DEMOCRACY AND ITS PRINCIPLES

DEMOCRACY AND ITS PRINCIPLES By MUNYANEZA NEHEMIE a lecturer at IPB and PhD student of Political Sociology and Community Development at Madison International Institute (USA) Abstract This work is a product of documentary research that has the purpose to provide the meaning of democracy and its principles. In fact, the word democracy came from the Greek word demos, which means “the body of the citizens”. The ancient Greek word demokratia meant literally 'people-power' (Paul Cartledge 2011). According to Jacaranda, (2004), Democracy began in ancient Athens around the fifth century BC. Adult male citizens gathered around 40 times a year in Athens to decide on important civil issues. They had a direct say in the decision-making process. This form of democracy is called direct democracy. Under Pericles, ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY came to mean the equality of justice and the equality of opportunity (Professor Paul Cartledge, 2011). Still defined from its etymology, today democracy means popular participation in Government or rule by many (Thomas R. Dye, 1994). The people can criticize and replace their elected leaders and representatives if they do not perform well. The people are sovereign—they are the highest authority—and government is based on the will of the people (Phillips W 2007). Leaders may be directly elected (Direct democracy) or through people’s representative (Indirect democracy). A. Touraine defines it as the political regime which makes it possible for individuals holding different interests and beliefs to live under the same laws enabling us to live together with our differences. As far as principles of Democracy are concerned, the same author distinguishes two main principles; the first is the ability and willingness to play a part in common affairs, whether at local or national levels. The second is a respect for the rights of citizens, an acknowledgment of their equal dignity. These two main principles summarize among others respect of human rights active political participation, freedom of political expression, the majority rule, separation of powers, laws and procedures apply fairly and equally to all citizens, tolerance, rule of law, regular, free and fair Elections. To conclude, we observe that in democracy people should have a right to a controlling influence over public decisions and decision-makers, and that they should be treated with equal respect and as of equal worth in the context of such decisions. Restriction of the power of the State, autonomy of social actors and awareness of citizens, these are the three conditions for the existence of democracy. For that raison, citizens must be educated and must understand the purpose of democracy, how and why we have it. Key concepts: Democracy, Principles I. Introduction Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) jointly with Cheyney University of Pennsylvania are organizing the 2nd International Conference on Democratic Governance in Africa, Asia and Middle East. The conference is scheduled to take place in Kigali on 30th June -02 July 2014 with the main objective to provide a critical review of development/democratic governance issues, constraints, and opportunities in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. It was in the perspectives to respond to pre-conference activities on a series of seminars planned in different universities and Higher Learning Institutions in Rwanda basically on Government and democracy that IPB organized a conference on Democracy and Sustainable Development with two specific topics; Democracy and its principles and democratic governance and sustainable development on 28/06/2014. It was in the same perspective this research was led on democracy and its principles. II. Brief background of the concept of democracy The word democracy came from the Greek word demos, which means “the body of the citizens”. The ancient Greek word demokratia meant literally 'people-power' (Paul Cartledge 2011). According to Jacaranda, (2004), Democracy began in ancient Athens around the fifth century BC. Adult male citizens gathered around 40 times a year in Athens to decide on important civil issues. They had a direct say in the decision-making process. This form of democracy is called direct democracy. The meaning of democracy changed through time. During its first historical phase, which began in ancient Mesopotamia (c. 2,500 BCE) and stretched through classical Greece and Rome to the rise and maturation of Islamic civilization around 950 CE, democracy was associated with the creation and diffusion of public assemblies in classical Greek where people (demos- a group of people who hold land in common) were used to sit in polis (city state) to discuss issues of their diary life (John Keane, 2014). According to Steven Kreis (2009), when the philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) came to discuss the origins of the polis in his book POLITICS in the early 4th century B.C. he suggested that "it is necessary for the citizens to be of such a number that they knew each other's personal qualities and thus can elect their officials and judge their fellows in a court of law sensibly. In such a society – the society of the polis – all citizens were intimately and directly involved in politics, justice, military service, religious ceremonies, intellectual discussion, athletics and artistic pursuits. To shirk one's responsibilities was not only rare but reprehensible in the eyes of the Greek citizen. Greek citizens did not have rights, but duties. A citizen who did not fulfill his duties was socially disruptive. At the polis of Sparta, such a citizen was called "an Inferior." At Athens, a citizen who held no official position or who was not a habitual orator in the Assembly was branded as idiotai. The citizens