When we are talking about politics, and when we are trying to find out which of the political systems is the best, the most human, we are going to talk, certainly about democracy.
What is a democracy?
Democracy is a political system that was founded a long time ago in the time of Ancient Greece. If we are talking about the oldest political systems in the history of democracy is one of them. The ancient Greeks saw in a democracy the power of the people. So a political system in which the people of one country the citizens had the power. Bear in mind that this was in 508 BC so a really really long 2500 years ago. But forms of democracy are even older, the first communities in history being lead by a council of the elders. But the democracy in ancient times was never something that lived very long.
In the Middle Ages, we see that democracy was about electing some people to represent you, but the most state was a feudal one. But with the 17th century, something changes, and we can see the Magna Carta Libertatum gave a lot of power to the parliament. This is a very important step because without it the democracy as we know it today might not have been the same.
In our days we say that democracy is a government system in which the population has power through the representatives that they elect and of course the power in the country is divided between the President, the Parliament and the Government. Democracy has the mission to ensure the well being of their citizens and to protect their rights no matter the oppression type.
The four essential points of democracy
When we are talking about the most important framework in a democracy we have four elements that we must know:
Legitimacy. This means that you have the right support to have the power in the country. In a democratic state, this can be easily seen. Because you organize an election and who wins the election has the support of the majority of people in a country. In this way, the people can choose in which direction the country is going to move from now until the next elections.
Justice. This can only be acquired by treating all your citizens like they are equals. Also, justice is extremely important because it shows that freedom can be taken away if you do some wrong things in the society. Otherwise, the society would transform into chaos. So justice it`s essential.
Freedom. This term is well known and pretty well understood. Freedom is the ability to make your own decision, to do things that the law do not forbid because you understand that the things that the law forbids are in the common interest.
Power. Lastly, we have power. This means that the power is not held by only one person or only by one institution, power is divided so that, hopefully, corruption becomes something that happens less and less. It’s true that democracy is not perfect but is probably the best alternative that we have.