 |
|
| |
 |
| |
|
Democracy began in ancient times. It was the system
by which every adult, with the exception of women and slaves, would
meet to discuss and decide upon important issues by a simple show
of hands. This is known as a direct democracy. In modern societies,
such direct democracy is impractical because it would be virtually
impossible to get all citizens of a country together to debate an
issue. The closest form of the direct democracy today is the referendum
where citizens vote on a specific issue.
The most common type of democracy today is the
representative democracy in which representatives are elected for
a specific term of office during which they represent the people
and make decisions on their behalf. Under representative democracy
a country is divided into voting regions or constituencies. People
then form political parties that nominate specific individuals to
represent them as candidates for particular constituencies. During
the elections, citizens vote for the candidate of their choice.
The elected candidates or representatives, become the government
of the country. This is known as a representative government in
a system of representative democracy. When a new law needs to be
adopted in a representative democracy, all the representatives discuss
and then vote on it. The new law will be passed if more representatives
vote for the law, than against it. Representatives therefore express
the will of the people and are held accountable at regular elections
during which the citizens can express their approval or disapproval
by voting for or against them. The political party holding the majority,
or more than half the representatives in government, is the party
that usually gets its way. This is considered a fair way of deciding
how a country should be ruled. Unfortunately, it does not always
work as it is intended to because a party that holds the majority
may not necessarily be the one that got the most votes.
To overcome this problem of a representative democracy, some countries
use the system of proportional representation. Here, each political
party submits a list of its preferred candidates before an election.
After the election, parties will be represented in proportion to
the support they received. Voters vote for a party and not for a
candidate. The candidates for the representative government will
be taken from a party list, a list of names of candidates, supplied
by each party.
|
| |
|
go to top |
| |
|
| |
| |
|
In Namibia, for example, there are 72 seats in the National Assembly.
During the national elections, proportional representation is worked
out by dividing the total number of valid votes by the number of
seats in the National Assembly. This seat quota determines the number
of seats allocated in the first round. In the second round, remaining
seats are allocated to parties with the largest fractional remainder.
Should there be a tie in remainders for allocation of the last seat,
it is be allocated to the party with the lowest total number of
votes. The main advantage of proportional representation is that
it allows smaller parties and minorities to be represented in government.
Proportional representation works only in a multi-party democracy.
This is when there is more than two political parties competing
for the votes of the citizens. It does not work in a one-party state
where the government places a ban on all other political parties
and has all the power itself. In a multi-party democracy, the government
may even be made up of several political parties, without any one
party having the majority.
|
| |
|
| The strength of a real democracy depends
on certain fundamental rights and freedoms, which must be protected
|
| to ensure that a democracy will succeed. Rights and freedoms
in Namibia are listed and protected
by the Namibian Constitution. The Constitution entitles all
Namibians to specific important rights and sees to it that the government cannot
easily interfere with or change these rights. The Constitution also sets out the
structure and function of the government. Namibia is known as a constitutional
democracy because it functions according to its written constitution. |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
