Nature of Democracy

The paper explains and criticizes the nature of democracy on the basis of various theories both ancient and modern. It analyses the nature of democracy and its results in Australia and throws light on the various associated concepts on like negative and positive liberty and relationship between freedom and democracy.

Running head: NATURE OF DEMOCRACY
Nature of Democracy
Name of Student:
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Author note:

1Nature of democracy
Executive summary
The paper explains and criticizes the nature of democracy on the basis of various theories
both ancient and modern. It analyses the nature of democracy and its results in Australia and
throws light on the various associated concepts on like negative and positive liberty and
relationship between freedom and democracy. The aim of the paper is to argue that Australia
should give guaranteed reservation to the aboriginals in the democratic institution. It gives an
insight into why it is necessary for the aboriginals to get reservation and how will it benefit the
society on the whole.

2Nature of democracy
Table of Contents
Executive summary.........................................................................................................................1
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Importance of reserved seats for aboriginals in modern democracy...............................................3
Meaning of democracy in the modern context............................................................................3
Marginalizing the already marginalized:.....................................................................................4
Freedom and role of democracy..................................................................................................4
Positive and negative liberty:...........................................................................................................5
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................5
Reference:........................................................................................................................................6

3Nature of democracy
Introduction:
Democracy means that in a country, all the citizens above a certain age get a chance to
vote on each issue of the government and they as a whole form the governing body (Munck,
Gerardo, 2016). Aristotle saw democracy as a form of government where the minority is
diminished to a point where they have to work by the wants of the masses, he referred to this
government as the tyranny of the majority in the country (Berker,2013). This essay analyses the
nature of democracy on the basis of various theoretical, historical and global perspective. The
essay aims to argue why Australia should give aboriginals guaranteed recognition in its
democratic institution.
Importance of reserved seats for aboriginals in modern democracy
 Meaning of democracy in the modern context and how it has evolved
 Marginalization of the people already marginalized
 Role of democracy
 Freedom and role of democracy
Meaning of democracy in the modern context
Democratic government is one of the commonest from of government practiced in the
countries of the world. The problem with this form of government today is that instead of giving
people the power to choose their government, it instead has become a tyrant of the minority.
Majority rule has become the concept of democracy today in the modern times. This has given
rise to the problem of cornering of people who are already cornered and marginalized. It has led
to the increase in power abuse of the people who are in the government authority. If majority rule

4Nature of democracy
prevails the minority gets doomed. Aristotle believed that there has to be some measures to keep
those in power at check in a democratic government otherwise it will become a form of tyranny
(Schütrumpf and Eckart, 2013). Minorities are left the mercy of the majority and have to accept
whatever is selected for them by the majority. It leads to the government officials being biased
towards their own people. This is the main reason why people who are minorities keep on facing
problems like racism, economic and social deprivation.
Marginalizing the already marginalized:
Despite some steps taken for the welfare of the minorities it as not Majority rule in the
government Aboriginals are estimated to constitute 3% of the total population of Australia in
2011(Alan and Tesfaghiorghis, 2018). In Australia the state of democracy have been such that
aboriginals are facing marginalization from a very long time now. They only recently stood up
for this and asked for reserved seats in the Australian government. Reserved seats is the need of
the hour for the aboriginals of Australia to preserve their fundamental rights, avoid further
marginalization and maintain equality. Reserving seats for the aboriginals will ensure that they
hold a place of dignity and value in the society. It will ensure their improvement as communities
and provide them with security. Plato has been right in his view to recognize the faults in
democratic government and prefer republic form of government (Barber and Benjamin, 2014).
Freedom and role of democracy
The role of democracy is ideally to give freedom to the people, since the very
government is formed by them. While democratic government means the government by the
people and for the people of the country, it does not necessarily mean that all the people of the
country are able to exercise the same rights in the country and because of this equality of rights
there needs to be reservations of certain kinds for only certain people. An individual is free only

5Nature of democracy
when he\she takes part in an institution which also provides them with mutual recognition. One
cannot be free by retraining inside and being an autonomous being.
Positive and negative liberty:
Positive liberty gives the control to the people to choose their government, it can be
referred to as self- mastery (Vlastos, Gregory, 2017). Berlin took the concept of positive
liberalism from the definition of citizenship that Aristotle gave. Aristotle definition of citizenship
was concerning freeman’s social role of Classical Athens which also followed the democratic
government (Swanson, Judith,2019). According to Berlin, positive liberty has proven to be faulty
in history before. positive liberty will lead to political abuse and encouraged negative liberty
(berlin,1996). According to Berlin negative liberty is necessary which means that some there
should be some constraints or limitation to involved in the total liberty of the people. negative
liberty is necessary because if the total liberty and freedom is given to all the people without the
consideration of minorities, it will result in majority rule leaving the minorities at the mercy of
the majority. Some reservation should be made for the aboriginal people to ensure equality and
to avoid political abuse of power as berlin mentions.
Conclusion:
Therefore from the above discussion, it can be concluded that considering the political
situations it is necessary to give aboriginals the reservation that they need to protect their society
from oppression and to guarantee them the fundamental rights. Analysing the nature of
democracy from various perspectives giving aboriginals reservation in the democratic institution
is the right thing to do.

6Nature of democracy
Reference:
. Barker, Derek WM. "Oligarchy or elite democracy? Aristotle and modern representative
government." New Political Science 35, no. 4 (2013): 547-566.
Barber, Benjamin R. "Participatory democracy." The Encyclopedia of political thought (2014):
2650-2654.
Gray, Alan, and Habtemariam Tesfaghiorghis. "Social indicators of the Aboriginal population of
Australia." (2018).
Isaiah Berlin, “TWO CONCEPTS OF LIBERTY,” Four Essays On Liberty, (Oxford, England:
Oxford University Press, 1969), P. 118-172.. 1996. Ebook. oxford.
Munck, Gerardo L. "What is democracy? A reconceptualization of the quality of
democracy." Democratization 23, no. 1 (2016): 1-26.
Schütrumpf, Eckart. "Aristotle." The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (2013).
Swanson, Judith A. The public and the private in Aristotle's political philosophy. Cornell
University Press, 2019.
Vlastos, Gregory. "I. The Historical Socrates and Athenian Democracy 1." In Plato and Modern
Law, pp. 123-144. Routledge, 2017.