Democratic Process

Extracted Attributes

Democracy

Democracy is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitive elections while more expansive or maximalist definitions link democracy to guarantees of civil liberties and human rights in addition to competitive elections. In a direct democracy, the people have the direct authority to deliberate and decide legislation. In a representative democracy, the people choose governing officials through elections to do so. The definition of "the people" and the ways authority is shared among them or delegated by them have changed over time and at varying rates in different countries. Features of democracy often include freedom of assembly, association, personal property, freedom of religion and speech, citizenship, consent of the governed, voting rights, freedom from unwarranted governmental deprivation of the right to life and liberty, and minority rights. The notion of democracy has evolved considerably over time. Throughout history, one can find evidence of direct democracy, in which communities make decisions through popular assembly. Today, the dominant form of democracy is representative democracy, where citizens elect government officials to govern on their behalf such as in a parliamentary or presidential democracy. In the common variant of liberal democracy, the powers of the majority are exercised within the framework of a representative democracy, but a constitution and supreme court limit the majority and protect the minority—usually through securing the enjoyment by all of certain individual rights, such as freedom of speech or freedom of association. The term appeared in the 5th century BC in Greek city-states, notably Classical Athens, to mean "rule of the people", in contrast to aristocracy (ἀριστοκρατία, aristokratía), meaning "rule of an elite". In virtually all democratic governments throughout ancient and modern history, democratic citizenship was initially restricted to an elite class, which was later extended to all adult citizens. In most modern democracies, this was achieved through the suffrage movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. Democracy contrasts with forms of government where power is not vested in the general population of a state, such as authoritarian systems. Historically a rare and vulnerable form of government, democratic systems of government have become more prevalent since the 19th century, in particular with various waves of democratization. Democracy garners considerable legitimacy in the modern world, as public opinion across regions tends to strongly favor democratic systems of government relative to alternatives, and as even authoritarian states try to present themselves as democratic. Democracy more consistently results in improved health, education and economic outcomes. According to the V-Dem Democracy indices and The Economist Democracy Index, less than half the world's population lives in a democracy as of 2022. At the same time, while representative democracy is widely valued, Pew Research Center found that dissatisfaction with democratic performance is common even in many established democracies.

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• What Are Democratic Processes? | Human Rights Careers

  ## Petitioning and protesting A person’s participation in government doesn’t end with their vote. Communicating with elected officials and petitioning them to dismiss or adopt certain policies is an important democratic process. That can include writing letters, making phone calls, and signing petitions. Influencing government policy can be complicated, so there are lobbying groups that advocate for various issues (like healthcare, wages, foreign policy) on citizens’ behalf. [...] Published 19. October 2020 Democracy is a form of government that comes from two Greek words: “demos” and “kratia.” “Demos” means “the people” while “kratia” means “power or authority.” Therefore, democracy is a system of power controlled by the people. Ancient Greece had a direct democracy where all citizens (only free men could be citizens) met to discuss policy and make decisions. [...] In the United States, the founding fathers decided to use indirect (also known as representative) democracy. That means that while not all citizens meet and make laws, they are given the right to choose who represents them. The downside to this type of democracy is that it creates a system controlled by a few people who don’t necessarily listen to what other citizens say. Most Western countries have a representative democracy. Switzerland has more tools of direct democracy, giving citizens more power. To ensure representation, everyone needs to participate in democratic processes. Here are four examples: ## Voting

• Democracy - Wikipedia

  Democratization, or democratisation, is the structural government transition from an authoritarian government to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. The opposite process of democratic transition is known as democratic backsliding or autocratization. Whether and to what extent democratization occurs can be influenced by various factors, including economic development, historical legacies, civil society, and international processes. Some accounts of democratization emphasize how elites drove democratization, whereas other accounts emphasize grassroots bottom-up processes. How democratization occurs has also been used to explain other political phenomena, such as whether a country goes to a war or whether its economy [...] A serious problem with the social media is that they have no truth filters. The established news media have to guard their reputation as trustworthy, while ordinary citizens may post unreliable information. In fact, studies show that false stories are going more viral than true stories. The proliferation of false stories and conspiracy theories may undermine public trust in the political system and public officials. Reliable information sources are essential for the democratic process. Less democratic governments rely heavily on censorship, propaganda, and misinformation in order to stay in power, while independent sources of information are able to undermine their legitimacy. ## See also [edit] iconPolitics portal iconSociety portal [...] ##### Procedural [edit] Procedural democracy or proceduralist democracy, proceduralism or hollow democracy is a term used to denote the particular procedures, such as regular elections based on universal suffrage, that produce an electorally-legitimated government. Procedural democracy, with its centering of electoral processes as the basis of democratic legitimacy, is often contrasted with substantive or participatory democracy, which centers the equal participation of all groups in society in the political process as the basis of legitimacy. ##### Radical [edit] Main article: Radical democracy

• Who Decides What Is Democratic? | Journal of Democracy

  As this process advances, the opposition becomes unable to win elections (or assume office if it does win), established institutions lose the capacity to control the executive, and manifestations of popular protest are repressed by force. The danger of delegative populism is that a majority will support a government that delivers what the majority wants even when that government is subverting democratic institutions. [...] For genuine electoral competition to be sustained . . . something more than a bare minimum of legal and institutional arrangements is necessary. In addition, there is a need for the civil and political rights employed in the democratic process, the availability of neutral electoral machinery, and the stability, predictability, and publicity of a legal regime usually captured in the term “rule of law.”5 To this extent, therefore, the conception that reduces democracy to free and fair elections, sometimes criticized as “electoralism,” is not so “minimal.”6 [...] The alternative to governing by ourselves is to be governed by others, but being governed well. What people want most is to be governed by governments which deliver whatever the populace wants, whether income growth, the promotion of certain ideological values, or whatnot. “Delegative” populism occurs if people want the government to govern even when it dismantles constraints on its continuance in office and discretionary authority. The result is “democratic backsliding” (also known as “deconsolidation,” “erosion,” or “retrogression”). Ginsburg and Huq describe this as “a process of incremental (but ultimately still substantial) decay in the three basic predicates of democracy — competitive elections, liberal rights to speech and association, and the rule of law.”18

• How democracies prevail: democratic resilience as a two-stage process

  demonstrates an important methodological insight: what is typically treated as a quandary of measurement (levels vs. discrete changes) is actually the equifinality of democratic survival. [...] of life makes people more likely to support the status quo over those seeking to undo the existing order. [...] dictators. Our results also point to the importance of a country's past experience with democracy, which is consistently associated with higher levels of resilience in both stages.

• Democracy | United Nations

  ## Gender parity among heads of state a century away Democracy needs women to be truly democratic, and women need democracy if they are to change the systems and laws that exclude them. The role of women in democratic processes is emphasized in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and in the 2011 General Assembly resolution on Women’s Political Participation. [...] ## Democracy and Civil Society: The United Nations Democracy Fund The United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) funds projects that empower civil society, promote human rights, and encourage the participation of all groups in democratic processes. Currently, for example, UNDEF finances projects to mobilize the youth for elections in Côte d'Ivoire, to engage men in promoting gender equality in Palestine, and to build a platform for citizen advocacy in elections in Brazil. Most of UNDEF funds go to local civil society organizations in countries in both the transition and consolidation phases of democratisation. [...] UN electoral assistance helps Member States to hold periodic, inclusive, transparent and credible elections and to establish nationally sustainable electoral processes. It has been an important component of peacekeeping and peacebuilding contexts, and in broader efforts to establish and deepen democratic governance.