Ch. 7 Outcomes of Democracy Questions and Answers

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Q. What are the conditions under which democracies accommodate social diversities?

A. The conditions under which democracies accommodate social diversities are:

・It is necessary to understand that democracy is not simply ruled by the majority opinion. The majority always needs to work with the minority so that governments function to represent the general view. Majority and minority opinions are not permanent.

・ It is also necessary that rule by the majority does not become rule by majority community in terms of religion or race or linguistic group etc. Rule by majority means that in case of every decision or in case of every election, different persons and groups may and can form a majority. Democracy remains democracy only as long as every citizen has a chance of being in majority at some point of time. If someone is barred from being in majority on the basis of birth, then the democratic rule is to be accommodative for that person or group.
Q. How does democracy produce an accountable, responsive and legitimate government?

A. Accountability of Democracy

・In a democracy, we are most concerned with ensuring that people will have the right to choose their rulers and people will have control over the rulers. Whenever possible and necessary, citizens should be able to participate in decision making, that affects them all.

・Thus, the most basic outcome of democracy is that it produces a government that is accountable to the citizens and is responsive to their needs and expectations.

・Democracy ensures that decision making will be based on norms and producers. So, a citizen who wants to know if a decision was taken through the correct procedures can find this out. This is known as transparency.

Responsiveness of Democracy

・Democracies' responsiveness is measured by the following practices and institutions: regular, free and fair elections; open public debate on major policies and legislation; and citizen's right to information about the government and its functioning. The actual performance shows a mixed record on this.

・Democracies have had greater success in setting up regular and free elections and in setting up conditions for open public debate.

・Democracies don't have a very good record when it comes to sharing information with citizens though they are much better than non-democratic regimes in this respect.

・ In substantive terms, it may be reasonable to expect from democracy a government that is attentive to the needs and demands of the people and is largely free of corruption.

Legitimacy of Democracy

・Unlike other alternatives, democratic government is a legitimate government. It may be slow, less efficient, not always very responsive and clean. But it is people's own government. Thus there is an overwhelming support for the idea of democracy all over the world.

・People wish to be ruled by representatives elected by them. They also believe that democracy is suitable for their country.  Democracy's ability to generate its own support is itself an outcome that can't be ignored.

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