Mir Nasim Alli | Fakir Mohan University (original) (raw)

Papers by Mir Nasim Alli

DEFINING DEMOCRACY Democracy has been defined in various ways by different people including gover... more DEFINING DEMOCRACY Democracy has been defined in various ways by different people including government of the people, by the people and for the people, government with the consent of the governed, and a form of regime that derives from popular sovereignty in which ordinary citizens are endowed with the right and ability to govern themselves. It is my contention that concepts may have real, nominal and operational definitions and democracy is no exception. The real definition is concerned with the true, essential or philosophical nature of the concept. The nominal definition is concerned with what has been agreed upon by society, a particular community or by a researcher that helps to imagine and describe what the concept is. Although the nominal definition can lead to the description of the concept, it may not necessarily lead to its measurement. The operational definition specifies the indicators of the concept to enable its measurement directly or indirectly. Democracy has only one real or essential definition. Other definitions of it arise precisely because there is a difference between the real or essential meaning of democracy and the actual practice of democracy that leads to nominal and operational definitions. While the real, philosophical, ideal or essential meaning of democracy remains the same, the actual practice of democracy may be said to be in the eye of the beholder. The essential or real meaning of democracy derives from two Greek words demos and kratos. Demos means the common people and kratos means rule. Thus, democracy essentially means the rule of the common people. As explained above, any attempt to define it otherwise is a matter of convenience and may have its roots in the difference between what democracy essentially is and how it is practiced. Defining what constitutes the common people and what constitutes rule have both been the subject of much debate. Calling the common people simply, the people, Robert Dahl questioned how the people are designated (Dahl, 1989, p.3) For Rustow democracy has to be preceded by national feeling or a feeling of national unity for "The people cannot decide until somebody decides who are the people."(Rustow, 1970, pp.337-367) At the time of the ancient Greeks, the common people who could take part in political decision making was defined to comprise only a subset of the people as a whole, for children, prisoners, women and slaves were excluded. For the Greeks, the exclusion of certain sections of society from the definition of the common people was reasonable and did not render democratic practice null and void. In modern democratic practice, exclusion of certain sections of

DEFINING DEMOCRACY Democracy has been defined in various ways by different people including gover... more DEFINING DEMOCRACY Democracy has been defined in various ways by different people including government of the people, by the people and for the people, government with the consent of the governed, and a form of regime that derives from popular sovereignty in which ordinary citizens are endowed with the right and ability to govern themselves. It is my contention that concepts may have real, nominal and operational definitions and democracy is no exception. The real definition is concerned with the true, essential or philosophical nature of the concept. The nominal definition is concerned with what has been agreed upon by society, a particular community or by a researcher that helps to imagine and describe what the concept is. Although the nominal definition can lead to the description of the concept, it may not necessarily lead to its measurement. The operational definition specifies the indicators of the concept to enable its measurement directly or indirectly. Democracy has only one real or essential definition. Other definitions of it arise precisely because there is a difference between the real or essential meaning of democracy and the actual practice of democracy that leads to nominal and operational definitions. While the real, philosophical, ideal or essential meaning of democracy remains the same, the actual practice of democracy may be said to be in the eye of the beholder. The essential or real meaning of democracy derives from two Greek words demos and kratos. Demos means the common people and kratos means rule. Thus, democracy essentially means the rule of the common people. As explained above, any attempt to define it otherwise is a matter of convenience and may have its roots in the difference between what democracy essentially is and how it is practiced. Defining what constitutes the common people and what constitutes rule have both been the subject of much debate. Calling the common people simply, the people, Robert Dahl questioned how the people are designated (Dahl, 1989, p.3) For Rustow democracy has to be preceded by national feeling or a feeling of national unity for "The people cannot decide until somebody decides who are the people."(Rustow, 1970, pp.337-367) At the time of the ancient Greeks, the common people who could take part in political decision making was defined to comprise only a subset of the people as a whole, for children, prisoners, women and slaves were excluded. For the Greeks, the exclusion of certain sections of society from the definition of the common people was reasonable and did not render democratic practice null and void. In modern democratic practice, exclusion of certain sections of