of any given polis (Originally the polis referred to a defensible area to which farmers of a particular area could retreat in the event of an attack) were an elite group of people – slaves, peasants, women and resident aliens excluded (Professor Paul Cartledge, 2011). Around 460 B.C., Pericles (c.490-429 B.C.) used the power of the people in the law courts and the Assembly to break up the Council of Five Hundred. Under Pericles, ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY came to mean the equality of justice and the equality of opportunity. The equality of justice was secured by the jury system, which ensured that slaves and resident aliens were represented through their patrons. The equality of opportunity did not mean that every man has the right to everything. What it did mean is that the criteria for choosing citizens for office were merit and efficiency and not wealth. (Professor Paul Cartledge, 2011). However, according to the same author, the word demokratia was coined by democracy's enemies, members of the rich and aristocratic elite who did not like being outvoted by the common herd, their social and economic inferiors. If this theory is right, democracy must originally have meant something like 'mob rule' or 'dictatorship of the proletariat'. III. What is the meaning of Democracy today? Democracy is a style of leadership among others such as Anarchy, Authoritarian, Autocracy, Dictatorship, monarchy, Oligarchy, Theocracy, Totalitarianship, Tyranny etc. Still defined from its etymology, democracy means popular participation in Government or rule by many (Thomas R. Dye, 1994). Democracy is the common form of government in the world today (Jacaranda, 2004). The former USA president Abraham Lincoln defined it as the “government of the people, by the people, for the people”. In democracies, it is the people who hold sovereign power over legislator and government. Democracy is a system of government in which a country’s political leaders are chosen by the people in regular, free, and fair elections. In a democracy, people have a choice between different candidates and parties who want the power to govern. The people can criticize and replace their elected leaders and representatives if they do not perform well. The people are sovereign—they are the highest authority—and government is based on the will of the people. Elected representatives at the national and local levels must listen to the people and be responsive to their needs. (Phillips W 2007) In other words, democracy is a form of government in which all the people have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal (and more or less direct) participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law. It can also encompass social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination. The basic premise and assumption of democracy is the ability of the populace to participate effectively in the determination of their lives for themselves directly or through their elected representatives. In a democracy, the authority of the government derives directly from the consent of the governed. A fair and transparent election enables citizens to choose new leaders and tests the strength of existing democratic institutions and processes. However, transitional and emerging democracies often lack the institutional capacity to effectively support the management of elections and/or political processes (FDA, 2010) For Professor Luis VILLORO (1998), a distinction should be made between democracy as an ideal of political association and democracy as a system of government. For him, the former is an objective of collective action and is a value in itself. The latter is a means of achieving certain common objectives and its value lies in the extent to which it contributes to their achievement. In the first sense according to him, "democracy" is the "power of the people", where the "people" is the totality of the members of an association. "Democracy" denotes therefore an association in which all the members control collective decisions and their execution, only having to obey themselves. In this form of community, there is no form of domination by a few persons over others. If everybody holds power, nobody is subject to anybody else. Democracy is the achievement of the freedom of everyone. It is a guiding concept, under the influence of which politics can progressively bring society closer to the ideal, although it can never be claimed that the ideal has been achieved in its entirety. In its second meaning, "democracy" denotes a series of rules and institutions which support a system of power. These include the equality of citizens before the law, civil rights, citizens' election of their leaders, the principle of needing a majority to take decisions, and the separation of powers. It is not an ideal, but a form of government that conforms to certain procedures and which can be achieved in various ways, according to the circumstances. It is not an associative project conforming to specific values, but rather a way of living together under a specific power system. IV. Forms of Democracy Democracy has two main forms; direct democracy and indirect democracy. 