Childrens Illustrated Encyclopedia

157

THE WORD “DEMOCRACY” COMES FROM the ancient Greek words demos,

which means “people,” and kratia, which means “power.” Democracy means “rule

by the people.” Within a democracy, all adults have the right to play a part in the

government of their country. In most democracies, all persons over the age of

18 can elect a member of parliament to represent them in the national

government and a councillor – their representative in local government.

Occasionally they vote about an issue in a referendum. Twenty-five hundred

years ago the people of Athens, Greece,

practised a form of democracy. Men met

in one place to decide on laws for their

community. Today, most democracy is

representative. Because there are usually

too many people in a country to be

involved in making every decision,

the people elect representatives

to make de ci sions on their behalf.

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY

Representative democracy means that citizens

vote for certain people to represent them. People

form political parties and citizens vote for their

favored party in elections. The different

parties compete with each other for votes in

election campaigns. Getting the right to vote

(suffrage) has been a dedicated

struggle for both men and

women. Today, adult

men and women in

most coun tries

can vote.

Majority vote

A poster showing political
parties campaigning for votes
in the United States, 1908.

VOTING

India is the biggest

representative democracy

in the world: more than

800 million people are

able to vote. In the general

election of 2014, more than

550 million people went to

the polling stations to vote

for their representatives in

the national parliament.When

so many people vote, electronic

voting machines (EVMs) make

it faster for votes to be counted.

MAJORITY RULE
Democracy means government by the people, but
one group of people might want to do one thing
and another group something completely different.
In that case, the view of the majority (the larger
group of people) rules. This could lead to the views
of the minority being ignored, so many democratic
countries and organizations have a constitution (a
set of rules) that safeguards the rights of individuals
and minorities. A few countries still do not have
a democracy and are ruled by just one person,
usually called a “dictator.”

Minority vote

EASTERN EUROPE

From 1989, people in Communist Eastern Europe demanded

democratic governments. They felt they did not have enough

say in how their countries were run. In 1990, what was then

Czechoslovakia became the first of many Eastern European

Communist countries to declare themselves a real democracy.

Democracy

Pro-democracy demonstrators in former

Czechoslovakia light candles at a vigil.

Indians queue to

cast their vote at

polling booths

around the country.

BALLOT BOX

When people vote in an election,

they mark their votes on a piece of

paper that they then drop into a

ballot box. Their vote is secret,

because no one can tell who

marked each piece of paper.

Today, elec tron ic voting booths

are replacing ballot boxes.

Find out more

Communism

Government and politics

Greece, ancient

Law