Let us see what we mean by democracy. The word “democracy” comes from the Greek language and means “rule of the people.” As we use the word today, we usually mean a government where the people help to direct the work of the government.

Political democracy has appeared in two general forms. A government in which all the people meet together to decide the policy and to elect the officials to carry it out is known as direct democracy. When the people elect representatives to carry out their wishes, the government is known as a representative democracy. Because direct democracy is not possible on a large scale with many people involved, almost all forms of democracy practiced today are the representative kind.

No nation can be considered democratic unless it gives protection to various human liberties. Among these liberties are freedom of speech, movement, association, press, religion, and equality before the law.

Political democracy began early in history. In the Greek city-states, especially Athens, there existed direct democracy. In Athens, however, the ruling class of citizens was only a small part of the population. Most of the people were slaves, and these, together with women and foreigners, had no right to vote or hold office. So while a form of direct democracy did exist in ancient Athens, we would today find fault with many of its aspects.

Modern democracy owes a great deal to the Middle Ages. One idea of the time was the contract theory. It was believed that a contract existed between rulers and their subjects by which each was required to perform certain duties. If the ruler failed to perform his duties, then the people had the right to take back the powers they had given him.

Modern representation also began in feudal times because of the needs of kings. The feudal monarchs called representative meetings in order to request grants of money. They felt people wouldn’t object to new taxes if their representatives agreed to them beforehand. But this helped establish the idea of representation.