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<!DOCTYPE html> <html class="client-nojs" lang="en" dir="ltr"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8"/> <title>Democracy - RationalWiki</title> <script>document.documentElement.className="client-js";RLCONF={"wgBreakFrames":!1,"wgSeparatorTransformTable":["",""],"wgDigitTransformTable":["",""],"wgDefaultDateFormat":"dmy","wgMonthNames":["","January","February","March","April","May","June","July","August","September","October","November","December"],"wgRequestId":"Z9_6SdIucR6OOXyW_Ze_pQAAANI","wgCSPNonce":!1,"wgCanonicalNamespace":"","wgCanonicalSpecialPageName":!1,"wgNamespaceNumber":0,"wgPageName":"Democracy","wgTitle":"Democracy","wgCurRevisionId":2722596,"wgRevisionId":2722596,"wgArticleId":10437,"wgIsArticle":!0,"wgIsRedirect":!1,"wgAction":"view","wgUserName":null,"wgUserGroups":["*"],"wgCategories":["Pages using DynamicPageList parser function","Politics","Political terms","Forms of government"],"wgPageContentLanguage":"en","wgPageContentModel":"wikitext","wgRelevantPageName":"Democracy","wgRelevantArticleId":10437,"wgIsProbablyEditable":!0,"wgRelevantPageIsProbablyEditable":!0,"wgRestrictionEdit":[], "wgRestrictionMove":[],"wgMediaViewerOnClick":!0,"wgMediaViewerEnabledByDefault":!0};RLSTATE={"site.styles":"ready","noscript":"ready","user.styles":"ready","user":"ready","user.options":"loading","ext.cite.styles":"ready","skins.vector.styles.legacy":"ready","mediawiki.toc.styles":"ready"};RLPAGEMODULES=["ext.cite.ux-enhancements","site","mediawiki.page.startup","mediawiki.page.ready","mediawiki.toc","skins.vector.legacy.js","ext.gadget.ReferenceTooltips","mmv.head","mmv.bootstrap.autostart"];</script> <script>(RLQ=window.RLQ||[]).push(function(){mw.loader.implement("user.options@1hzgi",function($,jQuery,require,module){/*@nomin*/mw.user.tokens.set({"patrolToken":"+\\","watchToken":"+\\","csrfToken":"+\\"}); });});</script> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=ext.cite.styles%7Cmediawiki.toc.styles%7Cskins.vector.styles.legacy&only=styles&skin=vector"/> <script async="" src="/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=startup&only=scripts&raw=1&skin=vector"></script> <meta name="ResourceLoaderDynamicStyles" content=""/> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/w/load.php?lang=en&modules=site.styles&only=styles&skin=vector"/> <meta name="generator" content="MediaWiki 1.35.6"/> <meta name="description" content="Democracy is the least bad system of government ever devised by humans. The word's origin is Greek, meaning "rule by the people."&#91;2&#93; Aristotle ranked democracy as the third-best form of government, after aristocracy and monarchy.&#91;note 1&#93; One particular boon Aristotle ascribed to democracy was his claim that even if corrupted, democracy merely degrades into what he considered the third-worst form of government — ochlocracy (with 'silver' and 'gold' in "ass-backward governance" going to oligarchy and tyranny, respectively).&#91;3&#93;"/> <link rel="alternate" type="application/x-wiki" title="Edit" href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit"/> <link rel="edit" title="Edit" href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit"/> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico"/> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" href="/w/opensearch_desc.php" title="RationalWiki (en)"/> <link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" href="https://rationalwiki.org/w/api.php?action=rsd"/> <link rel="license" href="/wiki/RationalWiki:Copyrights"/> <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="RationalWiki Atom feed" href="/w/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&feed=atom"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="RationalWiki"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Democracy"/> <meta property="og:description" content="Democracy is the least bad system of government ever devised by humans. The word's origin is Greek, meaning "rule by the people."&#91;2&#93; Aristotle ranked democracy as the third-best form of government, after aristocracy and monarchy.&#91;note 1&#93; One particular boon Aristotle ascribed to democracy was his claim that even if corrupted, democracy merely degrades into what he considered the third-worst form of government — ochlocracy (with 'silver' and 'gold' in "ass-backward governance" going to oligarchy and tyranny, respectively).&#91;3&#93;"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Democracy"/>  </head> <body class="mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject mw-editable page-Democracy rootpage-Democracy skin-vector action-view minerva--history-page-action-enabled skin-vector-legacy"> <div id="mw-page-base" class="noprint"></div> <div id="mw-head-base" class="noprint"></div> <div id="content" class="mw-body" role="main"> <a id="top"></a> <div id="siteNotice" class="mw-body-content"><div id="localNotice" lang="en" dir="ltr"><div id="2025_RationalWiki_.27Oregon_Plan.27_Fundraiser"> <table role="presentation" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto; width: 100%;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="width: 60%; text-align: left;"><big><center><b><a href="/wiki/RationalWiki:Fundraiser" title="RationalWiki:Fundraiser">2025 RationalWiki 'Oregon Plan' Fundraiser</a></b></center></big> <p><b>There is no RationalWiki without you.</b> We are a small non-profit with no staff—we are hundreds of volunteers who document pseudoscience and crankery around the world every day. 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id="contentSub2"></div> <div id="jump-to-nav"></div> <a class="mw-jump-link" href="#mw-head">Jump to navigation</a> <a class="mw-jump-link" href="#searchInput">Jump to search</a> <div id="mw-content-text" lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr"><div class="mw-parser-output"><div role="note" class="hatnote">If you arrived here from a page about US politics, you may need to see <a href="/wiki/Democratic_Party" title="Democratic Party">Democratic Party</a>.</div> <table class="infobox" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 0.5em 0.5em; text-align:left; border: 1px solid #1E90FF; width:175px;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; text-align:center; color:White; background-color:#1E90FF"><b>Oh no, they're talking about</b><br /><a href="/wiki/Politics" title="Politics"><font size="4" color="White"><b>Politics</b></font></a> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#97DEFF;" align="center"><a href="/wiki/Category:Politics" title="Category:Politics"><img alt="Icon politics.svg" src="/w/images/thumb/f/f2/Icon_politics.svg/100px-Icon_politics.svg.png" decoding="async" width="100" height="100" srcset="/w/images/thumb/f/f2/Icon_politics.svg/150px-Icon_politics.svg.png 1.5x, /w/images/thumb/f/f2/Icon_politics.svg/200px-Icon_politics.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="200" data-file-height="200" /></a> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#1E90FF; text-align:center;"><b>Theory</b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#97DEFF;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Political_spectrum" title="Political spectrum">Political spectrum</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Political_party" title="Political party">Political party</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Government" title="Government">Government</a> (<a href="/wiki/List_of_forms_of_government" title="List of forms of government">forms of</a>)</li></ul> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#1E90FF; text-align:center;"><b>Practice</b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#97DEFF;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/International_relations" title="International relations">International relations</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Propaganda" title="Propaganda">Propaganda</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/War" title="War">War</a></li></ul> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#1E90FF; text-align:center;"><b><a href="/wiki/Political_philosophy" title="Political philosophy"><font color="white">Philosophies</font></a></b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#97DEFF;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Separation_of_church_and_state" title="Separation of church and state">Separation of church and state</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fascism" title="Fascism">Fascism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Right_wing" title="Right wing">Right wing</a></li></ul> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#1E90FF; text-align:center;"><b><a href="/wiki/Category:Political_terms" title="Category:Political terms"><font color="white">Terms</font></a></b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#97DEFF;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Hyperpower" title="Hyperpower">Hyperpower</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Deliberate_offence" title="Deliberate offence">Deliberate offence</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Wingnut" title="Wingnut">Wingnut</a></li></ul> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#1E90FF; text-align:center;"><b>As usual</b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#97DEFF;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Minarchism" title="Minarchism">Minarchism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/New_Zealand_First" title="New Zealand First">New Zealand First</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Military-industrial_complex" title="Military-industrial complex">Military-industrial complex</a></li></ul> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; color:White; background-color:#1E90FF; text-align:center;"><b>Country sections</b> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 95%; background-color:#97DEFF;"> <center><a href="/wiki/Category:United_States_politics" title="Category:United States politics"><img alt="United States politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Flag_of_the_United_States.svg/35px-Flag_of_the_United_States.