Democracy

It is has become, at least to western countries, the “only” form of government. Democracy in general has become the number one prescribed theory for leading a country and is being forced on those countries who have yet to accept it by the western world. This theory states that every man and in most cases women have the right to choose there government and it is this policy or this foundation for policy that I will be arguing for and against.

The premise of democracy is simple every man, in this essay every man will also include women, is given the right to cast a vote for his choice of government that he wishes to be ruled by for “x” number of years. If none of the choices are to his liking he can run himself. This is easily justified from an egalitarian point a view. If everyone is equal then as they are equals should have the equal right to decide who is to rule them. This also has the effect of keeping check on the rulers as they are ultimately responsible to the voters, which in a democracy is everyone. If the government in power is not to the liking of the people it is changed and this form of government has the best system of dealing with this change in public opinion without resorting to civil war as would be need to be done in a totalitarian regimes.

Historically speaking Democracy also seems to be the most peaceful of government types. Peaceful here meaning that in the history of democracy no two democracies have ever gone to war. That is not to say that democracies have not gone to war with other forms of government. However if this holds true then once all countries are democracies that the world would have some sort of lasting peace . This is speculated to occur because democracies always have channels of communication open to countries they are in disagreement with and because democracies are responsible to its voters. This democratic peace theory while being of new inventions has its roots in an essay written by Immanuel Kant Perpetual Peace. He however did not discuss democracy but something quite similar.

There is however a few points to be questioned in this democratic peace theory and in democracy its self. First the simpler, Democracies have not proven to be any less violent then any other country just not as violent towards each other, there has always been another party to focus the attention of democracies, communism for example. So logically if democracies are no less violent it stand to reason that when no other alternative besides democracies are available to be exploited or targeted the criteria for war will simply change to something other then form of government.

The more moralistic debate is in the very premise of democracy that all men are born equal and so all men should have