Identify whether the following are Democratic or Non-Democratic features.
• People have no role in decision making.
• People could not choose or change their leaders.
• The rulers are accountable to the people and fulfill their needs.
• There is no freedom of expression and people do not enjoy fundamental
rights.
• One person, One vote, One value system.
• Governments of India and USA
• Governments of Saudi Arabia and North Korea
Answers
The stories and the analysis in the previous chapter gave us a sense ofwhat democracy is like. There we described some governments as democratic and some as non-democratic. We saw how governments insome of those countries changed from one form to the other. Let us nowdraw general lessons from those stories and ask the more basic question:What is democracy? What are its features? This chapter builds on a simpledefinition of democracy. Step by step, we work out the meaning of theterms involved in this definition. The aim here is to understand clearly thebare minimum features of a democratic form of government. After goingthrough this chapter we should be able to distinguish a democratic formof government from a non-democratic government. Towards the end ofthis chapter, we step beyond this minimal objective and introduce a broaderidea of democracy.In the previous chapter, we have seen that democracy is the mostprevalent form of government in the world today and it is expanding tomore countries. But why is it so? What makes it better than other forms ofgovernment? That is the second big question that we take up in this chapter.CHAPTER 2What isDemocracy?WhyDemocrac