1. Direct democracy Direct democracy, classically termed pure democracy, is any form of government based on a theory of civics in which all citizens can directly participate in the decision-making process. It is a political system where the citizens participate in the decision-making personally, contrary to relying on representatives. This belief is based on the right of every citizen over a certain age to attend political meetings, vote on the issues being discussed at that meeting and accepting the majority decision should such a vote lead to a law being passed which you as an individual did not support. The people themselves can initiate and decide policy questions by popular vote, (Dye, 1994; Oteniya, 2009; Reilly, 2009) 2. Indirect democracy (also called representative democracy) Indirect democracy is a broad term describing a means of governance by the people through elected representatives. The most common system found in today's democratic states is the representative democracy. The people elect government officials who then make decisions on their behalf. Essentially, a representative democracy is a form of indirect democracy in which representatives are democratically selected, and usually difficult to recall. (Jacaranda, 2004) As opposed to direct democracy, representative democracy is a system where citizens within a country elect representatives to act in their interests, but not as their proxies, that is, not necessarily as directed but with enough authority to exercise initiative in the face of changing circumstances. The people thereby hand over the responsibility of decision and law making to someone else who wishes to be in that position thus excluding themselves from the process of decision making. (Selee, 2006; Oteniya, 2009) We can have however semi direct democracy that combines elements of direct democracy and indirect democracy (André Eschet-Schwarz, 2014; GILIA Claudia, 2012). V. Principles of Democracy For Alain Touraine, (1998) from the definition of democracy itself as the word itself indicates, “the power of the people”, that is to say, the link established between a social reality, the people, and a political reality, power. For him, this is what we mean when we talk of both representation and participation, whether we dream of direct democracy as seen by Rousseau or whether we stress the central role of parties as in the English tradition. Whether we agree with Lincoln that democracy is government of the people, for the people and by the people, or whether we insist on a procedural form of democracy which ensures the representation of interests and the defense of pluralism, we are right to define the central principle of democracy as the ability of political institutions to articulate the diversity of interests or opinions with the unity of the law and of the government. To emphasize on the nature of democracy, he defines it as the political regime which makes it possible for individuals holding different interests and beliefs to live under the same laws; it therefore enables us to live together with our differences, in the words of the young "beurs" (French people of Algerian origin) in their 1983 march for equality. According to the same author, the citizen is both the starting point and the focus of the democratic process. At the same time, that process requires certain qualities, among its citizen body to be effective and sustainable. Among these, two are decisive. One is the ability and willingness to play a part in common affairs, whether local or national, whether sectional or societal, and to acknowledge some responsibility for them. The second is a respect for the rights of other citizens, an acknowledgment of their equal dignity, and the recognition of their right to an opinion, especially when it differs from one's own. These two main principles summarize among others the following points: 1. Respect of human rights In a democracy, every citizen has certain basic rights that the state cannot take away from them Democracy is thus inseparable from fundamental human rights and freedoms, and from the responsibility to respect the same rights and freedoms for others. These rights are internationally recognized and guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10th, 1948 (UN, 1948). Everyone has the right to have their own beliefs, including their religious beliefs, and to say and write what they think. Everyone has the right to seek different sources of information and ideas. The right of free association includes the right to found new associations for economic, social and cultural purposes, including political parties. Everyone has the right to associate with other people, and to form and join organizations of their own choice, including trade unions. Everyone has the right to assemble and to protest government actions. However, citizens have an obligation to exercise these rights peacefully, with respect for the law and for the rights of others. As citizens, all individuals or just groups of some sort – racial groups, gender groups, social classes, and so on are treated the same, with no consideration of their differences or characteristics. (Equality is observed in fields such as opportunities, in holdings, or on some other features such as resources, or capacity or satisfactions) (Paul Edwards, 1991) 2. Active political participation Democracy also has a specific focus - that of decision-making about the rules and policies for any group, association or society as a whole - and a distinctive conception of citizens, not only as the bearers of rights and responsibilities, but as active participants in the collective decisions and policies which affect their lives. (Touraine, 1998) According to him, to define democracy in terms of its basic principles enables us to recognize democracy at work beyond the formal level of government itself. In particular, whenever people organize collectively in civil society to solve their problems, to protect or promote their interests, to persuade fellow citizens to their point of view or openly to influence government policy, this can be as much an expression of democracy as the arrangements of government at such. For similar reasons, it is important to begin any consideration of democracy with the citizen, rather than with governmental institutions. It is from the citizens that democratic governments receive their authorization, and it is to the citizens that they remain accountable (W. Phillips Shively, 2007) and responsive, both