democracy mean? In Ancient Greece some cities were democracies, others were oligarchies. Democracy meant rule by the people, oligarchy meant rule by the few. So a city was a democracy if:

Rule by the people; democracy implies both popular participation and government in the public interest, and can take a wide variety of forms.

Democracy: A democracy is a society in which the citizens are sovereign and control the government.

The democratic method is that institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which individuals acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for the peoples vote.

Schumpeter adds that the classical theory of democracy attributed to the electorate an altogether unrealistic degree of initiative which practically amounted to ignoring leadership.

Further, Schumpeter claimed that,

the purpose of democratic method [is] not to select representatives who carry out the will of the people, but to choose individuals who [will] govern on their behalf.

As proposed by Robert Dahl, Schmitter and Karl, and Larry Diamond.

In a direct democracy, such as ancient Athens, all citizens (only adult males who had completed their military training; women, slaves and plebs were not citizens) are invited to participate in all political decisions. This form of democracy is no longer practiced. In this form of democracy citizens are continuously involved in the exercise of power and decision is by majority rule.

In a representative democracy, representatives are elected by the people and entrusted to carry out the business of governance. Australia is a representative democracy.

In a constitutional democracy a constitution outlines who will represent the people and how. Australia is also a constitutional democracy.

Political scientist John Keane suggests that a new form of democracy is evolving in which government is constantly monitored in its exercise of power by a vast array of public and private agencies, commissions and regulatory mechanisms. See Life and Death of Democracy by John Keane, published by Simon and Schuster UK in 2009.

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Australia is a representative democracy. In this political system, eligible people vote for candidates to carry out the business of governing on their behalf. Australias system of governmentits institutions and practicesreflect British and North American traditions combined in a way that is uniquely Australian.

For further reading, see Australias System of Government fact sheet.

The Australian democracy has at its heart, the following core defining values:

Australian democracy has at its heart, the following core defining principles:

Australian democracy has at its heart, the following core defining features:

There is a total of 9 parliaments across Australia. One federal (or national) parliament, located in Canberra and six state parliaments and two [territory](There is a total of 9 parliaments across Australia. One federal (or national) parliament, located in Canberra and six state parliaments and two territory legislative assemblies, located in the capital cities of each state or territory. Representatives at each level are selected through regular and frequent popular elections.) legislative assemblies, located in the capital cities of each state or territory. Representatives at each level are selected through regular and frequent popular elections. Most Australian parliaments are bicameral.

The federal House of Representatives has single-member representationa system designed to elect major parties and support efficient government; while the Senate has multi-member representation. This system elects 12 senators to each state and two to each self-governing territory. It is designed to protect the interests of the states.

Members and senators divide their time between electorate duties and parliamentary duties.

Australian democracy has at its heart, the following key defining facts:

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A very popular and historically successful form of government, democracy puts power in its peoples handswell, kind of. The way this political system works is through the citizens voting in elections to decide who would be worthy to represent them in the different areas of the government. The elected officials would then make important decisions on the peoples behalf.

Democracy creates various branches of power within the government, which then creates a checks-and-balances system with individual sectors monitoring the others. Some of the most successful nations around the world employ a democratic system.

However, democracy does not come without its own set of flaws. Let us take a deep look into its pros and cons.

1. It is by the people and for the people.In a democratic form of government, everyone will be allowed to vote and participate in weighing in on what they think about the countrys political, social and economic issues, making sure that whatever decision is made, it will be in their interest and not just of the government leaders. The public would actually hold power and has opinions that matter. This sense of participation would allow the feelings of pride and patriotism that are not often seen in counties with a different political system.

2. It promotes a sense of involvement.When people have the power to vote and support certain decisions and laws, they would feel like an active part in society. This means they would feel being needed for the society to thrive. Giving power to the people and letting them get involved is definitely something that will have a considerable impact on the country as a whole.

3. It imposes equality.The vote every person has would carry the same weight, making a democratic form of government built on equality. Not only in democracy, but this reigns true in all forms of political elections, making all individuals feeling heard and important.

4. It allows for reasonable policy changes.According to proponents, this is probably the biggest pro of democracy. Considering the peoples power, they are also important to making changes to the system when they feel it is necessary, which are then agreed with the elected officials willingly.

These changes can come without violence, where power is transferred from one party to another through election, which means the government is only bound in power by terms that are separated into yearly increments. Change would be constant, and the ruling party must work for the citizens, or they would not be voted back into power. The authority given by the people would allow for a political system that does not take advantage of the given power.

5. It does not put power into a single individual.In democracy, power is spread out, and no individual holds all of the powereven the majority of it. This helps prevent exploitation of the people and corruption.

6. It provides obligation to citizens.Democracy enables the feeling of obligation to the public in motivating the ruling power. Consequently, government officials will have a duty and obligation to the citizens who voted them into position, which means they owe their success to the citizens, so they should be indebted to them in a certain degree. Such motivation can help these officials work towards policies and goals they were elected to impose.

1. It risks lack of knowledge among the people.Due to the fact that the people have the power to elect officials into office, they would be often not informed on political issues in a way that they should be, which means that many of them with voting power are not as knowledgeable about relevant issues as necessary. This is not always ideal, as common masses without the understanding of societal issues would make the wrong choices during elections.

2. It might cause the minority to get the short end.Since a democratic form of government is set up to cater to the majority, the minority would be often overlooked and even exploited. A lot of policies and laws that favor the majority are mostly hurtful to the minority, causing a large gap between the 2 groups.

3. It would allow mob influence.One big downside to democracy is the possibility that mobs will still have influence. Though the public is the one doing the voting, mobs can still influence the voters decisions. People would be influenced by others, and sometimes, political officials would even make claims to simply win their votes, instead of working for the people. The elections will then be the spotlight, rather than the policies that need to be changed.

4. It might experience election fraud.Democracy will face difficulties in functioning efficiently, especially when there is a larger to take care of. Elections and vote tallying would become a seemingly impossible task, leading to some form of corruption, such as voter fraud.

5. It may have difficulties to avoid shortfalls.Every political system does not come without flaws, which means that democracy is not a perfect system, especially that there are different people having different views, making matters complicated. Since government positions are based on short terms, the political system might also be short-term focused and would not be working for the growth of society long-term.

6. It is prone to the free time rules system.In democracy, people who have the most amount of free time would get to attend meetings frequently, influencing the government decisions that would be made. On the other hand, people with full and busy schedules would have no time to attend these meetings and could not have the same pull.

Giving any form of government a label can be difficult, and for democracy, it is quite complex, where deciding whether it is good or bad would depend on so many factors. It is a tried and true government system that has actually produced great economical and social success, but there is no solid proof that all democratic countries have out-succeeded others. The best way to reach a reasonable conclusion is to weigh its pros and cons, as well as take a look at such a political system from both sides. We can also compare it to other forms of government to give it a full evaluation.

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12 Vital Pros and Cons of Democracy | Green Garage