The quality of democracy

1. Western Politics: The quality of democracy and rights protection BY:Cheng Lei

2. WP Story First of all, please allow me to tell a story about democracy. There is an island in the ocean, the island is very democratic. Things about the island are decided by all the islanders. The island at the time is called a model of democracy. On the island, poor people is a lot more than rich people. One day the island will pass a law, an official says: “In accordance with the old rules, we need to decide by trumpeting.” The official towards the poor says: “If you object, please trumpet .”At a result, no one trumpet. Then he turns to the rich and says: "If you agree, please trumpet.” Immediately, rich people trumpet. This law clearly favor the rich. Why? Because the poor can not afford speakers.

3. WP Back in high school, I came into contact with democracy. But then I understood it only from the surface. In my mind, it had been a commendatory term. Until the freshman year, I found that I had misunderstood the word “democracy”. It turned out that democracy is only a neutral word, and under certain conditions, it will be the good or the bad aspects of transformation. Protecting the rights or not is the line between good and evil. Sartori in his book “The Theory of Democracy" writes, “To make democracy a continuous process of development exist, we are required to ensure that all citizens have the rights, it is essential for democracy to run.” Therefore, it is good of democracy to protect rights, on the contrary, it is bad.

4. WP America's “Declaration of Independence" writes: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, including the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness . ”In the process of protection of rights, equal rights for all people is the key link. All citizens is not equal, then the protection of rights is partial and narrow, Some people's rights have been respected to maintain, while the other people's rights are not guaranteed , Similarly, democracy will slide into bad aspect. In history , Socrates who loved beauty and wisdom was sentenced to death by democratic Athens ;Nazi leader Adolf Hitler is elected head of state by Aryan people who are famous for speculation,  these "good race" from the "Philosophy" sent the Jews to concentration camps and crematoria. These examples prove this point . Of course, people also can not all be angels ,it is impossible for them to respect but not to infringe the rights of others conscientiously . So, to achieve equality in the voluntary by consciousness of the people  will not work. 

5. WP  In order to keep democracy good and to ensure the equal rights of all people , system of protection is necessary. When Tocqueville, the author of "Democracy in America”, travel to visit the United States , he was surprised for concept of equality in America. He realized that equality was the basic fact that breaded other things . Equality of America in common, mainly due to the combination of the rights guaranteed and the power limited in the system. Of course, because the concept of equality is in Americans' mind in general, the combination can achieve . Both of them are complementary to each other . Therefore, the system is designed to ensure equality of rights , and also in the design gradually spread the concept of equality, and make people accept it and persist it. Then democracy can be stable to maintain the right direction .

6. Thank you!~