Liberal Democracy

Liberal democracy is a form of government that operates within the principles of liberalism. This applies to basic human rights, such as protecting individuals from government and themselves. In addition, liberalism promotes free and fair elections and emphasizes laws to which citizens and authorities, including the government itself, are held accountable. Under this idealist form of government people are granted full political freedoms, civil liberties, civil rights, and basic human rights. Liberal governments often have written constitutions that are created when an individual country forms a liberal democratic form of government. Around the turn of the 20th century, liberal democracy became the prevailing governing system used around the world.

Structure

Liberal democracies grant all adults the right to vote regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or property ownership. Voting is typically performed through the secret ballot. Typically, voters must register before accessing the polls. This is common practice within many countries, such as the United States and Canada.

Most liberal democracies use the idea of federalism, where the governments are separated into municipal, provincial and national governments. Liberal democracies tend to have a separation of power so that various laws can be evoked on a federal, provincial, state, municipal, and regional level, demonstrating a balance of political power.

History

Liberal democracy began in Europe during the 18th century, otherwise known as the Age of Enlightenment. During this time the two most prevalent forms of government were monarchies and aristocracies. At this time, the idea of a democracy was perceived to be chaotic and unstable, and there was a consensus among leaders of monarchies that God had given them the power to rule.

The first group of people to challenge this theory were the intellectuals. They believed that humans could decide on political powers, such as democracy, and work together ethically while following the notion of libertarianism. Their main argument centred around the notion that all people were created equally, and therefore no person was better than another. Therefore a leader of a country should be chosen by the people, and should act in the best interest of society on a whole. Another argument was that the government was there to serve the people, not the other way around as it had been for centuries. The intellectuals also believed in the idea that laws should apply to those in government as well as those who were not and this was known as the rule of law.

These ideas eventually led to the American Revolution and the French Revolution, and thus gave birth to liberalism. However, it was vastly different to modern day liberalism. The main difference was the fact that voting rights at this time were restricted, and minority groups, as well as people who did not own property, were not able to vote. This led to vast inequality within elections, and power still remained in the hands of elites. Some democratic parliaments were short-lived, such as the liberal government of France. Despite failure within these prototypes, this is what modern liberal democracy later grew from.

Liberal Democracy Today and Around the World

Liberal democracy is a dominant political ideology used around the world. For example, theEuropean Union, South Korea, Taiwan, India, and South Africa all have various forms of liberal democratic political systems, and all are recognized by Freedom House. Freedom House views many countries in Africa and the former Soviet Union as countries that are democratic but the government has a lot of control and influence over election outcomes.

However, there exist many non-democratic countries throughout the world and most reside in East Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. These forms of government are viewed as dictatorships and single-party states.

One very popular country that could possible be considered a Democracy, but is not run like a Democracy would be Russia. Russia is a country that holds public votes and is considered free, however their votes are not free, and the party in control, controls the votes and sways them the way they want. The votes don't really count and people's voices do not really count.

Forms of Government

There are many different forms of liberal democracies around the world. For example, Constitutional republics have been adopted by France and Germany, whereas constitutional monarchies are practiced in Japan and Canada. Countries also operate on different electoral systems, with different structural power hierarchies. For instance a presidential system operates within the United States, as opposed to the semi-presidential system that is practiced in France, which are both vastly different in comparison to the parliamentary system that has been adopted by various commonwealth countries, such as Australia.[4]

Presidential vs. Parliamentary Systems

Presidential systems are a form of government in which the legislative branch is elected separately from the executive branch of government. The parliamentary system is a system in which the government is dependent on the indirect or direct support of parliament and this is often expressed through a vote of confidence.

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The presidential system has been effectively implemented within Africa and Latin America, as well as some countries within the former Soviet Union. These areas largely influenced the United States' model of liberal democratic politics. In addition, there are constitutional monarchies, which are prominent within the European Union and neighboring countries, as well as within some separated former colonies including Australia and Canada. This system was effective within these countries, however other former colonial states operate on a separate governmental ideology post independence.