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="18" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Flag_of_the_United_States.svg/53px-Flag_of_the_United_States.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Flag_of_the_United_States.svg/70px-Flag_of_the_United_States.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="1235" data-file-height="650" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:British_politics" title="Category:British politics"><img alt="British politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom_%283-5%29.svg/40px-Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom_%283-5%29.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="21" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom_%283-5%29.svg/60px-Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom_%283-5%29.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom_%283-5%29.svg/120px-Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom_%283-5%29.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="1000" data-file-height="600" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:Canadian_politics" title="Category:Canadian politics"><img alt="Canadian politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/Flag_of_Canada.svg/35px-Flag_of_Canada.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="18" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/Flag_of_Canada.svg/53px-Flag_of_Canada.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/Flag_of_Canada.svg/70px-Flag_of_Canada.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="1200" data-file-height="600" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:Chinese_politics" title="Category:Chinese politics"><img alt="Chinese politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Flag_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China.svg/35px-Flag_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="23" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Flag_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China.svg/53px-Flag_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Flag_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China.svg/70px-Flag_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="900" data-file-height="600" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:French_politics" title="Category:French politics"><img alt="French politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Flag_of_France.svg/40px-Flag_of_France.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="23" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Flag_of_France.svg/60px-Flag_of_France.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Flag_of_France.svg/120px-Flag_of_France.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="900" data-file-height="600" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:German_politics" title="Category:German politics"><img alt="German politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Flag_of_Germany.svg/35px-Flag_of_Germany.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="21" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Flag_of_Germany.svg/53px-Flag_of_Germany.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Flag_of_Germany.svg/70px-Flag_of_Germany.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="1000" data-file-height="600" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:Indian_politics" title="Category:Indian politics"><img alt="Indian politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Flag_of_India.svg/35px-Flag_of_India.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="23" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Flag_of_India.svg/53px-Flag_of_India.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Flag_of_India.svg/70px-Flag_of_India.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="900" data-file-height="600" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:Iranian_politics" title="Category:Iranian politics"><img alt="Iranian politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Flag_of_Iran.svg/35px-Flag_of_Iran.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="20" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Flag_of_Iran.svg/53px-Flag_of_Iran.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Flag_of_Iran.svg/70px-Flag_of_Iran.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="630" data-file-height="360" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:Israeli_politics" title="Category:Israeli politics"><img alt="Israeli politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Flag_of_Israel.svg/35px-Flag_of_Israel.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="25" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Flag_of_Israel.svg/53px-Flag_of_Israel.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Flag_of_Israel.svg/70px-Flag_of_Israel.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="1100" data-file-height="800" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:Japanese_politics" title="Category:Japanese politics"><img alt="Japanese politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Flag_of_Japan.svg/40px-Flag_of_Japan.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="23" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Flag_of_Japan.svg/60px-Flag_of_Japan.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Flag_of_Japan.svg/120px-Flag_of_Japan.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="900" data-file-height="600" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:South_Korean_politics" title="Category:South Korean politics"><img alt="South Korean politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Flag_of_South_Korea.svg/40px-Flag_of_South_Korea.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="23" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Flag_of_South_Korea.svg/60px-Flag_of_South_Korea.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Flag_of_South_Korea.svg/120px-Flag_of_South_Korea.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="900" data-file-height="600" /></a> <a href="/wiki/Category:Turkish_politics" title="Category:Turkish politics"><img alt="Turkish politics" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Flag_of_Turkey.svg/35px-Flag_of_Turkey.svg.png" decoding="async" width="35" height="23" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Flag_of_Turkey.svg/53px-Flag_of_Turkey.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Flag_of_Turkey.svg/70px-Flag_of_Turkey.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="1200" data-file-height="800" /></a> </center> <div class="vte plainlinks" style="font-size:smaller; text-align:center;"><a href="/wiki/Template:Politics" title="Template:Politics">v</a> - <a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Politics" title="Template talk:Politics">t</a> - <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Politics&action=edit">e</a></div> </td></tr></tbody></table> <table style="margin: auto; border-collapse:collapse; border-style:none; background-color:transparent;" class="cquote"> <tbody><tr> <td><div style="padding:4px 50px;position:relative;"><span style="position:absolute;left:10px;top:-6px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">“</span><span style="position:absolute;right:10px;bottom:-20px;z-index:1;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;color:#B2B7F2;font-size:36px">”</span>Democracy is where two wolves and a sheep vote over lunch</div> </td></tr> <tr> <td style="padding:4px 10px 8px;font-size:smaller;line-height:1.6em;text-align:right;"><cite style="font-style:normal;position:relative;z-index:2">—Attributed to <a href="/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin" title="Benjamin Franklin">Benjamin Franklin</a>, though he never said it<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup></cite> </td></tr></tbody></table> <p><b>Democracy</b> is the <i>least bad</i> system of government ever devised by humans. The word's origin is Greek, meaning "rule by the people."<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Aristotle" title="Aristotle">Aristotle</a> ranked democracy as the third-best form of <a href="/wiki/Government" title="Government">government</a>, after <a href="/wiki/Aristocracy" class="mw-redirect" title="Aristocracy">aristocracy</a> and <a href="/wiki/Monarchy" title="Monarchy">monarchy</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3">[note 1]</a></sup> One particular boon Aristotle ascribed to democracy was his claim that <i>even if corrupted</i>, democracy merely degrades into what he considered the <i>third</i>-worst form of government — <a href="/wiki/Mobocracy" title="Mobocracy">ochlocracy</a> (with 'silver' and 'gold' in "ass-backward governance" going to <a href="/wiki/Oligarchy" class="mw-redirect" title="Oligarchy">oligarchy</a> and <a href="/wiki/Tyranny" class="mw-redirect" title="Tyranny">tyranny</a>, respectively).