Democracy

Introduction

Democracy also known as social equality has now become a hot subject in organizing a country's government. Many of the events have occurred in the past few years in which democratic state is being created in order to provide the countries a stable state.

A well-known statement can be quoted here, “Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

In the past, many of the star leaders believed on democracy and created within their states a remarkable piece of democratic nation. One of them was Abraham Lincoln who was very patriotic American and he proved himself to be one of the best leaders America has ever had. He also established his country on the basis of democracy because his motive was to give the people of his nation freedom and peace and ability to achieve status of becoming one of the best nations of the world. Democracy can today also survives if the governments of the countries know the exact meaning of democracy. Now a day, democracy's concept has been changed into the theory of master and slave. If democracy is applied in its true form and people are given the rights that they once being given, there will be much more chances of the survival of democracy in future.

Capitalism and Democracy

Capitalist Development and Democracy written by Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Evelyne Huber Stephens & John D. Stephens, is one of the famous book on above-mentioned topic. In this groundbreaking work, Rueschemeyer, Stephens and Stephens establish not only a strong correlation between capitalist development and democracy, but also a convincing causal mechanism by which this development can bring about democracy. The authors choose to focus on a relative class power model in their account of democracy: capitalist development initiates a profound shift in the class structure and the relative power of each class.

According to the authors, in a pre-capitalist society the subordinate classes are most likely to support a transition democracy because they essentially have nothing to lose and everything to gain. They are opposed in this respect by the landowning aristocracy, the dominant class in pre-industrial society and the class that has everything to lose in a democratization of the political system. Thus, the strengthening of the subordinate (working) class brought about by industrialization bodes well for democracy.

Capitalism also brings about an entirely new player--the middle class--that, when it allies with the interests of subordinate classes, intensifies the push for democracy. The analysis of social actors is joined by an analysis of social structure. That is, Rueschemeyer, et al believe that a balance between the states power and the power of social actors must be established in order for democracy to become a possibility.

A strong state counters the power of the elites while a strong landowning class prevents a totalitarian state from forming. The key to creating this balance is the development of a strong civil society between these two forces. Autonomous of both the government and the class system, civil society consists in the ...