Democracy: success and failure
No man is good enough to govern another man without that other consent. The ballot is stronger than the bullet. – Abraham Lincoln
This quotation is a gist of a democratic form of government in which the elected representatives govern the citizens of the country. People with their consent elected them as their representatives by the secret ballot paper.
Democracy a form of a government
Democracy is a form of government in which sovereignty lies in the hands of the citizens of the country. That’s why it is called the people’s government. In which people by-election elected their representative who represents the whole nation the parliament. In other words, it means that power lies with people and they rule themselves.
In India, this period of democratic elections on the basis of the universal adult franchise began in 1952. This was the biggest achievement of India after the long period of slavery.
Democracy has considered being a most effective and conducive form of government in which the ultimate source of power lies in the hand of citizens of the country and its growth and defeat depends upon the citizen’s intelligence and vigilance.
Traits of the democracy
All people are equal in democracy. No person shall be discriminated against in the democracy. They are equal take part in the administration of the country by electing representatives by using the adult franchise system. Everyone who is above 18 years of age has a right to vote and the value of their vote is the same whether they are illiterate, literate, old, young etc.
Right vested in the citizens of the country in democracy. Democracy is that form of government that bestowed various rights to their citizens like the right to speech and expression, right to vote, fair election, right to live a dignified life, right to movement etc. are the backbone of the democracy.
The right to information act is responsible for the success of democracy to some extent. Right to information acts brings transparency between government and citizens. the person who wants to know about the government activities, what are the policies of the government, what the government took steps towards the society, they can know through the mechanism provide under this Act.
Role of media in democracy. There can be no democracy without accountability and transparency. Media plays the role of intermediate between the government and citizens.it is only the media through which policies of the government came within the knowledge of people otherwise the majority of the Indian public is that they blame the government for everything.
Government public welfare policies. A democratic form of government always works for people. It comes with various welfare policies in order to improve the standard of living of peoples like Beti Padho Beti Bacho, Har ghar bhijli yojna etc.
Failure of democracy
Lack of vigilance, the consciousness of the people. They are so busy in their own day to day life, they don’t think about how the government works after once they voted, so the representative becomes corrupt thereafter.
Illiteracy and poverty. In India a number of people are illiterate and are under the poverty line, this is also the causality for the failure of the democracy because they are not conscious about their rights especially voting rights. Due to poverty, they sell their right to the corrupt candidate. When a corrupt person comes into power he becomes more corrupt because power makes the person absolutely corrupt.
Lack of strong opposition. In the present government which is in power, there is the majority of the one party in the legislature. They can do whatever they want, so a lack of strong opposition also be a big failure for democracy.
Nonperformance of their duties. People are generally aware of their rights but they don’t think about their duties. They don’t perform their duties properly like they threw the garbage on the roads, and vote criminals, make the illegal construction do not pay the taxes. After that, they blame the government for everything which happens wrong.
Corruption. Corruption is another major reason for the failure of democracy. the corrupt leaders fill their own pockets instead of spending money on the public welfare.
Delay in the decision making. In a democracy all the decisions are taken on a majority basis, sometime there is certain situations that required quick decisions, in that cases, democracy fails very badly.
Conclusion
Democracy is a form of government whose success and failure depends upon both the people and the elected representatives, if they work together properly, no one can stop the development of any country.
Article by – Adv. Pooja Singla (P & H High Court)