<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4">[3]</a></sup> </p> <div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="display:none" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr"><h2 id="mw-toc-heading">Contents</h2><span class="toctogglespan"><label class="toctogglelabel" for="toctogglecheckbox"></label></span></div> <ul> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="#What_is_a_democracy.3F"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">What is a democracy?</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="#Why_democracy_is_better_than_other_systems_of_government"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Why democracy is better than other systems of government</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="#Types_of_democracy"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">Types of democracy</span></a> <ul> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4"><a href="#Representative_democracy"><span class="tocnumber">3.1</span> <span class="toctext">Representative democracy</span></a> <ul> <li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-5"><a href="#Republic.2C_not_a_democracy"><span class="tocnumber">3.1.1</span> <span class="toctext">Republic, not a democracy</span></a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6"><a href="#Direct_democracy"><span class="tocnumber">3.2</span> <span class="toctext">Direct democracy</span></a> <ul> <li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-7"><a href="#Ballot_initiatives_and_referenda"><span class="tocnumber">3.2.1</span> <span class="toctext">Ballot initiatives and referenda</span></a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8"><a href="#Democratic_centralism"><span class="tocnumber">3.3</span> <span class="toctext">Democratic centralism</span></a> <ul> <li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-9"><a href="#.22People.27s.22_Democracy"><span class="tocnumber">3.3.1</span> <span class="toctext">"People's" Democracy</span></a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-10"><a href="#Economic_Democracy"><span class="tocnumber">3.4</span> <span class="toctext">Economic Democracy</span></a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-11"><a href="#Voting"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">Voting</span></a> <ul> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-12"><a href="#The_franchise"><span class="tocnumber">4.1</span> <span class="toctext">The franchise</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-13"><a href="#The_secret_ballot"><span class="tocnumber">4.2</span> <span class="toctext">The secret ballot</span></a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-14"><a href="#Flaws"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">Flaws</span></a> <ul> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-15"><a href="#Voting_systems"><span class="tocnumber">5.1</span> <span class="toctext">Voting systems</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-16"><a href="#Inefficiency"><span class="tocnumber">5.2</span> <span class="toctext">Inefficiency</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-17"><a href="#Hoi_polloi_screw-ups"><span class="tocnumber">5.3</span> <span class="toctext"><i>Hoi polloi</i> screw-ups</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-18"><a href="#Selection_criteria"><span class="tocnumber">5.4</span> <span class="toctext">Selection criteria</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-19"><a href="#Mob_rule"><span class="tocnumber">5.5</span> <span class="toctext">Mob rule</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-20"><a href="#Lack_of_choice"><span class="tocnumber">5.6</span> <span class="toctext">Lack of choice</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-21"><a href="#Cohabitation"><span class="tocnumber">5.7</span> <span class="toctext">Cohabitation</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-22"><a href="#Forced_demands"><span class="tocnumber">5.8</span> <span class="toctext">Forced demands</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-23"><a href="#Populism_and_lack_of_quality_press"><span class="tocnumber">5.9</span> <span class="toctext">Populism and lack of quality press</span></a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-24"><a href="#See_also"><span class="tocnumber">6</span> <span class="toctext">See also</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-25"><a href="#External_links"><span class="tocnumber">7</span> <span class="toctext">External links</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-26"><a href="#Notes"><span class="tocnumber">8</span> <span class="toctext">Notes</span></a></li> <li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-27"><a href="#References"><span class="tocnumber">9</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li> </ul> </div> <h2><span id="What_is_a_democracy?"></span><span class="mw-headline" id="What_is_a_democracy.3F">What is a democracy?</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: What is a democracy?">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <p>The modern concept of democracy encompasses 12 basic ideas:<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5">[4]</a></sup> </p> <div class="div-col columns column-count column-count-2" style="-moz-column-count: 2; -webkit-column-count: 2; column-count: 2;"> <ol><li>Consent of the governed</li> <li>Free elections</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Constitution" title="Constitution">Constitutional</a> limits</li> <li>Majority rule, minority rights</li> <li>Transparency and accountability</li> <li>Multiparty system</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_market" title="Free market">Economic freedom</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Rule_of_law" title="Rule of law">Rule of law</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Human_rights" title="Human rights">Human rights</a></li> <li>Freedom of expression</li> <li>Freedom of association</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Freedom_of_religion" title="Freedom of religion">Freedom of religion</a></li></ol></div> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Why_democracy_is_better_than_other_systems_of_government">Why democracy is better than other systems of government</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Why democracy is better than other systems of government">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <p>Democracy is <a href="/wiki/Evidence" title="Evidence">evidentially</a> better than other systems of government because:<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6">[5]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7">[6]</a></sup> </p> <ul><li>Democracies are better at providing national security because democracies are less prone to <a href="/wiki/Civil_war" title="Civil war">civil wars</a> than <a href="/wiki/Autocracy" class="mw-redirect" title="Autocracy">autocracies</a> (autocracy being the antithesis of democracy). Democracies provide a route for legal redress of grievances.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8">[7]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9">[8]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10">[9]</a></sup></li> <li>Democracies (as measured by degree of freedom) are more prosperous.<sup id="cite_ref-negrea_11-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-negrea-11">[10]</a></sup></li> <li>Democracies have a greater degree of safety (as measured by resistance to famine, and as measured by all human development metrics).<sup id="cite_ref-negrea_11-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-negrea-11">[10]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-12">[11]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-13">[12]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-14">[13]</a></sup></li></ul> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Types_of_democracy">Types of democracy</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Types of democracy">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Representative_democracy">Representative democracy</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Representative democracy">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:252px;"><a href="/wiki/File:Vote_solennel_loi_mariage_23042013_12.jpg" class="image"><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Vote_solennel_loi_mariage_23042013_12.jpg/250px-Vote_solennel_loi_mariage_23042013_12.jpg" decoding="async" width="250" height="166" class="thumbimage" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Vote_solennel_loi_mariage_23042013_12.jpg/375px-Vote_solennel_loi_mariage_23042013_12.jpg 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Vote_solennel_loi_mariage_23042013_12.jpg/500px-Vote_solennel_loi_mariage_23042013_12.jpg 2x" data-file-width="4288" data-file-height="2848" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify"><a href="/wiki/File:Vote_solennel_loi_mariage_23042013_12.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a></div>The French National Assembly.