The Political, Social, and Personal Implications of Democracy Term Paper

The Political, Social, and Personal Implications of Democracy - Term Paper Example The discussion is primarily centered towards the political, social, and personal implications of democracy, which this paper is able to identify critically as having a direct connection to the capitalist system with which democracy is compatible. The corresponding statuses of people in the capitalist system resulted in their commodification and dispossession, contrary to the right to life, liberty, and property, which democracy has initially espoused. Democracy is a form of government in which people exercise political power. It has been defined in terms of "sources of authority for government, purposes served by government, and procedures for constituting a government" (Huntington 1991, p. 6). Democracy has been a thriving governmental and political concept in the past and even at present, replacing old remnants of monarchy that for a long time, constituted the social and economic lives of people. Democracy has changed how people deal with social patterns, particularly on their awar eness of political, economic, and individual rights, which were unknown concepts prior to its conception (Rueschemeyer et al., 1991). The dynamism of democracy has apparently transformed various social institutions such as government, religion, trade, and education. Not only is the capacity of people to participate in political affairs covered by it, but also the reinforcement of their natural rights (Huntington 1991). Democracy has indeed become a guideline on how states can best manage the conduct of their affairs. Democracy has various political implications. Not only is the concept limited to the functions of the branches of government, but it has also broadened into the aspects of securing individual and civil rights, economic freedom, and social democracy. It contributed to the resurrection of the right to suffrage, which the Athenians initially introduced in their concept of direct democracy in nation-states. Monarchial and totalitarian systems denied this right to subjects. This denial during the pre-democratic society was due to an establishment of an autocratic empire in which the monarch (the king) was considered the absolute figurehead, and all powers of government emanated from him. This system complemented with the growth of the Church, in which a popular maxim proliferated, "the act of the government is the act of God" (Evans 2004). With democracy, newfound freedom of men and women established a stronger political and social foundation in which the political life of the nation is founded. The construction of a democratic charter in a form of a Constitution delineates the political and constitutional rights of people in a democratic state, securing and clothing them with constitutional provisions, inducible whenever necessary. Democracy has given individuals the enjoyment of various rights ranging from political (right to citizenship, to suffrage, to assembly, to information on matters of public concern, etc.) to personal (right to privacy, to re ligion, liberty of abode and changing the same, etc.). Women were finally permitted to exercise their right to vote and found recluse in education from only being mere administrators of the household. Hence, they pursued careers, education, and participation in political and social departments originally designated to men alone.