What Is Democracy?

What is democracy?

Democracy is a political term that describes a "government for the people, by the people," as Abraham Lincoln said. Even so, the meaning of ‘democracy' and what it entails as a political concept has been long debated. Even in today's society, people continue to argue over and discuss its meaning.

Many people point to Athenian democracy as the first official democracy. The English word democracy is said to come from the Greek word ‘demokratia,' implying a government by the people. However, the democracy that existed in Athens in around 500B.C. was nothing like the modern democracies of today's society. First of all, in Athens, only men born of an Athenian mother and Athenian father, and who paid their citizenship tax were considered to be citizens capable of participating in the government (Carteledge, 2011).

Secondly, the democracy found in Athens was a direct-democracy, meaning as many Athenians as possible were directly involved in the governing of Athens (Carteledge, 2011). This is a big difference from modern democracies, as most modern democracies are deemed representative democracies. In a representative democracy, citizens of a country elect representatives who will then make decisions for them (Trueman).

Many centuries later, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote his famous work The Social Contract, where he described his version of democracy. Rousseau's idea of democracy is very similar to the Athenian democracy. Rousseau "argued that the general will of the people could not be decided by elected representatives. He believed in a direct democracy in which everyone voted to express the general will and to make the laws of the land. Rousseau had in mind a democracy on a small scale, a city-state like his native Geneva" (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2004). Rousseau believed that citizens should never have to hand over their rights to a king or any representative, but that the citizens themselves should make up the sovereignty of a nation (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2004).

When the United States of America formed a democracy, many political