Question

what do you know about all democratic rights?

Answer 1

At it’s most basic, democracy confers upon all citizens the right to an equal say in how they are governed, this usually takes the form of an equal vote in the election of a government, head of state, or one or more public offices. However, this definition says nothing about the context in which the vote takes place: for example, how is citizenship defined? A state that has a very narrow definition of full citizenship can call itself democratic while still restricting the right to vote to a tiny elite. Many “democratic” western nations restricted voting rights to landowners until around the start of the 20th century, and the classical democracies of Ancient Greece (from where the term originated) and Rome only permitted wealthy male landowners of sufficient social status (i.e. no slaves, labourers, foreigners or other riff-raff) to vote. Also worth considering is how meaningful the vote is - is there a real choice on offer? One common tactic popular with communists and fascists alike is to ban all political parties (except for their own, of course) leaving the electorate with no other choice.

Modern western democracy frowns on these kinds of practices, which while technically fitting the most narrow, etymologically correct definition of “democracy”, nonetheless still go against the general spirit of the idea. As mentioned above, it was the Greeks who originally came up with the term “democracy” - it stems from the Greek word Demokratia, a fusion of Demos (“People”) and Kratos (“Power”) - lit. “Power of the People”. Contriving to deny an equal share of real power over the government to some or all of the people it governs clearly fails to live up to this principle. Thus the definition generally used throughout the western world is that democracy:

Affords full and equal citizenship to all natural persons meeting the criteria with as few exceptions as possible. Generally accepted criteria for exclusion include minority or lack of capacity on the part of the individual in question, or reason to doubt the good faith or character of the individual.

Full citizenship should confer the same rights and responsibilities on everyone, especially including the rights to fair and due process under the law, freedom of speech and association, and the right to participate in the democratic process.

Citizens should be able to participate in the decision-making process and influence government legislation and/or policy on an equal basis. This may be either direct (they participate directly) or indirect (they participate via proxy, delegate or representative) and the vote may either be on an issue directly, or on the election of an officer who will handle one or more issues on the voters’ behalf.

Votes should be free and fair - allowing everyone an equal right to stand for office, form and join political parties and campaign groups, and to participate in votes on the same basis as everyone else.

Votes should be frequent enough that a government is incentivised to respond to the wishes of the public, and sufficient time must be given (between an election being called and the vote taking place) for others to register as candidates and campaign for office, or for amendments or alternative proposals to be put forward and debated.

Votes should be infrequent enough that a degree of finality and ligitimacy is conferred upon the result, in order to prevent railroading and filibustering. a reasonable amount of time should be allowed between votes on the same issue.

As you can see, there’s a lot of competing factors involved here, and no democratic system or institution is able to balance them all perfectly. The ideal modern western democracy exemplifies the rule of the majority with respect to the wishes of the minority. Minority wishes must be heard, and treated with due respect (especially where the majority disagrees!) and a compromise should be sought wherever possible. The goal of democracy should always be to seek the best possible compromise for all. The danger of this is that it can leave all parties dissatisfied, especially when the compromise is on a contentious or divisive issue.
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