Democracy concepts and systems

Democracy

According to Marc Plattner, in the beginning of the 20th century, most democratic countries were found in North America and, with some exceptions, Western Europe. Today, after much of the world has shed its colonialist past, democracy has appeared to be more widespread. Yet, with democracy comes a great responsibility for a fair form of government and a liberal state, which allows for many freedoms and various forms of opinion, or what we know here as inalienable rights. This paper will argue from Platter's point-of-view, and will agree that liberalism is essential to democracy and vice versa because one facet feeds of the other and must thus exist concomitantly. [1: Plattner, M.F. (1998). "Liberalism and Democracy: Can't Have One Without the Other." Foreign Affairs. Retrieved April 15, 2011, . ]

Plattner first states that liberal democracy means both democracy and liberalism. Democracy, according to the author, means rule for the people and liberalism means that the government is limited by many factors, the most important of which is the rights of the individual. Liberalism also includes natural rights or "human rights" that must be protected along with "plurality and diversity." This is the exact definition that makes up our own liberal democracy here in the United States. [2: Plattner, M.F. (1998). "Liberalism and Democracy: Can't Have One Without the Other." Foreign Affairs. Retrieved April 15, 2011, . ]

Plattner further states that "democracy and liberalism are […] linked" which, according to the writer, is "proven by the historical existence both of non-liberal democracies and of liberal non-democracies." Eventually, the author will state that neither of these systems are as effective in promoting human rights as liberal democracy, and will also prove that illiberal democracies (the term Zakaria utilizes) will eventually be more open to becoming liberal democracies. Plattner first begins proving his thesis with a historical account of the democracies of the ancient world and goes as far as the 19th century in his description, pointing out the evolution of democracy and liberalism throughout this time. [3: Plattner, M.F. (1998). "Liberalism and Democracy: Can't Have One Without the Other." Foreign Affairs. Retrieved April 15, 2011, . ]

Though Plattner makes a good case for his thesis of the link between liberalism and democracy there are other political scientists, such as Fareed Zakaria, who believe that most democracies today are "illiberal," and thrive on this illiberality-according to Zakaria, "Illiberal democracy is a growing industry," which does not include freedoms such as we know in this country. This "growth" is due to the fact that these countries benefit from calling themselves so called democratic states, yet they offer none of the freedoms to suit this theory. However, what Zakaria fails to mention, according to Plattner, is that many of such democracies have, indeed, begun opening up to liberal ideals. As his last point, Plattner successfully proves his thesis by stating: [4: Zakaria, F. (1997). "The Rise of Illiberal Democracy." Foreign Affairs, 76(6) . Retrieved April 15, 2011, < http://msuweb.montclair.edu/~lebelp/FZakariaIlliberalDemocracy1997.pdf>.]