</div></div></div> <dl><dd><i>Not to be confused with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representation_(politics)" class="extiw" title="wp:Representation (politics)" rel="nofollow"><span style="color:#477979 !important;" title="Wikipedia: Representation (politics)">political representation</span></a><sup><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" /></sup></i></dd></dl> <p>Representative democracy (also referred to as a "<a href="/wiki/Democratic" class="mw-redirect" title="Democratic">democratic</a> <a href="/wiki/Republic" title="Republic">republic</a>", though not always correctly, since constitutional monarchies with elected parliaments are also representative democracies) is a system in which people choose and authorize representatives to make decisions. The parliamentary system is a version of representative democracy. Some <a href="/wiki/Country" class="mw-redirect" title="Country">countries</a> have claimed the establishment of new kinds of democracy, including "direct democracy", "<a href="/wiki/Communism" title="Communism">people's democracy</a>", or "<a href="/wiki/Fascism" title="Fascism">organic democracy</a>"; most of the time, the leaders of these countries are slimeballs — or outright <a href="/wiki/Tyrant" class="mw-redirect" title="Tyrant">tyrants</a> — who are trying to pull the wool over people's eyes, and their countries are actually <a href="/wiki/Totalitarian" class="mw-redirect" title="Totalitarian">totalitarian</a> states.<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-15">[note 2]</a></sup> </p> <h4><span id="Republic,_not_a_democracy"></span><span class="mw-headline" id="Republic.2C_not_a_democracy">Republic, not a democracy</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Republic, not a democracy">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h4> <p>A common exercise in pointless semantics involves labeling the <a href="/wiki/United_States_of_America" class="mw-redirect" title="United States of America">United States of America</a> as "a republic, not a democracy" — as done primarily by <a href="/wiki/Partisan" title="Partisan">partisans</a>. The origin of the phrase in the US dates back to the 1930s when conservative anti-interventionists used it to oppose entrance into <a href="/wiki/World_War_II" title="World War II">World War II</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-unluckyman_16-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-unluckyman-16">[14]</a></sup> It was later used by Robert Welch, founder of the <a href="/wiki/John_Birch_Society" title="John Birch Society">John Birch Society</a>, to express his opposition to the <a href="/wiki/Earl_Warren" title="Earl Warren">Warren</a> court actually applying the Bill of Rights to legal interpretations.<sup id="cite_ref-unluckyman_16-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-unluckyman-16">[14]</a></sup> </p><p>Those who say "republic, not a democracy" might define democracy as the direct kind, not the representative kind; they might claim democracy leads to <a href="/wiki/Mobocracy" title="Mobocracy">mob rule</a>. In fact, the United States is both a democracy <i>and</i> a republic — a representative democracy is sometimes also a republic. Indeed, the only qualification for a republic is the lack of any self-proclaimed monarch, making the "republic, not a democracy" statement even more pointless, as it would effectively to move the United States away from the company of democratic non-republics like <a href="/wiki/Japan" title="Japan">Japan</a> and the <a href="/wiki/United_Kingdom" title="United Kingdom">United Kingdom</a> and towards fellow "republics, not democracies" <a href="/wiki/China" title="China">China</a> and <a href="/wiki/Russia" title="Russia">Russia</a>, though this might go a long way in explaining the <a href="/wiki/Christian_nationalism" class="mw-redirect" title="Christian nationalism">actual beliefs</a> of a large number of the people using the rhetoric. </p><p>On the other hand, if your candidate loses in an obscure constitutional mechanism like the <a href="/wiki/Electoral_College" class="mw-redirect" title="Electoral College">Electoral College</a>, or if you're not part of the wealthy <a href="/wiki/Oligarchy" class="mw-redirect" title="Oligarchy">oligarchy</a> that actually determines policy, then the distinction between a democracy and a republic might not seem so pointless.<sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-17">[15]</a></sup> </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Direct_democracy">Direct democracy</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: Direct democracy">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:252px;"><a href="/wiki/File:Landsgemeinde_Glarus,_2009.jpg" class="image"><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/Landsgemeinde_Glarus%2C_2009.jpg/250px-Landsgemeinde_Glarus%2C_2009.jpg" decoding="async" width="250" height="166" class="thumbimage" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/Landsgemeinde_Glarus%2C_2009.jpg/375px-Landsgemeinde_Glarus%2C_2009.jpg 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/Landsgemeinde_Glarus%2C_2009.jpg/500px-Landsgemeinde_Glarus%2C_2009.jpg 2x" data-file-width="3008" data-file-height="2000" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify"><a href="/wiki/File:Landsgemeinde_Glarus,_2009.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a></div>Decisionmaking assembly in a Swiss canton.</div></div></div> <p>A direct democratic system is a system in which votes are directly counted by the people and action is taken. This method is mostly found only in small countries and communities because a few people can take less time to decide than many people, and it takes time to count all the votes. </p><p>Since <a href="/wiki/Medieval" class="mw-redirect" title="Medieval">medieval</a> times, this sort of democracy has been continuously practiced in some <a href="/wiki/Switzerland" title="Switzerland">Swiss</a> cantons in the form of a meeting called the <i>Landsgemeinde</i>. </p> <h4><span class="mw-headline" id="Ballot_initiatives_and_referenda">Ballot initiatives and referenda</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: Ballot initiatives and referenda">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h4> <p>One form of limited direct democracy which exists in conjunction with representative democracy is the ability of citizens to propose new laws and collect enough signatures to put them on the ballot as a referendum to be voted on by the people. This exists in some <a href="/wiki/State" title="State">states</a> in the United States, although not at the federal level. Attempts by a few, such as former <a href="/wiki/US_Senate" class="mw-redirect" title="US Senate">Senator</a> <a href="/wiki/Mike_Gravel" title="Mike Gravel">Mike Gravel</a>, to enact the right to initiatives and referenda at the federal level have found little support. </p><p>At the state level, this form of direct democracy has become controversial in recent years due to the passage of such ballot measures as <a href="/wiki/California_Proposition_8" title="California Proposition 8">California Proposition 8</a> , the presence on the ballot every election of initiatives proposed by <a href="/wiki/Libertarian" class="mw-redirect" title="Libertarian">libertarian</a> activist <a href="/wiki/Tim_Eyman" title="Tim Eyman">Tim Eyman</a> in <a href="/wiki/Washington" class="mw-redirect" title="Washington">Washington</a> state,<sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-18">[note 3]</a></sup> and the use of ballot initiatives in several states to legalize <a href="/wiki/Medical_marijuana" class="mw-redirect" title="Medical marijuana">medical marijuana</a>. This can be seen in two ways, either as a positive thing in which citizens can make an end-run around a legislature that does not represent the actual majority view or in a negative way as either giving too much power to one unelected person (e.g., Eyman) or as enabling a majority vote to run roughshod over the <a href="/wiki/Rights" title="Rights">rights</a> of a minority as with Proposition 8 (or similarly <a href="/wiki/Brexit" title="Brexit">Brexit</a> in the <a href="/wiki/UK" class="mw-redirect" title="UK">UK</a>). Which view one takes often varies state by state and issue by issue; the same people who might praise the initiative process when used to legalize medical <a href="/wiki/Marijuana" class="mw-redirect" title="Marijuana">marijuana</a> might be critical of the process when it is used to <a href="/wiki/Homophobia" title="Homophobia">ban same-sex marriage</a>, and vice-versa. </p><p>Because ballot initiatives give any group the ability to pass a law quickly and without the likelihood of it being debated and amended to death in the legislature, there seems to be little desire to end or limit the practice, even among those who dislike some of the outcomes; after all, if their <a href="/wiki/Political" class="mw-redirect" title="Political">political</a> opponents can use the initiative process, they can too. Fortunately, there has been little success by <a href="/wiki/Crank" title="Crank">cranks</a> proposing <a href="/wiki/Fringe" title="Fringe">fringe</a> causes using ballot initiatives, as those few crank initiatives that manage to collect the necessary signatures to appear on the ballot end up failing at the polls by a wide margin. In any case, this limited experiment in direct democracy points to both the possibilities, and limitations, of direct democracy, and while there is little desire to end the practice, attempts to expand it to the federal level or to expand its use at the state level (for example having the people give their final approval at the ballot to all laws passed by the state legislature) have little to no support. </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Democratic_centralism">Democratic centralism</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: Democratic centralism">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>Democratic centralism is based on the notion of a democratic process of discussion and formulating public policy only up to the point where a policy is decided on. Once the policy is agreed on, it is enforced top-down. Democratic centralism is associated with one-party governments, particularly <a href="/wiki/Marx" class="mw-redirect" title="Marx">Marxist</a>-<a href="/wiki/Lenin" class="mw-redirect" title="Lenin">Leninist</a>, and the only <a href="/wiki/Debate" title="Debate">debate</a> that exists takes place within the ruling <a href="/wiki/Communist" class="mw-redirect" title="Communist">communist</a> party. Such countries may have universal suffrage, but only the ruling <a href="/wiki/Political_party" title="Political party">political party</a>'s candidates are on the ballot, so "voting" has no effect on policy; the only way to have a say is to join the ruling party and try to move up in the party hierarchy. This form of "democracy" is a sham, as party members only have a limited voice, and non-members don't have any.<sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-19">[note 4]</a></sup> </p><p>This can be contrasted to a democratic republic, where citizens retain the continuous right to petition their elected representatives. Public policy can change in response to public opinion, and multiple competing political parties exist. </p> <h4><span id=""People's"_Democracy"></span><span class="mw-headline" id=".22People.27s.22_Democracy">"People's" Democracy</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: "People's" Democracy">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h4> <div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:252px;"><a href="/wiki/File:18th_National_Congress_of_the_Communist_Party_of_China.jpg" class="image"><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/18th_National_Congress_of_the_Communist_Party_of_China.jpg/250px-18th_National_Congress_of_the_Communist_Party_of_China.jpg" decoding="async" width="250" height="167" class="thumbimage" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/18th_National_Congress_of_the_Communist_Party_of_China.jpg/375px-18th_National_Congress_of_the_Communist_Party_of_China.jpg 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/18th_National_Congress_of_the_Communist_Party_of_China.jpg/500px-18th_National_Congress_of_the_Communist_Party_of_China.jpg 2x" data-file-width="3456" data-file-height="2304" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify"><a href="/wiki/File:18th_National_Congress_of_the_Communist_Party_of_China.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a></div>National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.</div></div></div> <p>Later, the concept of democratic centralism was enlarged to "people's democracy" (or, in <a href="/wiki/Maoism" title="Maoism">Maoism</a>, "people's democratic dictatorship"). This had its theoretical origins in the Popular Fronts of the 1930s when communists entered coalitions with competing forces such as <a href="/wiki/Socialists" class="mw-redirect" title="Socialists">socialists</a> and <a href="/wiki/Social_democrats" class="mw-redirect" title="Social democrats">social democrats</a> and other "<a href="/wiki/Bourgeois" class="mw-redirect" title="Bourgeois">bourgeois</a>" political forces, but was theorized by <a href="/wiki/Bulgarian" class="mw-redirect" title="Bulgarian">Bulgarian</a> communist leader Georgi Dimitrov and by <a href="/wiki/Mao_Zedong" title="Mao Zedong">Mao Zedong</a>. Thus, a multiparty, cross-class coalition composed of workers and the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie, and the "progressive bourgeoisie" would guarantee a peaceful transition to communism. </p><p>In practice, what this meant was that the communist parties (which in countries that adopted this concept were often not officially communists but "socialist" or "workers'" parties) dominated political life and controlled all other parties, either by causing splits in the originally independent non-communist parties, then taking advantage of the splits (e.g., <a href="/wiki/Hungary" title="Hungary">Hungary</a>'s "salami tactics"), or by creating new, supposedly "representative", puppet, parties from scratch, with socialists and social democrats being forced to merge with communists into communist-dominated "socialist" or "workers'" parties (such as, e.g., <a href="/wiki/East_Germany" title="East Germany">East Germany</a>'s Socialist Unity Party formed by the forced merger of the Communist and Social Democratic Parties). A characteristic of the political life in these countries is that the parties would always be in a coalition (e.g., East Germany's National Front), sometimes involving non-party loyal mass organizations (such as for youth, women, etc.), which presented the single, communist-dominated, electoral candidate list; after elected, they would always vote in sync with the communist government, with sporadic exceptions. </p><p>All "people's democracies" were either instituted in the post-<a href="/wiki/World_War_II" title="World War II">World War II</a> Soviet-occupied countries of the <a href="/wiki/Eastern_Bloc" title="Eastern Bloc">Eastern Bloc</a> or otherwise in communist dictatorships. </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Economic_Democracy">Economic Democracy</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=10" title="Edit section: Economic Democracy">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>Economic democracy is different from the abovementioned forms of democracy as it's a hypothetical way of running the economy democratically and is different from <a href="/wiki/Capitalism" title="Capitalism">capitalism</a> as capitalist enterprises are plutocracies by definition, with the rare exception of co-ops or a powerful Labor <a href="/wiki/Union" class="mw-redirect" title="Union">Union</a>. Economic democracy seeks to replace the standard way of running an enterprise while keeping the market system, effectively making it a form of <a href="/wiki/Socialism" title="Socialism">market socialism</a>. Many people proposed and worked on it, including philosopher David Schweickart,<sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-20">[16]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-21">[17]</a></sup> Marxian economist Richard D. Wolff,<sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-22">[18]</a></sup> and economist Gar Alperovitz.<sup id="cite_ref-23" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-23">[19]</a></sup> </p><p>As for how this actually works in <i>practice</i>, the empirical evidence is minimal at best, so any claims about the effectiveness of a proposed system can't really be proven or disproven. </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Voting">Voting</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=11" title="Edit section: Voting">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:302px;"><a href="/wiki/File:Election_MG_3455.JPG" class="image"><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/Election_MG_3455.JPG/300px-Election_MG_3455.JPG" decoding="async" width="300" height="200" class="thumbimage" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/Election_MG_3455.JPG/450px-Election_MG_3455.JPG 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/Election_MG_3455.JPG/600px-Election_MG_3455.JPG 2x" data-file-width="4368" data-file-height="2912" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify"><a href="/wiki/File:Election_MG_3455.JPG" class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a></div>Casting a ballot in France.</div></div></div> <p>The key to democracy, one way or another, is what we call "voting." This is where each enfranchised citizen expresses their desired outcome in a given situation. </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="The_franchise">The franchise</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=12" title="Edit section: The franchise">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>The concept of who is allowed to vote has been critical to democracies since the first. In many, only a few of the people subject to rule were allowed to vote for their rulers. In some, vast portions of the population were not allowed to participate — to use the example of the United States, most women were not allowed to vote until the early 20<sup>th</sup> century (<a href="/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage" title="Women's suffrage">women's suffrage</a>).