Democracy

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A democracy (a word from the Greek language, meaning rule by the people) is a kind of government where the people living in a community or country choose who they want to be the ruler, and who will decide the laws.

In a democracy, there are elections every few years where the people can vote and choose who they want to lead them, or choose the laws. The decision is made based on the number of votes. The side with the most votes wins.

[edit] Kinds of Democracy

There are two kinds of democracy: Direct and Indirect (also known as Representative democracy).

In Direct Democracies, everyone has the right to make laws together. One modern example of direct democracy is a referendum, which is the name for the kind of way to pass a law where everyone in the community votes on it. Direct democracies are not used to run countries, because it is hard to get millions of people to get together all the time to make laws and other decisions.

In an Indirect, or Representative Democracy, people choose representatives to make laws for them. These people can be mayors, councilmen, Members of Parliament, or other government officials. This is a much more common kind of democracy. Large communities like cities and countries use this method, but it may not be needed for a small group.

[edit] History

This kind of government was developed long ago by the ancient Greeks in the city of Athens. They had everyone who was a Citizen (Slaves, Women, Foreigners, and Children could not vote) get together in one area. The Assembly would talked about what kinds of laws they wanted and voted on them. The Council would suggest the laws. In the Assembly, the participants are only the citizens. In the Council, they would pick them by draws(lot). The participants in the Council would change every year and the amount of people in the Council is maximum 500. The Greeks citizen would pick a leader by writing the name of their favorite candidate on a piece of stone or wood. The candidate with the most votes became the leader.