What democracy is by Ioana Răduțu

What democracy is?

Abraham Lincoln said, "Democracy is government of the people, by the people, and

for the people."

Everyday we hear at the radio, on TV, on streets the word democracy. It is the most

used terms of the political vocabulary. Everybody has written about democracy but none of

the texts already written were accepted and adopted worldwide by the politicians. So, people

tend to have different opinions about democracy and they define it differently.

Democracy has many principles like: it is an universally recognized ideal based on

common values shared by people all over the world no matter the cultural, political, social or

economic differences, democracy is applied according to the cultural particularities and it

promotes equality between all the people, democracy also promotes a climate favorable for

the international peace and it is the only political system that has the capacity for self-

correction. The main principles of the democracy are the primacy of the law and the exercise

of human rights.

As a conclusion, I can say that democracy equals the institutionalization of freedom

and equality and that people who live in a democratic society must be the guardians of their

own freedom and rights, even though there are many organizations that try to protect the

human rights, in the end people are the only ones who can really protect themselves.

Democracy promotes the participation of citizen in making public decisions by

majority rule. However, in a democratic system minority rights are also respected and taken

into consideration. In other words, the people are citizens of the democratic state, not its

subjects. We can say that it is and exchange between the state and the citizens: the state

protects the rights of its citizens and in return citizens give the state their loyalty and support.

What democracy is by Ioana Răduțu

In 1776 in the U.S. Declarations of Independence, Thomas Jefferson said "We hold

these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their

Creator with certain inalienable rights [freedom of speech and expression, freedom of

religion and conscience and the right to equal protection before the law], that among these

are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights, governments are

instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

All these rights are fundamental but they are not absolute, if they are used to incite to

violence or for other harm and these bad actions are proved, they are usually defined and

controlled through courts.

I believe that the most important things that democracy promotes are the rights from

above. Now we will speak about every right we believe it is important for the citizens.

The freedom of speech and expression

Freedom of speech and expression is one of the most important rights that democracy

promotes. Anyway, this right has also a negative part, which is so called "negative right",

because we cannot use it in any situation and banned by the law of the state. All the citizens

have the right to be informed and all the public administration has to assure transparency in

all the public information.

Democracy promotes uncensored ideas and opinions and anyone has the right to

express their ideas even if they are different and contrary to the ideas of the government. If

people want to be free to govern themselves they have to be also free to express their

opinions openly and in public. The most known thing in which citizen use the freedom of

speech and expression are the protests. When people do not agree with a certain thing and

What democracy is by Ioana Răduțu

believe that the law is not right, they form big groups and start protesting, most of the protest

taking part in the capital, in front of the government. In Romania we have seen many

protests in the last years because economy has not been the best and the govern started

cutting off the salaries. This was not a good thing for the citizens because their work was the

same, so they started protesting to be sure that the law will be changed. Sometimes, the

protests have results, but most of the times they do not have.

Freedom of religion

Another right promoted by the democracy is the freedom of religion. If we take our

state as an example, we can see that here we meet people that have all kinds of religion, from

orthodoxy to Catholicism, Muslim people or Mormons and .In democracy the state does not

discriminate between these religions and they treat them equal. People have the freedom to

follow their conscience and choose their religion. The citizens of the state have the right to

worship anything or not to worship at all.

In Romania, it has been a problem with freedom of religion because here most of the

population is orthodox. In orthodox cultures, we worship God and pray to icons with our

saints. We tend to have these icons in all the places, including our homes, companies,

hospitals or schools. People whom have a different religion did not like this thing because

they go to the same schools with us and they did not agree to have an icon in every class

because that was not their God. This matter is still discussed in the government but no

decisions have been taken yet.

What democracy is by Ioana Răduțu

Equality

Democracy is the safeguard of equality. Democratic equality guarantees citizens

equal basic liberties like fair equality of opportunity which requires that we not only judge

people for jobs and offices by reference to their relevant talents and skills but we establish

institutional measures to correct the ways in which class, race and gender might interfere

with the normal development of their talents and skills.

I refer to this when I speak about equality because in Romania things are not as they

are written in the law. We meet discrimination wherever we go, even if we go in hospitals,

workplaces or school. People tend to reject things that are different from them. However, we

can see an improvement of this because young people promote equality and do not

discriminate so much.

If we were to choose from all the political systems, we can see that democracy is the

best of them because its law is based on the citizens’ needs and their wishes. Nevertheless,

democracy is both a promise and a challenge. A promise that people are free human beings

and they can serve themselves in a way that will serve their personal aspiration and opinions

and a challenge because its success depends and rests on the shoulders of the people and

nobody else.

Ioana Răduțu