Concept of democracy

Running head: CONCEPT OF DEMOCRACY
Concept of democracy
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1CONCEPT OF DEMOCRACY
Democracy is one of most popular and widely used themes in the current time due to the
increasing conflict across the world. However, it should also be noted that democracy is not only
related to the political system, which is widely believed but it is also related to the equal rights of
each and every element in the society. For example, equal rights and representation of the
females in the society can also be termed as the democracy and showing equal attitude and
actions towards every issue can also be considered as democracy. Hence, democracy is related to
the equal rights and representation of different class and sections of the society and not the
political system. The theory of feminism and liberalism can be effectively related and aligned
with the concept of democracy because both these theories talk about the equal rights and
provision. According to the theory of feminism, everyone irrespective of the genders should have
the equal rights and representation in the society and they should have equal authority (Mitchell,
2015). However, it is contradicting that democracy can create a growing zone of peace because
equal representation might create more conflicts in the society and definition of equal rights is
different to different sections.
According to the theory of liberalism, the government is essential in order to protect
people from any kind of harm from others (Ryan, 2017). However, it can be recognized that the
government itself has the ability to pose threat to the freedom or liberty of people. Liberalism
initially was created on the basis of personal freedom and democracy. Many scholars have
presented a counter argument to the theory stating that it is fictitious as there have been many
situations where the government had executed their power to restrict liberty of the people in the
society (Berlin, 2017). Aligning this theory with democracy it can be seen that democracy is an
element of liberalism as it talks about rule by the people and equality. In recent times, liberalism
has got a new meaning. Majority of the liberals in the society believe that all people must have

2CONCEPT OF DEMOCRACY
equal opportunity (Barry, 2017). Providing equal opportunity to everyone in the society
promotes peace in the society as the society is free of any kind of discrimination which helps in
making people stay together in the society with harmony. From this it can be understood that
democracy is important and can incorporate peace in the society. On the contrary, it has been
stated that it is not democracy that brings peace but it is the people who contribute to maintaining
peace in the society out of their willingness (Wolff, 2018). However, it can be seen that without a
democratic society which facilitates freedom of speech, fair trial, considers the views of the
minorities and equal rights individuals would not be motivated to make initiatives and behave in
a proper manner that would help in maintaining peace in the society. There is no individual who
likes to be treated unfairly, get discriminated and be deprived of the deserved rights and
opportunity and this can be a huge problem and lead to the rise in conflict and unethical behavior
which has the potential to disrupt the peace in the society.
From majority of the research it has been seen that the level of conflict, violence and
wars within states that are democratic are lower in comparison to the states where there is no
democracy (Waldner & Lust, 2018). The fact that democracy helps in growing peace in society
has been a debatable topic for years. Scholars suggest that equality in the society is one of the
major reasons that contribute to maintaining peace in the society (Paul, 2017). Many scholars, on
the other hand have stated that peace that is usually observed among the democratic countries are
not because of the type of regime rather by various different factors like gender norms, economic
factors and national interest (Simon, 2019). According to other scholars the relationship between
peace and democracy is casual however it is not democracy that causes peace but it is actually
peace that causes democracy thus stating that peaceful environment pave way for the emergence
of democracy (Warren, 2016).