Tuesday, May 13, 2008
SS Assignment
Social Studies Performance Task
BLOG DISCUSSION
Clement Kweh | Qiu Yunfei | Ren Zhaolin | Yeo Yong Jin
Secondary 3H
=====================The following discussion is solely meant for academic purposes as part of a school assignment.=====================
Topic: "Democracy creates stability in a society".
To begin, first, I feel we should set understandings as to what we term is "democracy" and stability.
Democracy is a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections. An example of exercising this power directly is in the form of a referendum. The indirect form would be, in the case of S'pore, electing Members of Parliament (MP) that will represent the people in Parliament to exercise the people's power. It is also important to note that democracy is not a political ideology. Instead, democracy is built on the beliefs of liberalism and equality.
Moving on, what is "stability in a society"? In my opinion, we can look at this in 3 aspects - social, political and economical.
Social stability would refer to a society with no/little social unrest. Such unrest can come in the form of riots, demonstrations and so forth. However, in a stable society, the people would be happy and thus, such activities should not occur. Closely linked to this is the economical stability aspect.
An economically stable society would have a strong economy that would not break down easily. Prices are kept stable and unemployment rates are low.
Politically speaking, a stable society would be one without power struggles within the government and the citizens are happy with the government. In addition, people are free to choose their government and that there are more than 1 party to choose from.
Now, back to examining the question.
I agree to a large extent that democracy would create stability. As aforementioned, we are examining the satisfaction of the people with the government and the social norms. Democracy allows for people to choose their own government and exercise their choice and opinion on affairs of the state. This empowers the people and people would, naturally, feel good. In addition, democracy is based on the ideology of equality. Such fairness that comes with democracy would allow for a more peaceful society without discrimination. The voting system is proof to this where it is "one person, one vote".
Using information from http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2006/issue3/0306p29.htm, we can see the following.
Democracy is about the means used to achieve goals. Democratic values and processes imply peace, reconciliation, dialogs, consensus and, above all, intellectual and political choice. Stability is on the consensus of the governed, which is through democracy. Democracy elects leaders that are more accountable to voters, and hence more likely to improve lives of citizens.
The source also cites evidence that democracy can deliver base on the fact that highest level of developments are usually democracies.
To quote and sum up, "Democracy and development enable people to choose their rulers and their way of life. Both can be mutually reinforcing: they require the rule of law, independent courts that can enforce the law impartially, and political parties and parliaments that represent voters.
Democracy and development also complement each other. The political choices offered by democracy are linked to the social and economic choices offered by development. Choice-the freedom to determine one's destiny-is the hallmark of both democracy and development. "
Do continue to add on through "Comments"
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