Characteristics of Democracy

Democracy is a form of government that takes for granted that it is the people (national sovereignty), who governs; but in order to fully understand how it works you have to see the characteristics of democracy, For this it is necessary to know well the origins of democracy and the idea with which it was originally conceived.

Democracy is a form of government that had its origins in the 5th century in ancient Greece, exactly in Athens, where the members of the town, (generally the cults and the heads of the family) met in “EL ÁGORA” to discuss the problems of the community.

It is clear that this system is not the one that is being carried out today in any of the nations that claim to be Democrats.

The word democracy comes as we have already said from the Greek and it would be defined as follows: demos (people) and cratos (government) that together establish the compound word DEMOCRACY.

The concept of democracy has changed, because due to the number of people, the original management of Athenian democracy cannot be carried out.

Today democracy is understood as a form of government that is antagonistic to the monarchy, although in the countries that are still ruled by the monarchy constitutional monarchies have been established, which take parts of the philosophy of democracy current.

It must be well understood that in today's democracy it is based on principles such as popular sovereignty, freedom and equality, and on the democracy there is no single ruler, only one representative and two congresses or parliaments (upper house and lower house) or (Chamber of Deputies and Chamber of senators).

Main characteristics of democracy:

Pure democracy: that occurs when sovereignty is exercised is exercised directly by the people without electing a representative.

Representative democracy: This occurs when a representative is elected who will represent him before a central government and who is also elected by popular vote, with the exception of the cases of the constitutional monarchy, where a representative is chosen to parallel the king who will remain according to the origins and customs of the country and the nation.

The democracy of the presidential system: This has the characteristic of having a generally federal central power that is generated by several states or provinces, which are associated or united (known as United States), an aspect shared by many nations, although the vast majority of nations that use it are called republics or more strictly republics democratic.

The parliamentary system: This system always has the parliament as a neural point and the powers of the president or in his case "prime minister", are very limited.

The collegiate: This is the result of a merger of the parliamentary and the presidential; in this there may be a shift or the ownership of the presidency or main ministry is rolled over.