directly and through the mediating organs of parliament and public opinion. For VILLORO (1998), Democracy" denotes an association in which all the members control collective decisions and their execution, only having to obey themselves. In this form of community, there is no form of domination by a few persons over others. If everybody holds power, nobody is subject to anybody else. For that reason, the key role of citizens in a democracy is participation (Patterson Thomas, 2006). This takes many forms. Citizens have an obligation to become informed about public issues, to monitor the conduct of their leaders and representatives, and to express their own opinions. Participation also involves voting in elections, debating issues, attending community meetings, becoming involved in private, voluntary organizations, and even protesting. However, political participation in a democracy must be peaceful, respectful of the law, and tolerant of the different views of other groups and individuals. Citizenship rights if the starting point of democracy, then, is the right of citizens to have a say in the decisions that affect their lives, on a basis of equality with others, then it requires a framework of other rights to make this basic political right effective. (Touraine, 1998) These are the familiar rights and freedoms of expression, association and assembly. The right to unimpeded expression of opinion requires the existence of independent media and of legislation preventing undue concentrations of media ownership. 3. Freedom of political expression (Freedom of speech, debate, and enquiry) The Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) guarantee the right to freedom of expression, both in Article 19. Freedom of expression is not only important in its own right but is also essential if other human rights are to be achieved. Freedom of political expression is the most basic of democratic rights. Unless citizens can openly express their political opinions, they cannot properly influence their government or act to protect their other rights”, because, the freedom to speak one’s mind is not only an aspect of individual liberty –und thus a good unto itself –but also is essential to the common quest for truth and the vitality of society as a whole”, (supreme court of America, in 1984). However, freedom of expression like other rights is not absolute. It doesn’t entitle individuals to say or do whatever they want, to whomever they want, whenever they want. Free expression may be denied for example if it endangers national security or wrongly damages the reputations of others (Thomas Patterson, 2006). The national mass media is crucial to the national democratic process. It is the national mass media which forms and validates most people's understanding of what is "real". 4. The majority rule Democracy rests upon the principles of majority rule, coupled with individual and minority rights. All democracies, while respecting the will of the majority, zealously protect the fundamental rights of individuals and minority groups (Walter E. Williams, 2009) However, Democracies understand that protecting the rights of minorities to uphold cultural identity, social practices, individual consciences, and religious activities is one of their primary tasks (InfoUSA, 2005, Robert A. Dahl, 2014) 5. Separation of Powers In a democracy, the exercise of political power must respect the law, the constitution, and the will of the people, through the decisions of their [elected] legislative representatives. This requires that power be separated so that the head of government and his ministers do not have the power to make the law or to interfere in court cases. In a democracy, the executive branch implements policies and programs, administers the national budget, and conducts national affairs. It may also propose laws, but only the parliament may enact legislation, including the budget. Only the courts can decide the guilt or innocence of individuals charged with a crime, and only the higher courts can determine whether a law or a government action or policy is constitutional. (R Stevens, 1999; Justice Kiefel, 2008) 6. Laws and Procedures Apply Fairly and Equally to All Citizens Democracy is a system of rule by laws, not individuals. In a democracy, the rule of law protects the rights of citizens, maintains order, and limits the power of government. All citizens are equal under the law. No one may be discriminated against on the basis of their race, religion, ethnic group, or gender. No one may be arrested, imprisoned, or exiled arbitrarily. No one may be denied their freedom without a fair and public hearing by an impartial court. No one may be taxed or prosecuted except by a law established in advance. No one is above the law, not even a king or an elected president. The law is fairly, impartially, and consistently enforced, by courts that are independent of the other branches of government. (UN, 1948; Amnesty International, 2013) According to Alain Touraine, (1998) as many recent writers have stressed, the principle of equal citizenship has to allow room for difference - of belief, of life-style, of identity. Societies today are everywhere characterized by pluralisms of language, religion, culture or ethnicity. It is now an acknowledged democratic principle that such diversity should be welcomed, and where necessary given protection, on the basis of equal respect and on the condition that equal respect is shown to others. And where diversity gives rise to disagreement or conflict, the democratic method for its resolution is through discussion and dialogue, rather than imposition or coercion. Equal citizenship thus entails a complex form of equality, rather than simple uniformity.  