Why is it important to learn about democracy? Well, one of its most important attributes is freedom of choice. democracy is a political system in which the citizens have the right to deliberate and chose governmental leaders, or the legislature, to perform or oversee legislation. In a democracy, citizens have a right to an fair and impartial hearing before their elected representatives make decisions. They have a right to be free of abuse and free from undue influence from special interest groups.
Without having a fair election process, it is not possible for any political party to win an election and become a major party in the political arena. Consequently, in most cases, parties that win most of the votes in an election still maintain a minority of seats in the legislature or the executive office. This can occur because the party with the most votes does not have a majority of seats in the legislature or the executive office, leaving them with a minority. Another reason why some political parties cannot gain enough votes to win an election is because many citizens are backing a more popular party than they do their own party. Regardless of how many seats each political party wins, they usually form a majority in most national and state governments.
Underlying all of this is the freedom of citizens to vote, and this allows individuals to determine what political parties they want to support. The ability of citizens to vote ensures that government officials are accountable to the citizens who elect them. Without a majority rule, it is impossible for a politician to effectively serve the needs of the majority of citizens. Without election results that reflect the will of the majority of citizens, a politician cannot rightfully claim to be representative of all citizens. This lack of election results is what is often referred to as democracy, or mob rule. Without a free and fair election process, a democracy is nothing more than a sham.
Unfortunately, many of those who call themselves partiers have a clear intent to manipulate the outcome of democracy in their favor. Many political parties will use their influence among citizens to sway the voting populace to their favor. Often times, they will bribe citizens with food, money or other bribes in order to get them to change their vote. This conduct goes on continually in countries all over the world with citizens believing that they have a right to be governed according to their individual will.
A representative democracy is not without its flaws, although Athens has been described as the perfect city. It is unfortunate that a society that developed out of a democracy such as Athens has allowed for the rise of such cronyism and corruption. Some would argue that Venice is the perfect example of direct democracy, as Venice was a direct democracy until the nineteenth century. However, both Athens and Venice were founded on the basis of an Ancient Greek polity known as aristocratic citizenship.
Direct democracy is inherently defective, because individuals have no say in determining the fate of any political party. Without political parties being accountable to the citizens that Elected them, it becomes possible for them to do anything they want, which ends up skewing the goals of the societies that elect them. For this reason, all forms of democracy are inherently flawed. However, even with these flaws democracy can work well if the direction it sets forth is one that benefits humanity as a whole.