Democracy

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, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

These are the memorable words by Thomas Jefferson in the American Declaration of Independence. This is very fundamental.

The words freedom and democracy are often used as if they mean the same, but the words are really not synonyms. However to achieve freedom the democracy often is a necessity.

The word Democracy comes from the words “Demos” and “Kratein”. These are greek words that means people and government. This means that the the meaning of the word democracy is that the people rule. In order to make this happen it is necessary for the people to have elections. If the people are allowed to vote and choose representatives that can speak for them in the government, we have democracy.

In the ancient Greece the free men, but not the women or slaves, got together in big meetings in Athens to discuss big matters such as war, peace or taxes. This was perhaps the beginning of the democracy where the people rules. This was called direct democracy. But it lasted until the 17th or 18th century until the democracy process started in Europe.

Today, the most common way to democracy, whether for a community of 2 000 or a nation with millions of inhabitants, is representative democracy, in which citizens elect people to the government to make political decisions, formulate laws, and administer programs for the public good. It is not possible to administrate direct democracy in a very large country with many inhabitants.

Sometimes, though, in some specific matter the government can let every man and woman in a country vote for yes or no regarding an issue. For example in Sweden the government let the people vote and decide whether the cars should go on the right or the left side of the roads.