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A Democratic Government is not the Democracy.
Government, freedom and democracy are interesting subjects. Let’s first define them:
Definitions.
Government: The action of ruling; continuous exercise of authority over the actions of subjects or inferiors: authoritative direction or regulation; control, rule,.
Freedom: 1. Exemption or release from slavery or imprisonment; personal liberty 2. Exemption from arbitrary, despotic, or autocratic control; independence; civil liberty.
Democracy: Government by the people; that form of government in which the sovereign power resides in the people as a whole, and is exercised either directly by them (as in the small republics of antiquity) or by officers elected by them.
I would advise reading these definitions carefully, as even politicians these days do not really understand them, or they do understand them and are hoping YOU don’t.
When you have done that, there are a few comments I would like to make, as these words are often interpreted incorrectly, either deliberately (in order to decrease the freedoms you have) or simply through misunderstanding and stupidity.
Things you probably did not know.
a) The primnary function of government is not to guarantee your rights and freedom, therefore a people should never wait for a goverment enforce and protect a democratic system. Where a democracy works it works only because other mechanisms exist to hold it in place.
b) The primary purpose of government is to provide securiity for it's citizens and to keep order so that the citizens can prosper.
c) The British Government consists of The Queen, who is theoretically head of state, however this is now largely symbolic, the upper House, called the House of Lords and the supreme legislative body, Parliament.
Parliament passes laws and debates policy and actions taken by the government. The House of Lords has both a Judicial and Legislative function. Theoreticall it can make and pass laws , but this function is largely obsolete. The legislative function is usually performed by Parliament.
The House of Lord's main function in modern times is to oversee the laws passed by Parliament and reject ill concieved ones, a vital function. It also has a Judicial function, operating as Britain's Highest Court, some cases are referred for the final British decision to this Court.
d) The Criminal laws are enforced by the Police and the punishments are decided by the Criminal Courts. They operate independently and are supposed to enforce the law.
e) Civil disputes are settled in the Civil Courts. In cases where Civil Court rulings are disobeyed this can sometimes become a civil offence and the individual can be dealt with by the police and in the Criminal Courts.
All of the above mentioned bodies are there for one thing, they are there to pass rule, control and keep order. Every governmental system does the same, except some do not do it through clearly definable laws and the decisions are not made openly.
Democracy is a relatively new concept, a form of it was first used in ancient Greece but there are many forms of democracy. Broadly speaking it just means that the people of the country, or a portion of them, are allowed to choose who governs them. It does not mean that the people have a say in the policies once the gfovernment are in power, it does mean they can choose from a small choice of leaders who they guess will lead them the best. They then have the sanction of voting the government out if they do not perform well.
It is a fact of life Men crave power and it tends to corrupt them over time. It is their natural inclination to hold onto power and to grab more of it. Therefore it is the natural inclination for goverrnment to attempt to increase it's power and to try and retain leadership as much as possible. Democracy is therefore, in some ways, the antithesis of government.
The only way the Democratic system can work is if there are supervisory bodies, the laws are clear as to what the ruling government can do. The judiciary, police and army must regard the contitutional system and democracy as senior to the ruling government and be prepared to oppose that government if it is out of control and endangering democracy.
Where the supervisory bodies, the judiciary and police are ineffective, apathetic, or conspiring with the ruling government to erode a democratic system citizens have a duty to take action. They do this by bringing action through the judiciary and legal system in order to force obedience to the law.
Where the law is still flouted or efforts through the legal system are blocked or hindered then ordinary citizens must protest and use every means of comunication to alert their fellow citizens to the situation in the hope that large numbers of people will protest and the government will listen.
If this is still ignored then it is the duty of citizens to use civil disobedience to get the message across. If civil disobedience fails to remedy the situation tehn civil unrest and violent protest are legitimate tactics as a very last resort to defend the system.
If it gets this far then the democratic system is in danger of ceasing to function in your country. If the government uses force to quell this then democracy went out the window a long time ago and you are "shutting the stabble gate after the horse has bolted".
Most government members and politicians will support the democratic system if there is sufficient penalty for and sufficient reward for supporting it and relinquishing power. Both elements must be in place for it to work.
This very simply is how a democracy works. Don't rely on the government to support democracy, that isn't it's function. To a large degree democracy is maintained by the citizens,and the withdrawl of support thereof.
Alan Peter Cook
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