Democratization and Institutional Design

[Code of the Module]

Democratization and Institutional Design

Introduction

Democracy is the structure of government system in which citizens have right to take part in the political decisions, in this system the elected president of the state is considered as the representative of the nation. This word originates from the Greek which means “rule of the people”. In this system the citizens elect the representative, sovereign power remains to the citizens but the political power is only exercised by the representative or the president. After the nineteenth century industrialization and World War the most prominent global change was the acceptance of new political form. The concept of Democracy was rapidly accepted by the countries which were under authoritarian rules. Since by that time various major changes have been occurred to the political system of democracy, there are various types of democratic system like presidential, parliamentary or constitutional. There are also various means to organize the affairs of the state. One of these means is the control of state affairs by the political institutions. These political institutions are the state's frame work to perform various social duties and to manage state affairs. There are different systems of political institutions like electoral, federal, presidential and parliamentary. These institutions mainly perform the task of maintaining the law and order situation of the State, keeping check on corruption, securing political stability and constitutional designing.

Thesis Statement

'There is only so much that institutional design can do to secure political stability in fragmented countries.'

Discussion

Democratization and Institutional Design

Democracy

Democracy is defined as the system in which there is right to take part in the choice of their representative is to the citizens. Democracy is based on the freedom of decision for the citizens to choose their own political or State representative. This provides the justification to the concept of equality. There is another concept attached with the democracy is that its association with the concept of majority rule. This is also result in the suppression of the minorities of the state(Diamond, 1999). To avoid this controversy and providing the chance to equality the democratic system allows the option of “election” in which every citizen has an equal right to cast vote. This results in providing the fair chance to all. The concept of freedom is mostly justified in this system as it allows the freedom of speech, freedom of press and freedom of political expression. Since long time democracy has taken various forms and advancements in its design, theory and implication. In some of the democratic system there is more freedom for the citizens while in some other structures there is more legislative strictness and tight governmental control. In some of the democratic structure there is not enough choice provided to the citizen and it is more of dictatorial or authoritative style.

Representative Democracy

It involves choice of the government officials on the basis of representation of people and government officials. It demands the involvement of the people in the common choice of voting for their ...