- What is Democracy? Why Democracy
- Constitutional Design
- What is Democracy? Why Democracy?
- Constitutional Design
- Democracy is a form of government where rulers are elected by the people.
- led a military coup in 1999
- overthrew democratic government and declared himeself Chief Executive
- changed designation to President
- in 2002 held a referendum to grant him 5 yrs extention (malpractices)
- 2002 Aug - Legal Framework Order: President can dismiss national and provinsial assemblies
The Final decision of making power must rest with those elected by the people.
- NPC has power to appoint president
- 3000 members from China
- Contesting electings - Approval of Chinese Communist Party
- Govt always formed by Communist Party
- Since 1930 (independence) Mexico elects president every 6 years
- Till 2000 every election won by PRI
- Used dirty tricks
- All government employees had to attend their party meetings
- Teachers forced parents to vote PRI
- spent large money in campaign for candidates
Free and fair electing where current rulers have fair chance of losing
- Until 2015 women didn't have right to vote in Saudi Arabia
- In Estonia people belonging to Russian minorities find difficult to vote.
- In Fiji vote of indigenous Fijian has more value than of Indian-Fijian
Each adult citizen must have one vote and each vote must have one value.
- Independence from white minority in 1980, ZANU-PF
- Leader Robert Mugabe ruled country
- Election always won by ZANU-PF
- Used unfair practices in elections
- changed constitution several times to increase his powers
- Opposition parties were harrased and meetings disrupted
- Public protests and demonstrations against govt illegal
- Law limited right to criticize President
- Media was controlled by govt
- Hwas forced out of office in 2017
A democratic government rules within limits set by law and citizen rights
- Rulers elected by the people take all the major decisions.
- Elections offer a choice and fair opportunity to the people to change the current rulers.
- This choice and opportunity is available to all the people on an equal basis.
- The exercise of this choice leads to a government to be limited by basic rules of the constitution and citizens’ rights
- Leaders keep changing => Instability
- All about political competition and power play, no morality
- So many people consulted -> Delays
- Elected leaders don't know best interest of people
- Leads to Corruption as based on electoral competition
- Ordinary people don't know what is good for them, they should not decide anything.
- More accounntable form of government
- Improves Decision making
- Deal with differences and conflicts
- Enhances dignity of citizens
- Allows us to correct our mistakes.
- In modern democracy majority rule through electing representative because it practically impossible for everyone to sit together and make decisions
- Democracy is a principle that can be applied to any sphere of life.
- Every citizen must be able to play equal role.
Constitution: There are basic rules that the government and citizens should follow. All such rules together are called the government.
- System of racial discrimination or segregation on the grounds of race in South Africa
- Divided people and labelled them by their skin color
- Blacks did not have right to vote
Segregation- African National Congress led struggle against segregation.
- 26 Apr 1994 Apartheid came to end
- Came out with finest constitution
- Set of written rules agreed by all
- Determines Relationship among people and between people and government
- Generates trust and coordination among people
- specifies how government will be constituted, who will take decisions
- lays limits on powers of governments
- Expresses aspirations about people about creating good society.
- All democracies have constitution
- 1928, Motilal Nehru drafted Constitution
- 1931, resolution at Karachi session of INC dwelt on how India's Constitution should look like
- Leaders gained confidence to learn from other countries but on own terms.
- Inspired by French Revolution, Parliamentary Democracy of Britain, Bill Rights in US
- Russian Revolution had inspired Indians to think of shaping a system based on social and economic equality
- The drafting of the document (Constitution) was done.
- July 1946
- Adopted 26 November 1949, WEF 26 Jan 1950
- Doesnt't reflect only members views
- The assembly worked in open, st=ystematic and consensual manner
- Assembly was dominated by Indian National Congress
- Values that inspired and guided the freedom struggle formed the foundation for India's democracy
- Preamble - Short statement of basic values
- Embodying the values into institutional arrangements
- Long document, amended regularly to keep updated