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Democracy Worksheet

1. Representative democracy involves citizens indirectly participating by voting for rulers to make decisions on their behalf, making it more practical for large groups. Direct democracy involves continuous participation where citizens directly make decisions, giving them more control but being less practical. 2. Radical democracy focuses on equality and giving all people the right to participate in decisions that affect their lives, regardless of attributes like abilities. It aims to democratize all social institutions. 3. Majoritarianism means the majority population has the right to make decisions, potentially penalizing disliked minority groups through the democratic process. It prioritizes the views of the largest demographic group.

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656 views2 pages

Democracy Worksheet

1. Representative democracy involves citizens indirectly participating by voting for rulers to make decisions on their behalf, making it more practical for large groups. Direct democracy involves continuous participation where citizens directly make decisions, giving them more control but being less practical. 2. Radical democracy focuses on equality and giving all people the right to participate in decisions that affect their lives, regardless of attributes like abilities. It aims to democratize all social institutions. 3. Majoritarianism means the majority population has the right to make decisions, potentially penalizing disliked minority groups through the democratic process. It prioritizes the views of the largest demographic group.

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YTK96
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The Petroleum Institute Abu Dhabi

H&SS221 Introduction to Political Science Summer 2015

Name: Kareem Younes


ID#: 7579

Worksheet #3: Democracy


1. What is the difference between direct and representative democracy?
Representative democracy
Involves limited, indirect, and infrequent
participation of the citizens in the
governments tasks which means that
citizens role is limited to voting for their
rulers every certain amount of years. Then,
the rulers take decisions on the citizens
behalf. It causes the relationship between the
government and the governed to be reliable
and effective.
Practicality Less practical because too many More practical on a larger scale than direct
opinions as there are many people democracy.
taking one decision.
Less conflict in opinions
It is practical on small scale only.
Division of No division of labor in politics, they Those who have expertise and knowledge
labor
all have the same role of being (most of the time) take decisions that affect
leaders. However, it will anticipate the whole community whilst some others
the society to become better-informed who are less experts vote on who takes these
and more politically sophisticated decisions.
because they are definitely certain
about their fate; education improves
in the society.
Fairness
Citizens have more control over their Citizens have to rely on politicians who may
destinies and are able to express their be in-deliberately taking decisions to benefit
own views and since it takes the themselves rather than the society. However,
opinion of the whole society, it was the citizens who chose who these
decisions will benefit everyone.
politicians are.
Legitimacy More legitimate because since the Less legitimate as they have to agree on the
society is the one who put the rules, rules set by the politicians, but after all, its
they have to comply with the rules the society who chose the politicians (some
theyve put on themselves.
legitimacy).
Definition

Direct democracy
Involves continuous, uninterrupted
participation of the societys citizens
in the governments tasks. Hence,
there is no major distinction between
the state and the civil society
(government and governed citizens).

Even though direct democracy gives more social benefits for the society and practices full democracy, I
believe it is mainly theoretical and hard to be manifested. Even though this might seem unkind, but the
complexity of many political issues would make some of them difficult for some people in the society
to understand. Some people are affected by fake factors such as media and might be misled. For
example, many people were suggesting a war after 9/11, after it was hyped by the media without
thinking of its consequences but after a year or so later, many of those people had time to cool down,
and they rethought their opinions. On the other side, Switzerland is the only country in the world that
operates with direct democracy at all levels of government. The people are far more intelligent and

wise and are very well informed on every issue and that they were far more tolerant than the media and
politicians claimed. Having the right to decide on issues means that people feel concerned by them and
they will pay attention. To support this, a quote states that The people who pay the bill are far more
likely to have a real long-term interest in making good decisions. It might just be that society is only
careless and ignorant in countries where they feel that their opinion doesn't matter anyway.
2. What is radical democracy?
Radical democracy is a view of democracy that doesnt care much on the decision itself but rather on
who makes the decision. It gives people their right to participate in taking any decision that affects their
lives because it is highly preoccupied with equality among all people living in the society no matter
their abilities, race, knowledge, age, etc. A source online defines it as Wherein you claim to want
others to have so much freedom and choice that you force it upon them at the point of a rifle or tank
barrel whether they want it or not. Another key feature of it is that its decisions are taken in all areas
of social life, whether workplaces, educational institutions, community groups, religious organizations,
or homes. An example of this is when a parent leaves his child homeless free to take his/her own
decisions and choices in all aspects of his/her life assuming that there is no other force like government
acting on him/her but the parent.
3. What is majoritarianism?
It is one way of defining people. It is a traditional political philosophy which implies that
a majority (may be categorized by religion, language, social class , etc.) of the population has the right
to make decisions that affect the society because they override the minority which causes the latter to
accept the views of the former. Majoritarianism is sometimes referred to as tyranny of the majority
because in many cases a disliked ethnic, religious or racial group is deliberately penalized by the
majority element acting through the democratic process. An example of this may be that even though it
is Christmas, a company decides to undertake an important project that involves all employees to be
present that day just because the majority of the employees dont celebrate Christmas and dont mind
this day.
4. How are people equal under democracy?
Under democracy, equality is mainly about political equality; all citizens should have the same amount
of power no matter their race, gender, social standard, etc. All citizens have an equal say over what the
government does by in most cases- giving each person of the people an equal right to elect the
leader he/she believes will best take decisions that benefit the whole society. In this case, the given
political power = one vote. Of course, this is not truly ideal because for example, in all countries, other
forms of power such as campaign contributions influence who is elected. Therefore, democracy ensures
political but not economic, social, educational, etc. equality. For example, India is considered as the
worlds largest democracy because it guarantees equality to all citizens but despite this, the daily lives
of Indias people are very far from equal

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