This PSEB 9th Class Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 2 Democracy: Meaning and Importance will help you in revision during exams.
PSEB 9th Class Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 2 Democracy: Meaning and Importance
→ Democracy is a type of government elected by the people for a fixed period of time through a universal adult franchise.
→ Democracy is an English word that is made up of two Greek words Demos and Croatia.
→ The meaning of Demos is people and Kratia means ‘Rule’.
→ So the meaning of Democracy is the ‘rule of people’.
→ Democracy is an organisation system in which free and fair participation of the people is ensured to achieve political power.
→ The best definition of Democracy was given by the 16th President of the U.S.A. Abraham Lincoln says that “Democracy is a type of government elected of the people, by the people, and for the people”.
→ The basic concept of democracy is that it gives freedom to everyone to express his/her ideas and to criticize any one.
→ Presently, democracy is of great importance because it is the protector of individual freedom, a symbol of peace and progress, represents the whole public, etc.
→ In the present age, many obstacles are coming in the way of democracy such as casteism, communalism, regionalism, poverty, indifferent attitude towards social development, etc.
→ There are few prerequisites for the success of democracy such as there should be political freedom, there must be economic and social equality, people must be educated and conscious, their moral character should be of high quality, etc.
→ There are many countries where people are deceived in the name of democracy such as Pakistan, China, Fiji, Mexico, etc.
→ In Pakistan, the army always controls democracy.
→ In China, there is only one political party.
→ In Fiji there is a difference in the value of a vote and in Mexico, the government uses unfair means to win elections.
→ Democracy is of two types-direct and indirect.
→ Indirect democracy is also known as the representative democracy in which people directly elect their leaders.
→ Presently, with the increase in population, direct democracy is not possible.
→ It was possible in the republic states of Greece where the population was only in thousands.