Democracy
Firstly, democracy means that the people have direct or indirect power to influence the Government in decision making through voting or electing a trusted representer. By doing so, the people will be able to voice out their opinions and improve on the current state.
Democracy or any other form of governance has a same goal of achieving stability in the country. Among the different ways of governing, democracy is the best way to do so. Basically, stability means that the people living in the country are happy and peaceful. By introducing democracy, people can vote for their benefits. This will no doubt create peace and happiness in the country. Democracy can only be achieved if the voters are well educated about the political affairs and are able to see clearly who they should vote for that will be able to govern the country well.
Democracy has flaws; corruption is the main killer to democracy. As many cases of corruption are introduced to attract voters to vote for them, the politicians are destroying the system of democracy. By using money to “buy” votes from voters, and eventually get elected to govern the country, these politicians do not really have the ability to help the country to progress. Rather they only want to enjoy the power they gain and do not care about the citizens.
Voters nowadays hardly get any education on democracy and thus unable to vote for a wise leader. They are often blinded by flashy shows, money and even celebrities. These attract the voters’ attention and distract them from voting the right person.
There are advantages and disadvantages for implementing democracy. Looking at the short term, democracy does not seem to be able to benefit the country much. Also during the election, campaigning cost a lot of money, this gives a little downfall on the country’s economy.
However, by looking at the long term, democracy does bring along benefits to the country. If the politicians are not corrupted, the voters will be able to vote out a wise leader that will be able to tackle various problems the country will face, also making changes to allow the citizens to live a better life.
Based on the pro and con of democracy, it is still a good form of government that can make the country prosper. If the voters get more educated and look into the future, the politicians only try their best to attract the voters with their real talents or abilities; democracy is a good choice of government.
Like they say that humans are never perfect, i believe that the systems brought about by mankind should not be totally perfect. Flaws can also be seen in this system. The power of corruption can bring the pure and innocent democracy down to its knees. why is this so? i shall elaborate. a common practice is the act of buying votes. how does bring democracy down to its knees? like wad kaiwen mentioned, democracy is people power. buying votes will bring about money politics and votes will never be fair. the people will not be the ones controling their affairs but rather the rich politicians and those with enough contacts. another key flaw is like what both mingjun and kaiwen mentioned, educating the public on their right to vote is very important. its not just the 'brain washing' that harms the true meaning of democracy but rather there is also another factor that we must address. some uneducated members of the public may not understand what is democracy and some may not even realize that they have the legal human right to vote. as such many will not vote thus making the whole process unfair and bias. the public must be educated to learn that their vote ultimately decides their future and how they want things to go about.
'Everyone has an open mind until people come along and put things in it' and 'Some people are so open minded that their brains fall out'.
These two quotes are sort of witty and intended to be amusing, but I think they're quite true. In response to Ming Jun's post, I don't think that that's really open mindedness. Training people to accept whatever you say is probably brainwashing, and rather propagandistic, which seems to be somewhat dictatorship-like.
Yes, the teaching of democracy is key to getting the people to work in such a manner, but I think that forced education is just undemocratic to start with. Perhaps, people could be educated on the ideals and outcomes of democracy, and once they see the benefits of it, they will wholeheartedly join in.
However, that is how communism seems to work too - the people are benefitted, but then corrupt leaders and human factors come in, and the whole system falls apart. Look at Russia or China. The people were shown exactly how they would benefit, and they voted their leaders in, but eventually, there are millions of starving poor in rural areas, and corrupt officials who live padded lives. Communism was a good idea at first, but it is not a successful action. This would be due to human greed and selfishness.
Another problem is that the minority is overlooked in democratic votes or decisions. Just imagine, if all the Chinese in Singapore decided to vote for anti - non Chinese laws, there's nothing that can be done about it.
Comments?
Continuing from Kai Wen's point about people looking at the education about democracy as 'brainwashing' and limiting freedom.
I feel that the first step to educating people to accept democracy is to teach them to be open-minded. If people are open-minded, they are more likely to accept the democracy education.
About the problems of people who insist that the instilling the values of democracy undermines the freedom of the people, I feel that if people are educated to be open-minded, they should be able to accept the teachings of democracy. Anyway, if we thoroughly 'brainwash' the people, they should accept the what is taught to them right?
Does democracy create stability in a society?
I feel that it would, to a certain extent.
Key beliefs of democracy include freedom and equality, as well as human rights. If a truly democratic state existed, it would embody all of these in its laws and enforce them. Therefore, all people, including minority groups, would be treated equally. As they are happy, there will not be tension between different groups of the community such as the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland, or the Tamils and the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka. This will help to prevent unrest, and thus promote stability.
However, this would be difficult to achieve. In order to gain such a state, the people's thinking must be in line with this concept of equality across races, religions, ethnic groups, gender, and other differences within society. This is where education should come in to teach the people. They should be taught about equality and human rights and have such values instilled in them.
Which brings us to another problem - freedom. Such 'brainwashing' could be considered limiting the people's freedom, which is no longer the democratic way. One could argue that people have the right to think what they want. In such a case, the people might start discriminating against others in their minds, leading to discriminatory actions. If the majority press for it, there will be no option but to pass such discriminatory laws, due to the voting system which guarantees an overwhelming majority the right to decide.
It can be seen that democracy will not be easy to achieve stability as long as discriminatory views exist in the minds of the people.
Before we can examine if democracy creates stability, we must also define stability.
Stability has many different meanings. It can refer to trajectories, chemicals, directions, mathematics, and more. However, stability here probably means how peaceful the state is. A stable state would probably not have riots or unrest, and the people would be contented and happy.
Firstly, we must define - what is democracy?
Democracy is 'a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections'. In other words, it is a system where citizens control their own affairs, and are given the power to do so. They either do this directly, by voting to pass bills and laws, or indirectly, voting for people to represent them who will make it their jobs to pass such bills and laws.
Posted by Hwang Kai Wen at 7:05 PM