Tolerance, cooperation and compromise Democracy is the political regime which makes it possible for individuals holding different interests and beliefs to live under the same laws; it therefore enables us to live together with our differences (Touraine 1998). For that purpose, democratic societies are committed to the values of tolerance, cooperation, and compromise. Democracies recognize that reaching consensus requires compromise and that it may not always be attainable. Rights of minorities should also be respected. In nascent democracies especially, citizens must tolerate the views and participation of opposing groups in order to ensure methodical transfers of power with successive elections. (Marquart-Pyatt et al, 2007) 7. Rule of law Democracy is a system of government which embodies, in a variety of institutions and mechanisms, the ideal of political based on the will of the people (Touraine, 1998), for that purpose, it must be characterized by the Rule of Law because in democracy nations belong to the laws and not to other men. Presidents and legislatures can't just do whatever they can get away with, they are limited by law. Laws represent the will of the people. The rule of law is regarded as fundamental constitutional principle in liberal democracies. It puts forward the primacy of the law as an instrument which both governs the actions of individual citizens in their relationships with each other and also controls the conduct of the state towards them. (Peter Joyce, 1996) The use of law will help government not only to be able to use force to prevent lawless elements from taking over society but also to prevent it from destroying civilized society by using force to brutalize and intimidate its opponents (Thomas E Patterson, 2006) 8. Regular, Free and Fair Elections One way citizens of the country express their will is by electing officials to represent them in government. Democracy insists that these elected officials are chosen and peacefully removed from office in a free and fair manner. Intimidation, corruption and threats to citizens during or before an election are against the principles of democracy. In a democracy, elections are held regularly every so many years. States should promote the holding of regular free and fair elections to institutionalize legitimate authority of representative government as well as democratic change of governments. (African charter on democracy, elections and governance, 2007) It is a matter of some debate among theorists of democracy whether a guarantee of economic, social and cultural rights also constitutes a necessary condition of democracy, or whether it merely forms part of the agenda for democratic contestation between rival programmes and parties. To this writer it seems self-evident that, for civil and political rights and freedoms to have any value, citizens must possess the capacity to exercise them. Those who lack the necessary education to play an effective social role, or any secure means of livelihood, are unlikely to have the capacity for democratic agency (Touraine, 1998), because uneducated people make a weak nation (Lumina Foundation, 2012). VI. Conclusion To conclude this discussion, it is very clear that the basic principles of democracy are that the people have a right to a controlling influence over public decisions and decision-makers, and that they should be treated with equal respect and as of equal worth in the context of such decisions (Touraine, 1998). For Thomas Patterson, Equal rights or civil rights – terms that refer to the rights of every person to equal protection under the laws and equal access to society’s opportunities and to public facilities, (Thomas E Patterson 2006). Securing equal rights of citizenship, to enable people to influence the decisions that affect their lives, thus constitutes the foundation of democracy. To give such rights special legal or constitutional protection cannot therefore be regarded as any infringement of democratic principle, even though they may run counter to the expressed will of the majority on a particular occasion. (Touraine, 1998) For the same author, restriction of the power of the State, autonomy of social actors and awareness of citizens, these are the three conditions for the existence of democracy, or more precisely the three principal manifestations of the existence of democracy. They cannot be added to one another, they are all three elements of the democratic process itself, i.e., of mediation between social interests and political decision-making. And for him “Indeed, there can be no free individual in an enslaved society, nor can there be a fee society where citizens do not ensure respect for their rights against the State itself.” Citizens must be educated and must understand the purpose of democracy, how and why we have it. This takes a high literacy rate (along with a free press). For Alain Touraine, it is not enough for the citizens to choose between two or five candidates or lists for a system to be called democratic. Nor a political regime cannot be called democratic because it has raised the standard of living and improved the education and health of the population. On that standard, the Nazi regime of the 1930s or the Stalinist regime during the period of post-war reconstruction should be considered as democratic - which is absurd and even outrageous. Popular democracy has no meaning if there is no effective freedom of political choice; nor has liberal democracy any meaning if powerful economic interests have a decisive influence on the choice of the electorate. References Alain Touraine (1998). Democracy: Its necessary conditions, its enemies and its opportunities, in Inter-parliamentary Union, in Inter-parliamentary Union, 1211 Geneva 19 Switzerland Amnesty International, (2013). Basic Human rights, 5 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10001 André Eschet-Schwarz (2014). 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