Social democracy

2. The interlinkage between democracy and human rights The internationalization of democracy and human rights since World War II is an achievement of great proportions and significance. However, while human rights are regularly seen as universally applicable, not all see the rights-based democracy as the most appropriate form of government for all peoples (LANGLOIS A. J., 2003, p. 990). Some observers have suggested that one way to promote an international human rights regime, while…

running on behalf of the Brazilian Workers’ Party, otherwise known as the PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores), since the mid-1980s, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) finally became elected in 2002, winning a landslide runoff election over José Serra of the Social-Democratic Party. As Lula assumed office and control over the government, he was confronted by an assortment of challenges facing Brazil in transforming itself from a developing to a developed country while in the process instilling…

Ever since Sudan gained independence from Britain and Egypt in 1956, its political landscape has experienced seemingly endless sociopolitical and economic turmoil due to ethnic conflicts amongst the 570 different tribes with diverse sets of faiths, social backgrounds and cultures, and more so due to religious tensions and power politics between the dominant Arab-Islamic North and the repressed Christian South. The 1989 coup d’etat resulted in the successful overthrow of democratically elected…

goal is to provide direction and regulation for its inhabitants. Democracy and Communism are two forms of government that can be placed on the opposite sides of this scale. When referencing to these types of government, an English writer named Alan Moore once said, “People shouldn 't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people” (Goodreads). Does this idea clearly state the differences between Democracy and Communism? The truth is that similarities and differences…

The Role of the Citizen in a Constitutional Democracy Despite major conflicts and social changes, the American Constitution has offered a framework of governance for over two hundred years. The Framers of the American constitution sought to create a government free of tyrannical rule—where power derives from the consent of the governed. The US constitution outlines a form of national government that aims to serve the American people by protecting their rights and liberties. The US constitution…

individual freedom in the society where individuals are free from oppressive restrictions that are imposed by an agent of authority upon their lifestyles and behavior. In the modern society, the inadequacy of liberty has become one of the biggest social problems. As each day goes by, governments are finding new ways to infringe the liberty of citizens with the most common ways being such as censorship and limited freedom of expression. At times, the limitation even extends to control of one’s…

possess in modern liberal democracies, however, the low level of electoral participation is indicative of the fact that a countries democratic system might not be meaningfully representing the collective interests of it its citizens, which ultimately undermines the legitimacy democracy and its political institutions. Democracy, being one of the most fundamental aspects on modern day politics, dates…

Reflections on Democracy and Civil Society About 200 years ago, a French youth scholar wrote a book called ‘Democracy in America. The man, named Tocqueville, said ‘it creates opinions, engenders sentiments, suggests the ordinary practices of life, and modifies whatever it does not produce.’ Thereby, by pursuing its tendency, comprehending its bias, arguing its characteristics and significance, we gained either dreads or hope, during thousands of years. To some extent, the debate is still lasting…

flip side, Democracy is based on natural law. Natural laws are a body of unchanging moral principles used as the basis for human conduct. Democratic governments use basic natural laws which are the foundation of human rights and protect them, uphold them, and use them as a starting point for government policies and social rules. Democracy upholds the fundamental essentials of natural law which include “human dignity, human life, the institute of the family, and the equity of the social order”…

de Tocqueville and “Democracy in America” In the last century, we have seen democracy become the dominant form of government around the world. Even governments that our totalitarian and undemocratic by nature, like the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, still want to refer to themselves as democracies. This state of affairs would seem to confirm Alexis de Tocqueville’s perdition about the spread of democracy. Writing in the early 19th century, He could see the democracy would eventually…