Saturday, June 21, 2008

Democracy creates stability in society

I agree to a large extent that democracy creates stability in society. There are many reasons why democratic societies have stability. Firstly, a government is elected by the people; hence there will not be many disgruntled voters. Everyone has equal rights in a democratic state where people are not stereotyped by race, religion, gender, or ethnicity. Because there is fairness in society, nobody will feel injustice and hence more stability is created in the society. In a democratic state, everyone has equal rights including a monarch or a president. If they commit crimes, they are under jurisdiction by the law. This shows that democratic societies have equality throughout, which creates stability because everyone is treated equally.

In democratic societies, people have a “duty” to participate in activities of the state such as voting, civic meetings, and debating issues. Normally when only the government is involved and making decisions, the citizens have to blindly follow the law. But in democratic states where people are involved in state affairs, they will better understand the state and its laws. They will not just listen to the government without knowing the rationale behind it. In non-democratic states, if the government passes an unreasonable law, the people have no right whatsoever to change the law. However, in democratic states, people have the right to peacefully protest against the law. This makes the society more stable as less people will resort to violence to get their message across to the government. This means that the citizens have the right to prevent the elected government from abusing their power. If the government’s performance is unsatisfactory, the citizens can peacefully remove them from office and elect a new government. All these rights given to the people in a democratic government make them able to govern their own state according to the people, not according to the government.

Examples where the people have more power than the government is that the government must act on petitions with 2% or more of the voter’s signatures. Essentially, the government is elected as an authority figure just to carry out the will of the people. Therefore, everyone in a democratic state is satisfied and more stability is created.

However, there are instances where democracy creates instability in society. Even though peaceful riots are allowed in a democratic society, the government is not obliged to listen to the riots, so in the end, people might just resort to violence, causing instability in society. Although people can remove politicians from office if they abuse their power, the impact might be long-lasting on society. Even after removing them from office, it will be hard to undo the changes made. Furthermore, even if the law sees everyone as equals, it does not mean that the people see each other as equals. Even if there is a law that prevents racial discrimination, people might still have prejudices against each other which are not openly expressed.

Therefore, I think that democracy does create stability in society.

By Daniel Low (22)

1 comment:

quah said...

terse, short, sharp style - most suited to a speech script; edit a bit, for a written essay, the first part

excellent thinking shown; develop on.