Right to Vote in Democratic State

Right to Vote in Democratic State
Student Details
3/5/2020

Right to Vote in Democratic State
Democracy is considered as a form of government that governs the functions
activities, people and resources of that region. Democracy in regions has taken new facets,
where its actual essence is reducing or getting missed. The major role of democracy is to
maintain the right of all people who comes under it. The democratic nation makes sure that
the right of each individual is not getting hampered. There are many rights like the right to
vote, speak, to be heard, human rights, LGBT rights, sex-marriage rights, citizenship rights,
security and cleanliness right, prisoners, etc, an individual has while residing the Canada
which is a democratic country (CBC, 2019).
Among those rights, the most crucial one is the right to vote where the voting of each
individual in Canada helps in choosing the right person to govern them and the country
(FUENTES & CHARLES, 2001). The right to vote is noted the same in every region as all
over the world people are differentiated for voting on the basis of their gender, religion,
status, etc. Hence in the current study, the rights possessed by every individual all around the
world are discussed. The study also discusses the difference between voting rights and the
measures that can be taken to reduce this difference.
Democratic Theory Discussion
Theories said to be generalized thinking about a situation, phenomenon, etc. In every
field, many theories are established by in-depth researches conducted by scholars. The same
goes for the theories of democracy which are established by many scholars from a long
period of time. It is considered that theories are needed in society to deal with the changing
scenarios to understand them and to direct the behavior of others in favor or in of changing
scenarios so that no one can be discriminated against or get hurt in the process (Saunders,
2018). With this view, many theories of democracy are also developed by famous scholars
all around the world. These theories talk about the steps or methods that a person can adapt to
experience and follow democratic principles in an effective and efficient manner. In this
section, one democratic theory is discussed with respect to the degree of voting right it allows
its citizens all around the world (Eisenchlas, 2010).
There are multiple theories of democracy such as the Traditional Theory of
Democracy, Pluralist Theory of Democracy, Elite Theory of Democracy, Hyperpluralism,
Economic theory of democracy, radical democracy, Elite Theory, Pluralist Theory, etc. In
this study, the Pluralist Theory of Democracy is discussed, with a view to providing some

direction and suggestions to the difference in voting rights all around the world. The Pluralist
theory of democracy is formulated by famous scholar Robert A. Dahl, who is the citizen of
the US. The detailed knowledge about Robert A. Dahl will be given later in this study.
According to him, the type of democracy in which there is more than one power unit in a
country is known as Pluralist democracy (Muthusamy, 2019).
Type of democracy might differ in many countries of the world, where the main
power held centrally and the authority and responsibility of managing the whole nation are
delegated to various small powers in the form of state governments. After the introduction of
the pluralist theory in his studies by Robert Dahl, many scholars came into the light to
provide additional information on the same. According to the research of Reginald J.
Harrison in his book named as “Pluralism and Corporatism: The Political Evolution of
Modern Democracies”, basic information and some new paradigms of the theory are
identified and discussed. The book made a comparison between pluralism and corporatism, in
which the evaluation of modern democracies has been done. In this book, the democracy and
the rights given to all individual have been discussed. The voting right of the individual in
various countries is also illustrated. The study adds something productive and developmental
in the era of democracy (Harrison, 2019).
According to the report of American weekly News Magazine that is Newsweek on
24th April 2019, the voting right of prisoners has been argued. It is identified that are
prisoners in foreign nations can vote for their country or for the country they are kept in. This
report identified that the right of prisoners voting differ country to country, where almost 16
countries like US, Canada, Denmark, Finland, etc have allowed their prisoners to vote for the
government selection, however, remaining countries might have not allowed it or allowed it
partially (LEMON, 2019a). This demonstrated the pluralist theory of democracy where the
different power of governing has been shown all over the world with different concepts,
rights, etc.
The right to vote is considered the most sensitive topic in today’s economy. Form the
last decade till today the discrimination of people on the basis of their gender, religion, color,
etc has been reduced. This influenced voting rights as well, which has given rights to women,
black people, poor people, etc (Pal, 2015). In today’s world as well there are many countries
that restrict some of their citizens to vote like Saudi Arabia recently allowed women to vote.
It somehow depends upon the policies and laws identified and implemented by the
government of countries all around the world even in Canada (Dawood, 2013). The role of