explain the challenge of expansion of democracy
Answers
The major challenges to democracy are:
The foundational challenge involves transitioning from a non-democratic to a democratic form of government. It means keeping power in the hands of civilians instead of military and establishing a sovereign state. It also means granting basic rights associated with democratic governance to citizens.
The challenge of expansion consists of the application of democratic principles to all social groups, across regions and institutionalising democracy. Expansion includes taking democracy to grassroots through local governments, empowering women and minorities as well as applying federal principles to ensure autonomous decision-making and decentralisation.
Deepening of democracy is the challenge of strengthening the practices and institutions that uphold democracy. This challenge focuses on the expectations of the people in different societies. These expectations are bound to vary and therefore, it needs to be viewd in the different contexts.
Most of the established democracies face the challenge of expansion. This involves applying the basic principle of democratic government across all the regions, different social groups and various institutions. Ensuring greater power to local governments, extension of federal principle to all the units of the federation, inclusion of women and minority groups, etc., falls under this challenge. This also means that less and less decisions should remain outside the arena of democratic control. Most countries including India and other democracies like the US face this challenge. In India certain socio-economically backward groups have yet to get the political powers. Additionally, some north-eastern states have not yet fully integrated with the mainstream India. These are examples of challenge of expansion of democracy.