Theories Of Democracy

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Antoine Simon (1179141) Democracy in Theory and Practice Definitions of Democracy and Theories of Government Having a look through History at the different type of governments which have been used, Democracy, with all its imperfections, seems to be the best that came up so far. The meaning of Democracy hasn't stopped to vary with the time and space and has therefore become a “semantic jungle”1. Originally, the term comes from Greek, it means “rule of the people”. Such a government promotes the equality of its citizens. Those are equal before the law and have the same acceses to legislative processes. It was in the late 18th century that Democracy started to be seen as an alternativ form…show more content…
This process haven't stopped ever since. The criteria required for a government to be called a Democracy remain blurry, but the international community considers a country a Democracy when free and fair elections with the universal suffrage are held. Democracy is an idea, an utopia that every societies seems nawadays to aim. Is there only one way to reach that goal, and does everybody feel equal and representated in Democracy? * First of all, different approaches of Democracy have been created to integrate the citizens in this form of government and to defend their interets. In our current society, most of the western coutries have opted for the representative system. An ideal representative democracy has to meet some prerequisites in order to be sustainable: fair competitive elections, freedom of political expression, freedom of speech, and freedom of press are essential. Thus, citizens are well informed and can make their choice in regard to their own interets. For Condorcet, who is according to Schmitt the creator of representative democracy, by electing a professional class of politicians, the citizen fulfill their political role.2 This type of system views all citizens as equal, given…show more content…
Indeed, they represent in theory an alternative routes to empower the political actors who are traditionally marginalized. Those organizations are consider an effectiv way for women to forge a social and political consciousness as to get political apprenticeship. Women can express their positions and wills, debate about the different perspectives, and gain and sharpen their political skills. These new skills can first train the women and help them find their sense of actions to then confront the masculinism of formal political institutions and broaden the processes of democratization. However, the training given to the women is different in every single organizations. Being to weak to back political interests some foundations give women very little training. Their role is minimized in the democratic participation, and so is the one of its members, regardless of gender. Organizations are not the only one to blame to fail empowering women. The political and socioeconomical role that women have played throughout democracy and the background they have built upon it also plays against them. As Batliwala and Dhanraj have noticed in India: “We find that since

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