<sup id="cite_ref-24" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-24">[note 5]</a></sup> People with <a href="/wiki/African_American" title="African American">dark skin</a> have slowly made progress since the <a href="/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act" title="Voting Rights Act">reforms of the 1960s</a> but face the occasional hiccups to this day *cough*felonydisenfranchisement*cough*. </p><p>The rule has been that whoever is allowed to vote can only vote once. </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="The_secret_ballot">The secret ballot</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=13" title="Edit section: The secret ballot">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>This concept is a key idea to fair democracy. If one is required to raise one's hand in public, as in old <a href="/wiki/New_England" title="New England">New England</a> town meetings, the <a href="/wiki/Police" class="mw-redirect" title="Police">police</a> will always get their budget request,<sup>[<i>citation NOT needed</i>]</sup> however ridiculous it might be. If one is allowed to present one's opinion on these matters in private — via a secret ballot — one's opinions can be trusted to be honest and not coerced. </p><p>Public voting has a long history of coercion and stifled votes. </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Flaws">Flaws</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=14" title="Edit section: Flaws">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <p>Democracy, like all forms of government, has numerous flaws. </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Voting_systems">Voting systems</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=15" title="Edit section: Voting systems">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>There is no "perfect" voting system; every possible system is inherently flawed. In fact, this is a <a href="/wiki/Math" class="mw-redirect" title="Math">mathematically</a> demonstrable fact; between <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow%27s_Impossibility_Theorem" class="extiw" title="wp:Arrow's Impossibility Theorem" rel="nofollow"><span style="color:#477979 !important;" title="Wikipedia: Arrow's Impossibility Theorem">Arrow's Impossibility Theorem</span></a><sup><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" /></sup> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbard%27s_theorem" class="extiw" title="wp:Gibbard's theorem" rel="nofollow"><span style="color:#477979 !important;" title="Wikipedia: Gibbard's theorem">Gibbard's theorem</span></a>,<sup><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" /></sup> every possible voting system which choses a single winner but with more than two positions or candidates to be voted on has significant problems. All possible voting systems have at least one of the following flaws: </p> <ul><li>The rule is dictatorial (i.e., there is a single individual who can choose the winner).</li> <li>There is some candidate who can never win under the rule.</li> <li>The rule is susceptible to tactical voting because there are conditions under which a voter with full knowledge of how the other voters are to vote and of the rule being used would have an incentive to vote in a manner that does not reflect their preferences. This means, in other words, that there is no truly "fair" voting system. Worse still, <a href="/wiki/Instant_Runoff_Voting" title="Instant Runoff Voting">rank-order voting systems</a>, which are the easiest systems to use, suffer from additional flaws. The more complexity is added to the system to mitigate these flaws, the more power individual voters have to vote strategically, and the more confused voters get about how to vote. They also lead to undesirable outcomes, such as very unpleasant <a href="/wiki/Extremist" class="mw-redirect" title="Extremist">extremist</a> candidates being elected due to large numbers of people gaming the system.</li></ul> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Inefficiency">Inefficiency</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=16" title="Edit section: Inefficiency">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>People in democracies have a tendency to vote in their own perceived personal interest, which leads to widespread inefficiency and corruption; because representative democracy relies on being elected by your personal constituency, "<a href="/wiki/Pork" title="Pork">pork</a> barrel" spending on local projects is pure upside for your constituents, even though it may be bad policy. Because everyone thinks the same way (and is rewarded by doing the same thing), candidates who do so have an advantage over those who do not. Thus, even though each individual voter seems to be behaving rationally, they are, in fact, making an <a href="/wiki/Irrational" class="mw-redirect" title="Irrational">irrational</a> decision, leading to a wide-scale <a href="/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma" title="Prisoner's dilemma">prisoner's dilemma</a> of sorts. Nonetheless, evidence suggests that democracy is the most efficient political system, at least when it comes to economic growth.<sup id="cite_ref-25" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-25">[20]</a></sup> </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Hoi_polloi_screw-ups"><i>Hoi polloi</i> screw-ups</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=17" title="Edit section: Hoi polloi screw-ups">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>Throughout <a href="/wiki/History" title="History">history</a>, there have been several instances where the electorate is not competent to make good decisions about what to do (or <a href="/wiki/Donald_Trump" title="Donald Trump">whom to put in charge</a>) because of misinformation on even important issues. <a href="/wiki/Socrates" title="Socrates">Socrates</a> himself believed that any given electorate formed primarily of uneducated people will lead to situations wherein leaders get elected by <a href="/wiki/Populism" title="Populism">populism</a> rather than by genuine competence.<sup id="cite_ref-plato_26-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-plato-26">[21]</a></sup> </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Selection_criteria">Selection criteria</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=18" title="Edit section: Selection criteria">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>Democracy selects for electability, not competency at leadership, and charismatic but substandard leaders (or substandard leaders with no charisma at all) can be, and frequently are, <a href="/wiki/2000_U.S._Presidential_Election" class="mw-redirect" title="2000 U.S. Presidential Election">elected</a> and <a href="/wiki/2004_U.S._Presidential_Election" class="mw-redirect" title="2004 U.S. Presidential Election">re-elected</a>. </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Mob_rule">Mob rule</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=19" title="Edit section: Mob rule">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>Because decisions are made by the majority of voters, this can lead to repression of minorities, and extensive un-democratic protections are necessary to protect minorities from the majority. In the United States, the non-democratically elected <a href="/wiki/Law" title="Law">judiciary</a> is the major bulwark against the majority repressing minorities and still are not always successful (other nations are better). Additionally, <a href="/wiki/Hysteria" title="Hysteria">panic</a> can lead to disastrous decisions, such as those seen in <a href="/wiki/Iraq_War" title="Iraq War">the wake of</a> <a href="/wiki/9/11" title="9/11">9/11</a> in the US. <a href="/wiki/Plato" title="Plato">Plato</a>, befitting his preference for a society ruled by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/philosopher-king" class="extiw" title="wp:philosopher-king" rel="nofollow"><span style="color:#477979 !important;" title="Wikipedia: philosopher-king">philosopher-king</span></a><sup><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" /></sup>s, believed that democracy, in particular, would lead to mob rule, which Plato saw as <a href="/wiki/Evil" class="mw-redirect" title="Evil">evil</a> and corrupt.<sup id="cite_ref-plato_26-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-plato-26">[21]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-27" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-27">[note 6]</a></sup> </p><p>A common view among early and <a href="/wiki/Renaissance" title="Renaissance">Renaissance</a> republican theorists was that democracy could only survive in small political communities.<sup id="cite_ref-:0_28-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-28">[22]</a></sup> Heeding the lessons of the <a href="/wiki/Roman_Empire#Republic" title="Roman Empire">Roman Republic</a>'s shift to monarchism as it grew larger, these Republican theorists held that the expansion of territory and population inevitably led to tyranny.<sup id="cite_ref-:0_28-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-28">[22]</a></sup> Democracy was therefore highly fragile and rare historically, as it could only survive in small political units, which, due to their size, were vulnerable to conquest by larger political units.<sup id="cite_ref-:0_28-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-28">[22]</a></sup> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montesquieu" class="extiw" title="wp:Montesquieu" rel="nofollow"><span style="color:#477979 !important;" title="Wikipedia: Montesquieu">Montesquieu</span></a><sup><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" /></sup> famously said, "if a republic is small, it is destroyed by an outside force; if it is large, it is destroyed by an internal vice."<sup id="cite_ref-:0_28-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-28">[22]</a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau" title="Jean-Jacques Rousseau">Rousseau</a> asserted, "It is, therefore the natural property of small states to be governed as a republic, of middling ones to be subject to a monarch, and of large empires to be swayed by a despotic prince."