“Democracy is the government of the people, by the people for the people“.

A powerfully evocative quote by Abraham Lincoln gives out a clear and strong message that a democratic government gives both the weak and the strong in our society the same chance. Long throughout history, people have fought and struggled for years, sometimes decades to gain the right to vote. This itself proves its importance. “We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back” is a resounding quote but it also accurately reflects what has been happening since time immemorial. 

The underprivileged, the illiterate, women and people of different races were restrained from exercising their vote, from contributing towards the functioning of a country, and from expressing their opinion. But democracy was a revolutionary move. It changed all the conventional practices and systems. Democracy has equality as one of its primary pillars of principles. It has been tried and tested over the years, devised by great minds who had foresight and were astute enough to create a system where everyone is valued and treated on the same level. In a democracy, the power for progress and the election for change lies in the hands of the people. They are the rule makers and their ideals, their wishes; and their principles are reflected through the policies of the country. And logically, that is the way it should be. 

A country’s development is directly proportional to its people. A democracy is not only about voting it is also about expressing, about having the right to know, about doing what one wants. A nine-letter word, democracy incorporates radical ideas which are fitting for a modern, contemporary world. Society can only be empowered when it is given a say in what happens within a country. No country can be considered devoid of flaws. A utopia where crimes are non-existent and justice is meted out to everyone irrespective of class, caste, gender, nationality, or economic strata is virtually non-existent. There is always room for improvement. In a democracy, people are in the position to raise their voices against unfairness and change the system together. This is how a country can progress further, together. There used to be a time when criticising the functioning of a country or raising objections of its tyrannical leadership was equivalent to inviting death. 

Discrimination was common and people of different religions, castes or classes were forced to occupy the periphery of society, separated from the mainstream. For years this was how it was, changes and insurgencies were atypical and few, never quite having the power to cause fundamental, far-reaching and essential changes. That is until 1215 when the creation of the now infamous Magna Carta. To make a long story short, the Magna Carta was issued by King John of England in 1215 as a solution to a political crisis he faced at the time. The Magna Carta was the first document in history that stated the principle that everybody including the King was subject to the law. Although the Magna Carta contained 63 clauses when it was penned down, there is only one clause which is still known and held true to this day. It goes “No free man shall be seized or imprisoned or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land.” While the Magna Carta had relatively little impact on the people who lived at the time, its legacy has lived on as it is credited to have established the idea of a consultative government, an idea which is central to modern democracy. It would be in 1689 when John Locke writing his Two Treatises of Government conjectured that all individuals possessed absolute rights to life, liberty and property. According to Locke, individuals would voluntarily come together to form a state for the purposes of defending their rights. 

Furthermore, Locke emphasised the approval of the government should come from those who they govern. For Locke, citizens had the right to revolt against a government that acted against their interest or adopted a dictatorship. Although these documents were not widely read during his lifetime, Locke's works are considered the founding documents of a liberal democratic framework of governance which remains the foremost form of democracy in the world. Democracy brought along a wave of progressive changes and was a breath of fresh air in a society which was until then suffocated, stifled and overly controlled. Equality, freedom, welfare and well-being of others, and eradication of every kind of restriction and privilege to the higher classes stand as stalwarts of this system. It is not that democracy doesn’t have its own flaws but the fact remains that when one compares it to other forms of government like monarchy, dictatorship, and communist rule, we will find that democratic rule has brought about enormous changes on a global scale. 

Authoritarian rule enforces draconian laws on the citizens and restricts personal freedom leaving a strong sense of dissent amongst the people. Totalitarian regimes concentrate all the power of the country in the hands of one, the laws are vague and disputed, and the people in power stand outside the reach of the rules. It is argued that dictatorships are extremely effective in unifying the nation and enforcing tight, strict laws which rightfully punish perpetrators. But as Otto Friedrich once wrote, "Even the best-intentioned men, once they enter the jungle of power politics, have to confront the necessity of directing actions that they would, in normal circumstances, be inclined to call immoral."

Dictators are very frequently convinced that they themselves are the only ones who can bring salvation to not only their country but the world. A dictatorship does not provide the option for free speech, prosperity and the chance for a developed and secure nation. Fidel Castro, Muammar Gaddafi and Kim Il Sung all were powerful dictators who held the reins of the government for a long time, but when a government is not flexible while reacting to crises it ceases to remain the most apt option. 

Another crucial point is that in anti-democratic regimes people are not involved in any processes of the government and are not given a say in what happens and what does not. And that is one of the merits of a democracy. People find a sense of safety in the knowledge that in a democracy they are irreplaceable. Elections take place every few years and it is possible to remove a leader who is not meeting the expectations of the people. On the other hand with dictators, queens and kings, removing them from power requires a wave of revolutionary actions that more than often shatter the country’s economy, leading to immense chaos. It affects people to a very large degree and it takes a long time to stabilise the situation and restore normalcy.

Winston Churchill once said, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." Of course, democracy is not a perfect system but then again is there any form of governance that has proven to be a hundred percent effective? There have been many cases when the elected representatives have been corrupt, unethical and not capable of taking on the challenge of successfully governing a country. This leads to dishonesty, usage of immoral methods and exploitation of power. That is the precise reason why the citizens should always be alert, vigilant and watchful of any unethical or shady activities taking place. 

Often minority communities don’t get a large say in the elective process because of the majority community whose votes largely influence and decide the result of the elections. Many people are swayed by promises of money and materialistic influences. Why? Because poverty runs rampant in so many countries and people give in to these kinds of temptations because of their impoverished situation. Politicians bait the lower sections of society into a belief of a better life and more often than not, don’t act on these promises. We should ensure that the choice we make is better than that. A leader should be able to choose the harder right rather than the easier wrong. As Ronald Reagan said; ‘Democracy is the most deeply honourable form of government ever devised by man.’ And that is a sentence that can be justified in innumerable ways. A democracy, with or without faults, has crucial values like equality, freedom, political liberty and the like as its doctrines. The dignity of man is recognised. Abraham Lincoln hoped on November 19, 1863; that the ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth’ and it is up to us to carry these legendary words forward, together as one.

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