Challenges in Democracy
Introduction
Democracy entails the free and equal representation of people in a system of government. It can be practiced through electing a people's representative by the majority of people. When a democratic government is in place, the laws and decisions made depend on people's views. Europe's journey to democracy was coupled by a range of wars and many challenges which often made democracy impossible. They were, however, able to overcome the challenges and they attained their democracy.
Origin of Democracy and challenges faced
Democracy dates back to ancient times especially the ancient Greece where people developed a way of making decisions. The ways that they came up with were far way different from the dictatorial ways that they were used to. Although the democracy that was in place then could not be termed as real democracy, Christianity taught ideas which made people understand that all people are equal (Siedentop, 2001). This saw ordinary citizen’s start access government offices. During the middle ages, Christianity and other democratic ideas were extensively followed and the feudalism form of government was also developed. This type of government insisted that people had rights and it went to an extent of formulating a court system to defend people’s rights. A Magna Carta was also written to lessen the power of the then king and give some form of freedom to the people (Siedentop, 2001). This same document later became a reference point making a basis for international constitutions in the future.
Democracies have resulted from revolutions, wars and decolonization among other factors. European democracy was greatly achieved during the French revolution and the Great War which is known as the 1st world war. After the First World War, Europe got a temporary victory for democracy. During this time, democratic rights for all citizens were implemented in the constitution and people were proportionally represented in...