Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Democracy - Evolution and Challenges



2021

A comment by me on an Harvard Business School article.

I hope every body with the role of representative of the people in the political system think they are the representatives and make arrangements to collect public opinion on various issues and present them in various legislative bodies. Each representative has to present the current opinion of the people genuinely. He may be a party member and can communicate his wishes to the electorate on a continuous basis. But once he collects their opinion on any issue, he has to present it in the legislature as the opinion and wish of the people. If such a spirit is truly followed, democracies are likely to represent the majority opinion and hard positions can be easily reversed.

Prof. K.V.S.S. Narayana Rao
NITIE, Mumbai, India
21 January 2021



2020

25/DEC/2020
Abraham Lincoln defined democratic government as a government of, for and by the people. This definition was true to the spirit of the origin of democracy in the ancient Greek city states, where all males above 18 years were participating in the day to day affairs of the government.

The essence of democracy is the participation of the people in the day to day affairs of the state. 

Elections and Parliaments are not democracy if  participation of the people in the day to day affairs of the state is not allowed and not encouraged.


Democracy and pluralism are under assault.

WRITTEN BY
Sarah Repucci
Democracy and pluralism are under assault. Dictators are toiling to stamp out the last vestiges of domestic dissent and spread their harmful influence to new corners of the world. At the same time, many freely elected leaders are dramatically narrowing their concerns to a blinkered interpretation of the national interest. In fact, such leaders—including the chief executives of the United States and India, the world’s two largest democracies—are increasingly willing to break down institutional safeguards and disregard the rights of critics and minorities as they pursue their populist agendas.

As a result of these and other trends, Freedom House found that 2019 was the 14th consecutive year of decline in global freedom.




India falls to 51st position in EIU's Democracy Index


NEW DELHI: India slipped 10 places to 51st position in the 2019 Democracy Index's global ranking, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit, which cited "erosion of civil liberties" in the country as the primary cause for the downtrend.

Read more at:


2017

THE GLOBAL STATE OF DEMOCRACY

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) presented the first edition of The Global State of Democracy. The theme is ‘Exploring Democracy’s Resilience’.

The publication analyses global and regional democracy trends and challenges based on International IDEA’s newly developed Global State of Democracy (GSoD) indices, which capture global and regional democratic trends between 1975 and 2015.

https://www.idea.int/gsod/files/IDEA-GSOD-2017-REPORT-EN.pdf

https://www.idea.int/gsod/

International Idea
https://www.idea.int/

FaceBook Page
https://www.facebook.com/pg/InternationalIDEA/posts/


Google Books on Democracy

Democratic Stability in an Age of Crisis: Reassessing the Interwar period
By Agnes Cornell, Jørgen Møller, Svend-Erik Skaaning

Democracy in Europe: A Political Philosophy of the EU
By Daniel Innerarity


Change Elections to Change America: Democracy Matters: Student Organizers in Action
Jay R. Mandle, Joan D. Mandle
Easton Studio Press, LLC, 23-Sep-2014 - Political Science - 168 pages

A social movement is needed to reduce the excessive power of wealth to influence politics. Democracy Matters organizes students in the hope of building such a social movement. It seeks to achieve the enhanced political equality that could be secured with the public funding of election campaigns. Historically, young people have provided a moral compass for their elders, highlighting the need for social change.

Change Elections to Change America is a report on the ongoing experiences of Democracy Matters. It was founded in 2001 when the professional basketball player Adonal Foyle provided initial funding. It has grown and brought the issue of the distorting impact of private wealth to the attention of literally thousands of students on campuses all over the United States. But at the same time it has not yet succeeded in bringing to life the kind of a social movement needed for such a radical change.

Change Elections to Change America describes the activities of Democracy Matters on campuses. It concludes with a positive assessment of the prospects for building a social movement in the digital age. Social media are invaluable tools that facilitate organizing. But they are no substitute for face to face dialogue and persuasion. Success will require a scaling up of organizing efforts. This book is written with the hope that the Democracy Matters experience will inspire others to do the political work that democratizing politics in the United States requires.
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=IP08BAAAQBAJ


Leading For Democracy: A Case-Based Approach to Principal Preparation
By Patrick M. Jenlink, Lee Stewart, Sandra Stewart
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=c40iJMTCw4wC

The Conceptual Politics of Democracy Promotion
edited by Christopher Hobson, Milja Kurki

The Future of Representative Democracy

edited by Sonia Alonso, John Keane, Wolfgang Merkel


Democracy Distorted: Wealth, Influence and Democratic Politics
By Jacob Rowbottom
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=9H4I4TSoRAcC

The Truth of Democracy
By Jean-Luc Nancy
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=ZAubBGp3cC8C









Money in Politics - Problems and Issues
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International Idea - YouTube Channel 


27 Jan 2021

24 Nov 2017

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