POLITICS, POWER AND GOVERNMENT IN NIGERIA - DEMOCRACY

Question: Compare And Contrast Direct And Indirect Democracy
To start with, democracy is one of the basic concepts of government which deal mainly with peoples mind. Democracy may be defined as a system of government in which all qualified adult citizens share the supreme power directly or through their elected representatives. It is a government which is derived from public opinion and is accountable to it. Abraham Lincoln, whose definition of democracy has become axiomatic defined it as “the Government of the people, by the people and for the people. The term democracy has in another occasion been described as “government by consent of the governed” i.e. government with the approval of the people being governed. We have about four types of democracy or more to mention.


1.   Direct/Classical Democracy
2.   Modern /Representative /Indirect Democracy
3.   Liberal/ Constitutional Democracy
4.  Social or Economic Democracy. The two main types of democracy are direct and indirect democracy which is our main focus.

DIRECT DEMOCRACY
This is a form of democracy where the right to make political decisions is exercised directly by the whole body of citizens, action under procedures of majority rule. It is the types where the entire citizen attends the Assembly and take part in decision making in order to govern the state or the society. The type of democracy was practiced in ancient small Greek city states.

The beginning of the idea of democracy is associated with the city states of ancient Greek. The word itself is derived from the Greek “demokratia” from demos, “the people and Kratos, “rule” Greek was direct the democracy in which the whole citizen body formed the legislature and in which the representative system was unknown. This was possible because of limited size of the ancient state which was generally confined to a city and its rural surroundings. Further more, women were disenfranchised and there were numerous classes of slaves who enjoyed no right at all. Ancient democracy recognized the equality of citizens, but failed to develop a general conception of the equality of mankind.Greek democracy was a brief historical episode which had little direct influence on the theory or practice of modern democratic states.

INDIRECT DEMOCRACY
Citizen exercise the right to make political decisions, not in person, but through representatives chosen by and responsible to them. In this type of democracy, the citizens through election elect those who will represent and govern the state on their behalf. This type of democracy replaced the direct democracy in modern states as it is no more possible for everybody to gather in one place in order to take decisions to govern the state as a result of the large size and population of the modern states. In Nigeria here, we practice indirect democracy, we elect people that represent us at the state and federal level in the government.

Some factors that led to the development of indirect modern democracy
1.         Religion
2.         Disintegration of state Authority
3.         Historical writings
4.         The American Revolution
5.         The French revolution
6.         The decline of colonialism and the rise of Nationalism
           
In Conclusion the direct democracy, the form of democracy where the right of every citizen is exercised directly to make political decisions but it is Government by few majorities. While indirect democracy is Government where by people elect representatives who will represent them. This body elected make the law and pass to them. In this system, sometime led to abuse of power, the citizen represent they decide on what to do. These types of democracy replace the direct in modern states as it is no more possible for everybody to gather in one place in order to take decisions to govern the state as a result of the large size and population of the people in the modern state.
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