Democracy is the only viable system for governing
Government is one of the most important element of state through which society is politically organized .it is an agency where the collective will of the people is formulated, expressed and executed. Democracy is such a form of government which is the most popular and practiced all over the world. But the main concern is that there is other form of Government (Monarchy, Aristocracy, Dictatorship, etc) exists and democracy has often proved to be a failure in many countries and criticized by prominent thinkers. So, it’s obvious for question to be raised in terms of validity of democracy in a globalized world with diverse phenomena.
By following the Greek word "demokratia", democracy is the 'rule of the people'. According the Gettell, Democracy is that form of government in which the mass of population possesses the right to share in the exercise the sovereign of power. Abraham Lincoln addressed it as a government of the people, by the people and for the people. As a whole, democracy is a form of government where the activities of legislature, judiciary and executive agencies is determined by the more or less equal and direct participation of all citizens. Being the government of the majority, it’s undoubtedly the most appreciated form of government. There are, of course, problems peculiar to democracy; however, do these problems warrant the description of democracy as being the ‘least worst’ option? one of the most prevalent criticisms of democracy is that it can lead to ineffectual government. When Aristotle first established typologies and started to categorise political systems, he considered democracy to be a ‘perverted’ form of ‘rule by many’. This idea of the masses being unfit to govern is still evident in Britain up until 1862, and perhaps even 1928 when universal suffrage was introduced. There are still free market economists up to this day, such as Milton Friedman, who believe that democracy produces inefficient economic systems. They argue that in order to create effective economies, governments need to make what are generally considered to be deeply unpopular decisions – such as mass privatization, de-regulation and removing worker’s rights; particularly relevant at this time of economic austerity. This is an example of the ‘governing paradox’ (Flinders, 2010, p. 311). In part this is due to what they see as an inherent contradiction between Capitalism and Democracy – that as economic agents, people are expected to act in their own self-interest, whereas, when it comes to casting their ballot, they are expected to act in the interest of the society as a whole. However, democratic countries ‘tend to be more prosperous’ (Dahl, 1998, p. 58). India, for example, the world’s largest democracy, grew by 5.5% in the first quarter of 2012. In more general terms, the West – predominantly America and Europe – consist of the most developed economies in the world, the overwhelming majority of wh...
