Question

How do we distinguish democratic elections from any other election? give examples.

Answer 1

Answer:

Democratic elections are the elections where people have the right to choose their representatives. The political party which gets the large number of votes forms the government.

Non-democratic elections are the elections where people do not have the right to choose their representatives.

Answer 2

The following are the ways to distinguish a democratic election from any other election-

• Free and fair- A democratic election is free and fair in nature. This means that everyone is allowed to contest the elections. Also, the elections are not rigged in any manner. For instance, elections in Mexico over a lot of decades cannot be considered democratic as the ruling party PRI used dirty tactics to win the elections every time.
• One person, one vote, one value- Democratic elections are based on the principle of Universal Adult Franchise. Under this principle, every citizen over the age of 18 years is allowed to cast vote and thus participate in the election process. Moreover, each vote has equal value. This is not true for the election process in Fiji, where the vote of an Indian-origin Fijian has lesser value than that of a native Fijian.
• Freedom of ideology- A democratic election allows people to form or join political parties on the basis of their own ideologies. By this criterion, the elections in China are not democratic since no party other than the Communist Party of China or minor parties allied to it are allowed to exist.

Going by these criteria, it is safe to say that elections in India are definitely democratic.

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