<sup id="cite_ref-:0_28-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-28">[22]</a></sup> </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Lack_of_choice">Lack of choice</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=20" title="Edit section: Lack of choice">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p><a href="/wiki/First_past_the_post" title="First past the post">First past the post</a> system typically decays over time into two-party rule, barring strong regionalism or other independent factors that cause political parties to collapse. This is because it is better to have a leader you can tolerate than a leader you cannot; the more power an acceptable party has, the more likely it is to remain in power, even if it is not what you would choose if you could choose anyone to be in charge (simply because the harm done by an unacceptable party is seen as too great to allow to take power). If neither major party is acceptable to you, your vote has no power unless you make up a sizable enough portion of the electorate to usurp one of the major parties. </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Cohabitation">Cohabitation</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=21" title="Edit section: Cohabitation">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>Semi-presidential democracies, such as <a href="/wiki/France" title="France">France</a> or <a href="/wiki/Finland" title="Finland">Finland</a>, are sometimes put in a situation where the president and parliamentary majority are of different, usually opposing political parties. The problem is that a prime minister must be appointed by the parliament. The president must approve of the prime minister, often causing the appointment to be virtually impossible, forcing snap elections. A similar issue can happen in the US when the president and the Congressional majority (but not supermajority) are of different parties, often ending in just about nothing getting passed, especially if the Senate majority is high enough for filibusters. And while parliamentary democracies don't have any issue like this, their head of government is not directly elected, essentially making parliament the country's <a href="/wiki/Electoral_College" class="mw-redirect" title="Electoral College">Electoral College</a>. </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Forced_demands">Forced demands</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=22" title="Edit section: Forced demands">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>A democracy, by definition, requires the citizens to be concerned with and preferably interested in politics to make a vote reflecting what they see as the best candidate. This can be particularly problematic with people who aren't interested in politics and have to vote. In addition, people who don't believe in democracy are excluded from any direct involvement in the government, as they don't believe that their vote should have any power. </p> <h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Populism_and_lack_of_quality_press">Populism and lack of quality press</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=23" title="Edit section: Populism and lack of quality press">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h3> <p>Within a democratic election, it is more important to be popular than it is to have good policies. Many politicians abuse this by creating massive controversies allowing themselves to remain the focus of all media attention. Since the media usually is way too focused on local drama to do any sort of other reporting, it leads to a situation where the media ends up being just as populist and corrupt as the politicians who are running in the race making these remarks, thereby obstructing democracy rather than promoting it.<sup id="cite_ref-29" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-29">[23]</a></sup> </p><p>Furthermore, democracies encourage wasteful spending for this very reason. People hate paying taxes<sup>[<i>citation NOT needed</i>]</sup> and love getting more benefits. A politician might campaign on "fiscal responsibility", but actually telling people they will pay more tax is a losing political strategy, which is why every campaign specifically claims that any proposed benefits will either come from only the richest citizens or from magical thinking, yet when it comes time to <a href="/wiki/Lobbying" title="Lobbying">actually raise taxes on the rich...</a> </p> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="See_also">See also</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=24" title="Edit section: See also">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Democracy_Index" title="Democracy Index">Democracy Index</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/List_of_forms_of_government" title="List of forms of government">List of forms of government</a></li></ul> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="External_links">External links</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=25" title="Edit section: External links">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://democracyweb.org/">Democracy Web: Comparative Studies in Freedom</a> — Albert Shanker Institute</li></ul> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Notes">Notes</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=26" title="Edit section: Notes">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div class="references-small" style="-moz-column-count:2; -webkit-column-count:2; column-count:2; font-size:90%;"> <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-3">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Noting that the dude is <i>quite a bit</i> past his prime when it comes to 'being a reasonable first choice' on pretty much <i>any</i> current topic. <small>Since, like, <i>two rough millennia</i>.</small> <small><small>Just saying.</small></small></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-15"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-15">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Example: Pre-2011 <a href="/wiki/Libya" title="Libya">Libya</a>, where the direct democracy or "Jamahiriya" (state of the masses) exercised little control over governance, with actual power concentrated in an unelected revolutionary council and its leader <a href="/wiki/Muammar_al-Gaddafi" class="mw-redirect" title="Muammar al-Gaddafi">Muammar al-Gaddafi</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-18"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-18">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Most of Tim Eyman's initiatives attempt to limit <a href="/wiki/Tax" title="Tax">taxes</a>, government revenue, or government spending. His controversy is such that some people will vote against any of his initiatives, even those they might individually agree with (such as cutting Washington's exorbitant vehicle plate fee to a flat $30, opening HOV lanes during non-peak hours, and legalizing scratch ticket <a href="/wiki/Gambling" title="Gambling">gambling</a>), solely because "it's a Tim Eyman initiative." Another activist filed a ballot initiative in 2003 that, if passed, would "proclaim that Tim Eyman is a <a href="/wiki/Asshole" class="mw-redirect" title="Asshole">Horse's Ass</a>," but it failed to make the ballot.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-19"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-19">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Does this sound similar to how governance occurs within religious hierarchies, particularly the <a href="/wiki/Roman_Catholic" class="mw-redirect" title="Roman Catholic">Roman Catholic</a> and <a href="/wiki/Mormon" class="mw-redirect" title="Mormon">Mormon</a> churches?</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-24"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-24">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Depending on State. Technically women could vote in some of the very first few elections of the US, but this was ended almost immediately, and Wyoming enshrined Women's Suffrage in their constitution 40 years before the other states due to the extreme shortage of vaginas in the Wild West.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-27"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-27">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Since Plato was an Athenian, a society plagued with all the problems of direct democracy, his views on the matter can be somewhat excused because of that.</span> </li> </ol></div></div> <h2><span class="mw-headline" id="References">References</span><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Democracy&action=edit&section=27" title="Edit section: References">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></h2> <div class="references-small" style="-moz-column-count:2; -webkit-column-count:2; column-count:2; font-size:80%;"> <div class="mw-references-wrap mw-references-columns"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-1">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Aryssa Damron (May 29, 2019). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://checkyourfact.com/2019/05/29/fact-check-democracy-jefferson-adams-franklin-hamilton/">"‘Democracy Is Two Wolves And A Lamb Voting On What To Have For Lunch’ – Did Ben Franklin Say This Quote?"