The parliamentary system (such as reflected in the Government of Canada) is formulated upon the Westminster Style system created and employed in Britain.

Problems Within Liberal Democracy

Media and Entertainment

Media and entertainment play a big role in liberal democracy and have been attributed to some of the issues within it. Critics state that the media has the ability to control the democratic process and can distort people's opinions of the government. Critics also worry that in a liberal democracy the government has the ability to control and shape people's ideas to reflect the government viewpoints. Some also claim that around the time that liberal democracies were forming, various media producers held and perpetuated anti-democratic views. Media outlets generally avoided the same beliefs as the general public and were against the idea of forming policy. By conveying democratic governmental policies in a negative light, the media has major influence over public perception of the government and it's actions.

People who defend the media's role in shaping people's democratic viewpoints believe that there is room for everyone's views to be seen. It is also argued that the coverage in democracies reflects all of the public's preferences and does not demand censorship. Today, the media has a much larger role, because of the increasing variety in distribution outlets. For example, the internet is a cheap and easy way to publish an article that has the ability to reach millions almost instantaneously.

Limited Voter Turnout

A problem with liberal democracies is limited voter turnout. This detracts from democratic ideals because if people do not vote it contradicts the idea of a expressing desires, and the creation of a free and majority-elected state. This also begs the question of whether or not the public is truly getting what it desires in a ruling body, and if the government is giving a voice to public concerns or simply acting in self interest.

There are campaigns led by the government to get people to go out and vote. One of these campaigns is called Get Out the Vote. The problem with these kinds of campaigns, however, is that the differences need to be identified. The differences being getting voters to come out and vote so that the peoples voices are heard versus getting certain people to vote for your certain party in order to secure votes. There is a problem with this because while there are campaigns to get people to vote, there are individuals leading these campaigns with the sole purpose of increasing their chances of getting votes instead of actually addressing public desires and concerns, and therefore acting in their parties' self interest.

Some political states make it illegal not to vote - this is called compulsory voting. Critics argue that compulsory voting forcefully creates a desire for participation in the voting and election processes, and ensures political participation by the public. However, there are also arguments against this idea, framing the notion that compulsory voting is a restriction of freedom, because as viewed by some, not voting is an outward political expression as well. By choosing not to vote, this may be seen as being unsupportive of any political body running in the election. Additionally, compulsory voting has increased random voting, as well as blank and invalid votes. There is also a large added expense to the enforcement process involved in compulsory voting.

Corruption and Terrorism

The World Bank has conducted studies which show that corruption is a significant problem within democratic forms of government. Corruption in politics involves government officials using their power in office to make personal gains instead of using their power to help the people.

There have also been many studies on terrorism and its effects on the government. Terrorism is more common in countries with intermediate political freedom, which typically involves countries that are transitioning from autocratic government to democracy. It is believed that countries that have strong autocratic governments as well as countries that allow political freedom experience less terrorism.

Political Balance

People believe that by creating a liberal democracy in which the public can vote for, and remove government officials without having to change the laws and legal basis for how things are done or run in the government, creates stability and balance throughout a country. This helps reassure the public that even if they are unhappy with election results, the political party in power will only be able to govern for a limited period of time. It is believed that a democratic system allows for more public participation, freedom of selection, and public power than a dictatorship.

Human Development

Democracy has been directly related to governments and countries being higher on the Human Development Index, as well as a lower score on the Human Poverty Index. The reason why democracies succeed in these areas is because they have the ability to increase education, lower infant mortality rates, improve access to clean drinking water, offer better health care and create a longer life expectancy. Democracies succeed on these scales much more than dictatorships. The ability to achieve these goals is not due to foreign investments or help from anyone else - it is the government's ability to manage its own money better than other countries. This idea has proven most noticeable in countries that split from the former Soviet Union. Most of the countries struggled at first, however the countries that are the most democratic started to achieve more success than their counterparts.