Democracy creates stability is a society

Democracy, although an ancient concept dating back 2500 years to the Athenian city-state, is a powerful political system the modern world craves for. As opposed to other forms of government like monarchy, and dictatorship of an individual, or of a foreign imperialist government or of a military or political party, democracy upholds the basic concept of all citizen’s right to participate in a decision about how they are governed. Democracy operates in two major modes;
(1) Direct democracy - a form of government in which the supreme power is retained and exercised by the people
(2) Representative democracy - where voters choose representatives to act in their interests.
Whatever the mode may be, the point is how far democracy is successful in creating stability in the society. Stability depends on how far a government is capable of meeting the needs of people. These needs are social needs such as education and healthcare, economic needs such as removal of poverty, building foundation for trade and commerce, establishing stable employment of its citizens and political security by building a strong defence. Studies show that most of the countries with the highest levels of development are democracies. Countries like The United States, Canada, The United Kingdom, Germany and Japan which exemplify a representative form of democracy show a positive growth in terms of development. Nevertheless, non democratic governments like Korea and China show positive development as well. But India, one of the largest democracies in the world is ranked far behind, even behind authoritarian China. Overpopulation, poverty and internal strife threaten Indian stability time to time. Again, the constitutional structure of the American government has remained stable over a long period but the quality of democracy has been at stake. The presidency has become far too powerful. The American policy by President George Bush towards the Middle East- for example the Iraq war in show of force against terrorism has undoubtedly led to multiplying social crises like death toll, fall of economy, homelessness, epidemic disease and soon disrupting stability and peace as a whole.
General people may sometimes be misled by advertising acts by politicians, known as ‘vote buying’. The representative authority will loose its power and not be re-elected by the people if it is corrupt or failing in its duty in serving certain interests of citizens. But the problem lies in the seed itself. The question is whether the electoral system can provide honest, corruption free candidates. Here lies the failure of democracy. If the democracy is to be effective people have to think critically and be alert for alluring acts. People should have the courage to raise a voice against injustice and atrocities. Again, the majority should not vote away the freedom of the minority. Democracy should not rest upon a social consensus to carry out the will of majority while protecting the rights of the minority. On the other hand, direct democracy, a people driven government (which operates in Sweden and some states in the USA) definitely curbs the imbalanced power of politicians. But at times too many referenda disrupts conclusive decisions delaying necessary action.
It has to be acknowledged, that democracy, inspite of its few limitations is still better than other forms of governments. In both monarchy and dictatorship, the ruler individual or group wields absolute power and general people have no remedy against its misuse. In fact, absolute power corrupts absolutely. There is no individual freedom, freedom of speech and expression. The dignity of a man is violated. After all, monarchy in Nepal had to come at stake in people’s demand. In Pakistan military rule has fanned extremism which induces an urge to return to democracy. Undoubtedly, democracy is more advantageous than other forms of government, so far as ordinary citizen’s status is concerned. Democracy best reflects the will of the people in the governance of the country so it is the duty of the people in the government to usher in a healthy democracy by reforming the shortcomings of the voting system to get genuine political competition and better candidates and government.