A. PHASES IN THE EXPANSION

OF DEMOCRACY &

B. UNO , A DEMOCRATIC OR

A NON-DEMOCRATIC ORGANISATION

MADE BY:- Aakash Kumar Tripathi

CLASS:- 9(F)

Only leaders elected by people should rule the country, and

People have the freedom to express views, freedom to organise and freedom to protest.

Democracy is a form of government that allows people to choose their rulers. In a

democracy:

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENTS IN 1900-

1950

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT IN 1900 AND 1950

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT IN 1950 BUT NOT IN 1900

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT IN 2000

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT IN 2000

Democracy has expanded throughout the twentieth century. Is it correct to say that at each point in these maps, the number of democratic countries is larger than at the previous point in time?

Democracy did not spread evenly in all parts of the world. It was established first in some regions and then spread to other regions. Which continents in the world had a large number of democracies in 1900 and 1950? And which continents did not have almost any?

While a majority of countries are democratic today, there are still large parts of the world that are not democratic. Which regions in the world account for most of the countries that were not democracies in 2000?

PHASES IN THE EXPANSION OF DEMOCRACY These maps do not tell us much about what happened before the

twentieth century. The story of modern democracy began at least two centuries ago. The popular uprising did not establish a secure and stable democracy in France. Throughout the nineteenth century, democracy in France was overthrown and re- stored several times. Yet the French Revolution inspired many struggles for democracy all over Europe. In Britain, the progress towards democracy started much before the French Revolution. But the progress was very slow. Through the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, series of political events reduced the power of monarchy and feudal lords. The right to vote was granted to more and more people. Around the same time as the French Revolution, the British colonies in North America declared themselves independent in 1776. In the next few years these colonies came together to form the United States of America. They adopted a democratic constitution in 1787. But here too the right to vote was limited to very few men. In the nineteenth century struggles for democracy often centred round political equality, freedom and justice. One major demand was the right for every adult citizen to vote. Many European countries that were becoming more democratic did not initially allow all people to vote. In some countries only people owning property had the right to vote. Often women did not have the right to vote. In the United States of America, the blacks all over the country could not exercise the right to vote until 1965. Those struggling for democracy wanted this right granted universally to all adults — men or women, rich or poor, white or black. This is called ‘universal adult franchise’ or ‘universal suffrage’. The box here tells us when universal suffrage was granted in many countries of the world

UNO (UNITED NATION ORGANISATION)

UNO was founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries, committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights.

STRUCTURE OF UNO The United Nations' system is based on five principal

organs: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Secretariat, and the International Court of Justice. A sixth principal organ, the Trusteeship Council, suspended operations in 1994, upon the independence of Palau, the last remaining UN trustee territory.

Four of the five principal organs are located at the main UN Headquarters in New York City. The International Court of Justice is located in The Hague, while other major agencies are based in the UN offices are at Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi. Other UN institutions are located throughout the world. The six official languages of the United Nations, used in intergovernmental meetings and documents, are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.

UNITED NATION ORGANISATION

UNO, as democratic organization UNO, as NON democratic organization

The President of the 63rd session of the General Assembly, Migueld’Escot Brockman from Nicaragua, went as far as to state that the General Assembly should become more proactive and its resolutions should be binding. The idea that the clear and unequivocal voice of “We the peoples” should be regarded as a mere recommendation with no binding power should be buried forever in our anti-democratic past. However, the General Assembly’s alleged democratic legitimacy is nothing but a myth. All we need to do to see this clearly is to ignore the anachronistic paradigm of equal sovereignty for a moment.

States are neither equal, nor sovereign. If we consider equal representation of citizens instead, the General Assembly’s strongly undemocratic character is exposed as representation is grossly distortet. Consider this, for example: The 128 least populous UN member states make up two thirds of the voting power in the UN General Assembly (see the image above). However, these countries only represent around 11.2 percent of the world’s gross domestic product and, more importantly, only around 8.4 percent of the world’s population.

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