Democracy has Various Meanings

The concept of democracy is very complex, according to different periods of history and in different contexts. Political or so proposed political systems that claimed to be democratic have had a very wide range.

There are many concepts of democracy and what democracy is.

The word democracy was used in ancient Greece and it was used interchangeably with the equality of political rights.

The democracy of Athens, Greece, was considered to have a direct form of democracy, which originally had two distinguishing features. First, they had a selection by lot, of ordinary citizens to government offices and courts. Second, was the right of all the citizens to be able to speak and to vote during the assembly. The assembly set the laws of the city-state. and secondarily the assembly of all the citizens. Most of the officers & magistrates of Athenian government were allotted; only the generals and a few other officers were elected. The seeds of a representative democracy were arguably sown in the Roman Republic.

Although not described as a democracy by the founding fathers, the United States can be seen as the first liberal democracy. The United States Constitution, adopted in 1788, provided for an elected government and protected civil rights and liberties. Already in the colonial period before 1776 most adult white men could vote; there were still property requirements but most men owned their own farms and could pass the tests.

A minimal form of democracy gives teams of political leaders the right to rule in periodic elections of the government. This minimal form does not allow its citizens to "run' for an office, because on most issues, they do not have clear or very intelligent views.

The concept of an aggregative democracy says that the government should make the laws and the policies of the government close to the views of its median voters.