INTRODUCTION Democracy is far the most popular form of government in the world.

In the world today there is hardly any leader who does not wish to be seen as a democrat or a regime that is not seeks to be described as democratic. Democracy also holds a strong appeal among the ordinary people. In the last decade, the world has witness the emergence of mass organizations in African, Asia and Eastern Europe, that has raised the demand an end to dictatorial rule and it replacement with democracy. But then what exactly is democracy? Why is it so and under what conditions can it be secured? Some of the major tenets of democracy are the principle of human rights, and rule of law. Brief history of Democracy: Many of the elements of modern democracy are usually taken to have originated in ancient Greece, particularly the city state of Athens. Indeed the word democracy is derived from two Greek words, demos, which means the people, and kratos, which means rule of or by. The term democracy, therefore literary means rule by the people. In addition to its Greek independents, modern democracy is also taken to have evolved from such medieval institutions such as the quality of men, natural right and sovereignty. Democracy is a government of the people by the people and for the people (by Abraham Lincoln). It is a form of government where everybody must contribute his/her own ideas in form of decision making to ensure its success. Everybody does their duty properly and elect or appoint people to represent the peoples will. A society is a group of people related to each other through persisted relations, or large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural. Democratic society involves both direct participation and representation. In direct

democracy all taxable adult from eighteen years attend the meeting and vote freely in an open system, it was practice in Athens, Greece and with a small population in the olden days. Indirect rule the other hands (also known as representative democracy) prevail as a result of largeness of the state, with the large population not everybody can meet in a place to discuss its affairs. There are some people that are elected to represent them in government.

A democratic society is one in which people have the right to vote and elect their countrys leader and to hold those leader accountable for their actions and decisions. This society is made up of the people driven and ownership and control of the organizations is by the people and for the people It is a society in which all adult have easily accessible meaningful and effective ways; To participate in the decision making, protests of every organization that makes decision or takes actions that effects them and to hold other individual and those in these organization who are responsible for making decision and taking actions are accountable if their decision or actions violate fundamental human right or are dishonest, unethical, unfair secretive, inefficient unrepresentative, unresponsive or irresponsible; so that all organizations in the society are citizen owned, citizen-controlled, and citizen driven, and all individuals and organizations, are held accountable for wrong doing. All children should also have easily accessible meaningful and effective ways to hold organizations accountable as set out in above. Though the people reside power, it is acceptable in a democratic society to limit children participation rights until they reach adulthood mainly because, physiological research has shown clearly that all children below ca certain age do not have fully formed brains, are usually capable of reasonable deliberations.

A democratic society also requires confidentiality, where vote is kept secret, in other to avoid intimidation, which leads some people unfair advantages. It also involves equality before the law. It is a system of rule where power is disadvantaged, a form of government in which the people rule themselves directly and continuously, without the need for professionals or public officials, professional politicians or public officials, a society based on equal opportunity and individual merit, rather than hierarchy and privileged, a system of welfare and redistribution aim of narrowing social inequalities. It also involves decision making based on the principle majority rules, but do not suppress the minorities. A society of that secure the right and interest of minorities by placing checks upon the power of the majority, a means of filing public offices through a competitive struggle for the popular vote. In a democratic society government serve the interest of the people regardless of the participation in political life. These boil down to attempt to answer three central questions-who are the people, in what sense should people rule, how far should popular rule extend? Who are the people? One of the core features of democracy is the principle of political equality. The notion that political power should be distributed as widely and as evenly as possible. However, within what body or group should this power be distributed? In short, who constitutes the people? On the face of it, the answer is simple. The demos or the person surely refers to all the people that is, the entire population of the country. In practice, however every democratic society has restricted political participation, sometime severely. How should the people rule? Most conceptions of democracy are base on principle of government by the people; this implies that, in effect, people govern themselves-in that they

participate in making crucial decision that structure their live and determine the state of the people. How far should popular rule extend? Now that we have decided who the people are and how they should rule, it is necessary to consider how far the rule should extend. What is the proper realm of democracy? What issues is right for the people, and what should left to individual citizen?. There is no standard realm of democracy, therefore before choosing a democratic system it must take account of the crises, religion, and culture of the people From this perspective, the purpose of democracy is to establish through some process popular participation a framework of laws within which individuals can conduct their own affair and pursue their private interest. Summary A democracy can either be direct or indirect depending on its size and population. In a democratic society no group should be unduly privilege politically, socially, economically and otherwise. These right includes the freedom of speech, press, assemble, petition, and freedom of dissent, to form opposition parties and run to public offices. The accountability of the government to the electorate. The people must be tolerant among different grouping that makes such democratic society. Democracy is the most difficult form of government in that it requires, for its perfect functioning the participation of all the people in the country. It cannot function very well unless everyone, men and women alike feel their responsibility to their state and do their own duty and try to choose the men who will do theirs. It is not a matter of party. It is common to all of us because democracy want constant guarding (by Lord Balding) REFERNCES

Andrew Heywood-Politics (Second edition) Palgrave foundation.

General principles of government by Edith Herbert. Remi Anifowusu and Frances Enemud-Element of politics John Hoffman and Paul graham-Introduction to political theory (second edition)
BY DONASCO CHRIS WORLU