Democracy Creates Stability in a Society

Democracy is a form of government by the people, exercised either directly by the people or through elected representatives. Today, many nation states institutionalize democracy as their political system. Democracy is an umbrella terms that mainly constitutes liberalism, representative government, multi-party systems, equality and most importantly the election and voting process. Many may say that democracy creates stability in a society. However, there are some major factors in democracy that may cause instability in the society.

One huge factor is the fact that, through democracy, the minorities are being oppressed. This can clearly be seen through the election process. In the elections, the winning party is elected by the counting of votes. Thus, the majority would be on the upper hand, oppressing the minorities. This can also bee seen in certain societies which exercise ‘freedom of expression’. In such terms, there is a fine line between what is fine and what is not. When one crosses that line, the minorities would be oppressed. When the minority is oppressed, it creates instability in the society.

Another factor is the election of dictators in a society. The election of a dictator is something that cannot be foreseen. When one is put into power, he may do whatever he wants with the institutions. The people would mostly likely vote for the candidate who did well in the elections. Hence, if the candidate is a dictator, it would cause great instability in the society. This is very plausible as people would not know the true identity of the candidate before he is put into power. Thus, the people would not know whether the candidate is a dictator or not. One very good example is Adolf Hitler.

The democratic process is also seen to be too long for many societies. In a multi-party system, candidates tend to challenge each other. In the context of Singapore for example, there are many Group Representative Committee (GRC) with at least two parties going against each other for each GRC. This takes up quite some time and is not good for the society.

However, this may also be seen to be good for the people. When the election process is long enough, people would be able to spot mistakes in certain candidates. The heated debates between the candidates would also turn out handy for the people as the candidates themselves help spot certain flaws in the opposition. Thus, the people would be able to vote for the right candidate. Apart from that, the knowledge of the people has also played a very important part in choosing the right candidate. In modern context, people are very well educated, they have the brains for them to choose who they think is the right one. Thus, the election of dictators would not be an issue and the problem that the election process is too long would turn out to be good for the society. This clearly shows that democracy creates stability in a society.