DemocracyA Multidimensional

Concept

The Government Component

• A society’s “government” refers to the institutions, structures, and laws that are created to make and enforce common decisions and to establish order in society. Who will make decisions? What authority or powers will the government have and not have? What individual liberties and protections from the government will

individuals have?

• There are many different forms of government that provide a wide array of answers to these questions.

Forms of Government

Autocracy (One Person Rule)Examples

– Monarchy (King, Queen, Emporer)Saudi Arabia: King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-SaudOman: Qaboos bin Said Al SaidQatar: Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani

– Dictatorship Cameroon: Paul Biya Democratic Republic of the Congo: Denis Sassou Nguesso North Korea: Kim Jong-Il Syria: Bashar Hafez al-Assad Cuba: Fidel/Raul Castro Burma: Than Shwe Sudan: Omar Al-Bashir Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe North Korea: Kim Jong-un

Oligarchy (Rule by a Small Group)Examples

Military Dictatorship (rule by the military) China: The Communist Party (not Hu Jintao)Fiji: Military Forces (not Commodore Frank Bainimarama)

Theocracy (rule by religious hierarchy)The Vatican: The Roman Catholic Church/Pope Benedict XVIIran: Islamic Assembly of Experts/Ayatollah Khamenei

Aristocracy (rule by some elite group or class) Nowhere ?Everywhere?

Anarchy (Nobody Rules)

• Anarchy is only a temporary condition, until some person or group assumes control and imposes rules.

• Anarchy generally occurs when an existing government falls apart or is destroyed.

Iraq: ‘temporarily’ after the U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003 Somalia: throughout much of the last 20 years

• “Anarchists” are an active force in many places in the US and the world today.

Democracy (Rule by the People)Examples

Direct Democracy California: The referendum, initiative, and recall

Representative) Democracy United States: Two-Party Democracy Australia: Proportional Democracy

World Map of Democracy2010 by Freedom House

An Anylitical Look at

Democracy

In his Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln

defined democracy as “government

of the people, by the people, for the people”

What conditions or structures or practices are required in a strong, genuine democracy?

1._______________________

2._______________________

3._______________________

4._______________________

5._______________________

The Essential Elementsof Democracy

Just One View