Democracy

"Democracy creates stability in society"

Democracy is a system of government in which citizens(21 years old and above) within a country can vote to elect its members. Today, almost every country takes up this governance. Not only it allows each and every citizen to have the right to choose his or her leaders, but it also ensures liberty and freedom in other aspects, such as economic freedom. I believe that democracy, as a system in itself, creates stability in society, because the system values every single individual citizen's opinions, allows citizens to elect their own leaders that they believe in, serves as a balance and check for the ruling government and ensure equality and freedom within the country.

Democracy believes in every citizen's choice and opinions. The basic fundamentals of democracy are to ensure the equality of citizens, economic freedom, individual rights and citizen participation in the political arena. To put forth simply, democracy allows the people to take into hands their own fate and how they want their lives to be governed. Ultimately, the leader who will lead the country
is the one that the people choose. Society will only become stable only if the government has the same values that its people believe in.

With opposing parties and different ideologies, democracy promotes a healthy competition which benefit the country. Different parties will try to reach the needs and expectations of every citizen so that in return, the citizens will vote for them. In so doing, they will have to bring up new and better ideologies which will attract the citizens' needs. This pushes the ruling government to improve and provide more for the people to win support for the next election. Hence, not only democracy spurs development of the country, it also ensures that the authority of the ruling party is maintained. Moreover, dictatorship will not happen. If the people are appeased with the government, then the political stability is fulfilled. If political stability is fulfilled, then social stability will be fulfilled too as the government will definitely ensure that all citizens get what they need. However, there may be a case when the most influential party manipulates smaller parties to achieve its own agenda. In this case, the seats taken by the other small parties will not be of any use. Thus the authority will only be left with one party, and in long-term, it will lead to corruption and dictatorship.

Democracy also allows freedom in economy. Economic freedom means that the government allows some private ownership of property and businesses, and that the people are allowed to choose their own work and join labour unions. I personally feel that this is very important as citizens will not be bound to jobs that the government decides. With a free choice of jobs and steady progression in economic, we are safe to proclaim that the citizens would certainly benefit, as more jobs would be created and citizens would enjoy a steady income. Moreover, economic growth will increase if more private ownership of property and businesses increase. Economic freedom will enable citizens to enjoy their incomes and careers, thus this will lead to stability in society as they are satisfied. However, the state should also play a stronger role in country's economy where there is great income disparity due to past discrimination or other unfair practices.

Since democracy takes on the belief of utilitarianism, it is fair only to a certain extent. If the majority wins, there will be less social unrest. However, there will be inequality if there is a tyranny of majority. This is when the majority try to vote for government that favor them and oppress the minority. Not only it is unfair, it will also brings social unrest in the long run. Take Sri Lanka as an example. The Tamils are oppressed by the Sinhalese, which are larger in populations. Democracy is used to oppress the Tamils, which many bill of rights are favored towards the Sinhalese. In an effort to prevent the Tamil political parties from gaining control in Tamil-dominated regions, the government broke these regions into several parts to be roped into Sinhalese-dominated constituencies such that the Sinhalese still had the majority in elections. This kept the Sinhalese in power. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam retaliated with violence against the government forces, disrupting the stability of the whole country. In this case, democracy has failed to create stability in Sri Lanka.

However, there is no loop hole in a system of democracy itself, but it is actually the misuse of it. The Sri Lanka's government actually did not practice equality at all. They merely use the system as a mean to discriminate the minorities, which contradict the system of democracy. There are many countries that uses democracy but the society is still chaotic because they actually misuse democracy. Likewise in Taiwan, a change to democracy from authoritarian has never brings the country forwards, but instead, cause a stagnation in the country progression. As democracy needs to hear from many different point of views and perspectives, it will leads to disagreement and then politicking. Disillusionment has set in as the political parties are increasingly being locked in vicious bickering. In this case, democracy never brings any good to the country due to misuse of it. Let's look at the United State of America. It is also a country with democracy for the system of government. Unlike Sri Lanka, there is no rule that oppress the black, which is the minority. Unlike Taiwan, there is no petty bickering within the government and no politicking. This is the reason why the USA is able to create stability within their society.

In conclusion, I believe that democracy, as a system of government, creates stability in the society.