OUTCOMES OF DEMOCRACY

WHEN COMPARED TO OTHER GOVTS. OF THE WORLD IT HAS BEEN OBSERVED THAT DEMOCRACY IS COMPARITIVELY A BETTER GOVT. GIVE REASONS:1.It promotes equality.2.enhances the dignity of the individual.3. improves the quality of decision making.4.provides a method to resolve conflicts.5.allows room to correct mistakes.

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT IS ACCOUNTABLE, RESPONSIVE AND LEGITIMATE. EXPLAIN

ACCOUNTABLE:Democracy is based on the idea of deliberations and negotiations. Decisions are taken by the govt., which takes more time to follow procedures before arriving at a decision and therefore the decisions are more acceptable to the people and are more effective. it means that the cost of time that the democracy pays is perhaps more but is worth it.RESPONSIVE:A Govt. is responsive if it is attentive to the needs and the demands of the people and is largely free of corruption. The record of democracies may not be impressive on these two counts, as they often frustrate the needs of the people and often ignore the demands of a majority of its population but at the same time there is transparency Democracy ensures that decision making will be based on norms and procedures, so if the citizen wants to know if the govt. is working according to the correct procedures can find this out.LEGITIMATE:Democracy is a legitimate form of government as it is the people’s government. The record shows that democracies have had greater success in setting up regular free and fair elections and in setting up conditions for open public debate The democratic govt. may be slow, less efficient, not always very responsive or clean but it is the people’s own govt. People wish to be ruled by the representatives elected by them. They also believe that democracy is suitable for it has an ability to generate its own support and that itself an outcome that cannot be ignored

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT:Democracies do produce good govts but are not always able to produce development.--if we consider and compare dictatorships and democracies for the fifty years between 1950-2000, dictatorships have slightly showed higher rate of economic growth.--However the difference is negligible and over all we cannot say that democracy is a guarantee of economic development but we can expect democracy not to lag behind dictatorship in this respect.Therefore it is better to prefer democracy as it has several other positive outcomes.

REDUCTION OF INEQUALITY AND POVERTYExpectations:--to reduce economic disparities--wealth should be distributed in such a way that all citizens will have a share in it and lead a better life.Q. Do democracies lead to just distribution of goods and opportunities?Democracies are based on political equality.All individuals have equal weight in electing representatives.--But we do find growing inequalities as a small number of ultra-rich enjoy highly disproportionate share of wealth and incomes, also their share in the total income of the country is increasing and those at the bottom of the society have very little to depend upon, their incomes are declining and cannot meet their basic needs.

In actual life democracies do not appear to be very successful in reducing economic inequalities.The poor constitute a large proportion of our voters and no party likes to lose their votes. Yet democratically elected govts. Do not appear to be as keen to address the question of poverty as one would expect them to do so.--example Bangladesh.

ACCOMODATION OF SOCIAL DIVERSITYEXPECTATION:Do democracies lead to peaceful and harmonious life among citizens?Democracies usually develop a procedure to conduct their competition. This reduces the possibilities of these tensions becoming explosive or violent.No society can permanently resolve conflicts among different groups but we can certainly learn to respect these differences and we can evolve mechanisms to negotiate the differences.Democracy is best suited to reduce this outcome. Ability to handle social differences, division and conflicts is a plus point of democratic regime.Non-democratic regimes often turn a blind eye or suppress internal social differences.

TWO CONDITIONS TO ACHIEVE THE OUTCOME - ACCOMODATION OF SOCIAL DIVERSITY1.-Democracy is not just rule by majority opinion but the majority always needs to work with the minority so that govt. functions to represent a general view.2.-It is necessary that rule by majority does not become rule by majority community in terms of religion or race or linguistic group, etc. Rule by majority means that in case of every decision or in case of every election, different persons and groups can and may form majority.Democracy remains democracy as long as every citizen has a chance of being in majority at some point of time and if someone is barred from doing so then democracy ceases to be accommodative.

DIGNITY AND FREEDOM OF THE CITIZENS.EXPECTATION:Every individual wants to receive respect from fellow beings.Democracy stands much superior to any other form of govt. in promoting dignity and freedom of the individual. The passion for respect and freedom are the basis of democracy.As in the case of dignity of women: long struggles by women have created some sensitivity today that respect to and equal treatment of women are necessary ingredients of democratic society. Once the principle is recognized the struggle becomes easier and acceptable both morally and legally. It is not so in non-democratic society.This is also true of caste in equalities in India.In India democracy has strengthened the claims of the disadvantaged and discriminated castes for equal status and equal opportunity.DISTINCTIVE FEATURE OF DEMOCRACY:Its examination never gets over, as it passes one test it produces another test, as people get one benefit they ask for another and better one; their expectations keep rising so do their complaints.The fact that they are complaining is itself a testimony(evidence) that people have developed awareness and ability to expect and judge.This transforms them from a status of 'subject' to that of a 'citizen'.Most feel that their vote makes a difference to the way govt. is run and in turn to their own self-interest.