</a>. <i><a href="/wiki/Check_Your_Fact" class="mw-redirect" title="Check Your Fact">Check Your Fact</a></i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-2">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/democracy">"Democracy"</a> — Wiktionary.org</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-4">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r2708880">/* Errors processing stylesheet [[:Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css]] (rev 2708880): • Invalid or unsupported value for property ⧼code⧽background⧼/code⧽ at line 44 character 14. • Invalid or unsupported value for property ⧼code⧽background⧼/code⧽ at line 50 character 14. • Invalid or unsupported value for property ⧼code⧽background⧼/code⧽ at line 55 character 14. • Invalid or unsupported value for property ⧼code⧽background⧼/code⧽ at line 64 character 14. • Invalid or unsupported value for property ⧼code⧽color⧼/code⧽ at line 96 character 9. • Invalid or unsupported value for property ⧼code⧽color⧼/code⧽ at line 100 character 9. • Invalid media query at line 138 character 8. */ .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.8.viii.html">"Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII, Chapter 10 (1160a.31-1161a.9)"</a>. Internet Classics Archive<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">21 June</span> 2018</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Aristotle%2C+Nicomachean+Ethics%2C+Book+VIII%2C+Chapter+10+%281160a.31-1161a.9%29&rft.pub=Internet+Classics+Archive&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fclassics.mit.edu%2FAristotle%2Fnicomachaen.8.viii.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Frationalwiki.org%3ADemocracy" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-5">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://democracyweb.org/Introduction-What-Is-Democracy">Introduction: What Is Democracy?</a> by Danielle Allen <i>Democracy Web: Comparative Studies in Freedom</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-6">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>The Democracy Advantage: How Democracies Promote Prosperity and Peace</i> by Morton Halperin et al. (2005) Routledge. ISBN 041595052X.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-7">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://snyder.substack.com/p/what-democracy-brings">What Democracy Brings</a> by John K. Glenn (Mar 05, 2025) <i>Thinking about…".</i></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-8">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://v-dem.net/media/publications/v-dem_working_paper_2018_61.pdf">An Interactive Model of the Democratic Peace: Revisiting the Theory with Elastic Measures</a> by David Altman et al. (January 2018) <i>V-Dem Institute</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-9">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://v-dem.net/media/publications/v-dem_working_paper_2016_34.pdf">Democracy, Democratization, and Civil War</a> by Suthan Krishnarajan et al. (August 2016) <i>V-Dem Institute</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-10">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/intesociscierevi.90.1.01">Democracies, Autocracies, and Political Stability</a> by Rollin F. Tusalem (2015) <i>International Social Science Review</i> 90(1):1-40.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-negrea-11"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">↑ <sup><a href="#cite_ref-negrea_11-0">10.0</a></sup> <sup><a href="#cite_ref-negrea_11-1">10.1</a></sup></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/report/prosperity-that-lasts-the-2023-freedom-and-prosperity-indexes/">Prosperity that lasts: The 2023 Freedom and Prosperity Indexes</a> by Dan Negrea & Joseph Lemoine (June 15, 2023) <i>Atlantic Council</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-12">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/01/arts/does-democracy-avert-famine.html">Does Democracy Avert Famine?</a> by Michael Massing (March 1, 2003) <i>The New York Times</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-13"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-13">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/424592">Democracy as a Cure for Famine</a> by Frances D'Souza (1994) <i>Journal of Peace Research</i> 31(4):369-373.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-14"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-14">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.ned.org/winning-the-battle-of-ideas-exposing-global-authoritarian-narratives-and-revitalizing-democratic-principles/">Winning the Battle of Ideas: Exposing Global Authoritarian Narratives and Revitalizing Democratic Principles</a> (February 5, 2024) <i>The National Endowment for Democracy</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-unluckyman-16"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">↑ <sup><a href="#cite_ref-unluckyman_16-0">14.0</a></sup> <sup><a href="#cite_ref-unluckyman_16-1">14.1</a></sup></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/episodes/on-the-media-unlucky-many">The Unlucky Many: A History of the "Republic, Not A Democracy" Slogan</a> (October 9, 2020) <i>On The Media</i>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-17"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-17">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/04/24/gilens_and_page_find_that_rich_americans_rule_politics_but_despair_the_fact.html">The Silver Lining to Our Oligarchy</a> by Boer Deng (April 24 2014 3:10 PM) <i>Slate</i>. A 2014 Princeton University study concluded that the US is an oligarchy.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-20"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-20">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="https://thenextsystem.org/economic-democracy">[1]</a> thenextsystemeconomicdemocracy.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-21"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-21">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui7c4MoeXsw">[2]</a> Economic Democracy.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-22"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-22">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="https://thenextsystem.org/start-with-worker-self-directed-enterprises">[3]</a>WSDE's (worker self directed enterprises).</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-23"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-23">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="https://thenextsystem.org/the-pluralist-commonwealth">[4]</a> Pluralist Commonwealth.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-25"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-25">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/700936">Democracy Does Cause Growth</a> <i>Journal of Political Economy Volume 127, Number 1</i> by Daron Acemoglu, Suresh Naidu, Pascual Restrepo, and James A. Robinson</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-plato-26"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">↑ <sup><a href="#cite_ref-plato_26-0">21.0</a></sup> <sup><a href="#cite_ref-plato_26-1">21.1</a></sup></span> <span class="reference-text"><i><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1497">The Republic</a></i> by Plato</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-:0-28"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">↑ <sup><a href="#cite_ref-:0_28-0">22.0</a></sup> <sup><a href="#cite_ref-:0_28-1">22.1</a></sup> <sup><a href="#cite_ref-:0_28-2">22.2</a></sup> <sup><a href="#cite_ref-:0_28-3">22.3</a></sup> <sup><a href="#cite_ref-:0_28-4">22.4</a></sup></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r2708880"/><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8304.html">"Deudney, D.: Bounding Power: Republican Security Theory from the Polis to the Global Village. (eBook and Paperback)"</a>. <i>press.princeton.edu</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">14 March</span> 2017</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=press.princeton.edu&rft.atitle=Deudney%2C+D.%3A+Bounding+Power%3A+Republican+Security+Theory+from+the+Polis+to+the+Global+Village.+%28eBook+and+Paperback%29&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fpress.princeton.edu%2Ftitles%2F8304.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Frationalwiki.org%3ADemocracy" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-29"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-29">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text"><i>The Review of Policy Research, Volume 22, Issues 1–3</i>, Policy Studies Organization, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. Blackwell Publishing, 2005. p. 28</span> </li> </ol></div></div>    </div></div><div class="printfooter">Retrieved from "<a dir="ltr" href="https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Democracy&oldid=2722596">https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Democracy&oldid=2722596</a>"</div> <div id="catlinks" class="catlinks" data-mw="interface"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="/wiki/Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Categories</a>: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Politics" title="Category:Politics">Politics</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Political_terms" title="Category:Political terms">Political terms</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Forms_of_government" title="Category:Forms of government">Forms of government</a></li></ul></div><div id="mw-hidden-catlinks" class="mw-hidden-catlinks mw-hidden-cats-hidden">Hidden category: <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Category:Pages_using_DynamicPageList_parser_function" title="Category:Pages using 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