what are the prerequalisies of democracy
Answers
According to John Adams, a free society must be a self-regulating society
“…pride, avarice, ambition would break through our constitution as a whale breaks through the strongest net…our constitution was written for a moral and religious people, it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Some letter he wrote… the citation escapes me. If someone wishes to accuse me, that’s fine, but I am certain that it would be easy to find.
Another quote, whose original location escapes me, is Aristotle: Democracy will last only until the people discover they can vote themselves money from the treasury.
And finally, something I wrote when I was a political scientist: A freeman is little more than a slave who may choose his master… that man is a slave in chains of adamant stone who gives his loyalty to liberty.
The essence of a truly free, peaceful, and enlightened society is the recognition that it is not government who decides someone’s behavior - it is the person themselves who will limit or extend themselves voluntarily for the preservation of freedom.
A ‘democracy’ must be populated with a majority who is willing - for their own reasons - to limit and to extend themselves - rather than demand a LAW to limit or to extend someone else.
Any time - ANY time - political solutions are used for social issues, freedom is lost. Every law is a matter of coercion. Law = Force. The people of a real democracy must know - in their bones - that it is exceedingly dangerous to force an ideal on someone.
Aside from this, any position that cannot be upheld without forcing others to agree is an inherently weak position - from a formal logic perspective. And, supporting one’s position primarily through ridicule of the opposition - that’s how an ethnic cleansing is begun.
Prerequisite for democracy:
1) centralized nation state to maintain rule and order
2) meritocracy
3) state suppose 'function for welfare of people
4) secular education and rational outlook
5) industrialization and urbanization leading to emergence of secondary group of relations.
6) secularization so that religion becomes private affair
7) reduction in economic inequalities
8) growth of participatory civic culture which permits dissent and tolerates opposition
9) representation of different views and interests
10) rationalization of social life leading to institutionalization of legal rational authority.
The first requirement is for a massive consciousness within the people desiring a change in their government - not any change, however, but a change to a democratic government. There must be a consensus among all citizens that they wish to change to a democratic government. Moreover, they must be willing to work for it themselves with very little international intervention. Many nations that look to international help in these situations rarely end up with a proper functioning government. Why? Because of the second requirement.
The second requirement is that the cultural shift in the nation must have altered to allow for a democratic regime. Forcing democracy upon nations like Iraq and many states within the Middle East is dangerous. The intervening nation (the US) does not have a broad enough understanding on the cultural background and history in order to make an informed decision when developing these democracies. Our own democratic system in the US appears imperfect now, but at the time it addressed the historical problems we were facing and feared in the future. The only people who can decide that it is time for a democracy in their culture is those in the nation themselves. And culture leads to the next requirement.
The third requirement is that the nation must be economically stable enough to support and create a democratic government. Lesser developed countries and poor countries that attempt a democracy tend to be less successful in creating true democracies. Poor economic standards can more easily lead to corruption and lead to a farce of a democracy rather than what it ought to be. This doesn't mean that it has to be an economic superpower, but there must be some sort of militia or armed forced that will be able to protect the democratic government from dissenting forces. The armed forces and stable economy can easily be supplied by the people who are assisting the shift to a democracy. You see, then, how important it is that the majority of the citizens must support such a government change.