INTRODUCTION Democracy is far the most popular form of government in the world.

In the world today there is hardly any leader who does not wish to be seen as a democrat or a regime that is not seeks to be described as democratic. Democracy also holds a strong appeal among the ordinary people. In the last decade, the world has witne ss the emergence of mass organizations in African, Asia and Eastern Europe, that has raised the demand an end to dictatorial rule and it replacement with democr acy. But then what exactly is democracy? Why is it so and under what conditions can it be secured? Some of the major tenets of democracy are the principle of hu man rights, and rule of law. Brief history of Democracy: Many of the elements of modern democracy are usually taken to have originated in ancient Greece, partic ularly the city state of Athens. Indeed the word democracy is derived from two G reek words, demos , which means the people, and kratos , which means rule of or by. emocracy, therefore literary means rule by the people . In addition to its Greek indepe ndents, modern democracy is also taken to have evolved from such medieval instit utions such as the quality of men, natural right and sovereignty. Democracy is a government of the people by the people and for the people (by Ab raham Lincoln). It is a form of government where everybody must contribute his/h er own ideas in form of decision making to ensure its success. Everybody does th eir duty properly and elect or appoint people to represent the people s will. A society is a group of people related to each other through persisted relations , or large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, s ubject to the same political authority and dominant cultural. Democratic society involves both direct participation and representation. In dir ect democracy all taxable adult from eighteen years attend the meeting and vote freely in an open system, it was practice in Athens, Greece and with a small pop ulation in the olden days. Indirect rule the other hands (also known as represen tative democracy) prevail as a result of largeness of the state, with the large population not everybody can meet in a place to discuss its affairs. There are s ome people that are elected to represent them in government. A democratic society is one in which people have the right to vote and elect the ir country s leader and to hold those leader accountable for their actions and decis ions. This society is made up of the people driven and ownership and control of the organizations is by the people and for the people It is a society in which all adult have easily accessible meaningful and effecti ve ways; To participate in the decision making, protests of every organization t hat makes decision or takes actions that effects them and to hold other individu al and those in these organization who are responsible for making decision and t aking actions are accountable if their decision or actions violate fundamental h uman right or are dishonest, unethical, unfair secretive, inefficient unrepresen tative, unresponsive or irresponsible; so that all organizations in the society are citizen owned, citizen-controlled, and citizen driven, and all individuals and organizations, are held accountable for wrong doing. All children should also have easily accessible meaningful and effective ways to hold organizations accountable as set out in above. Though the people reside po wer, it is acceptable in a democratic society to limit children participation ri ghts until they reach adulthood mainly because, physiological research has show n clearly that all children below ca certain age do not have fully formed brains , are usually capable of reasonable deliberations. A democratic society also requires confidentiality, where vote is kept secret, in other to avoid intimidation, which leads some people unfair advantages. It al so involves equality before the law. It is a system of rule where power is disadvantaged, a form of government in whi ch the people rule themselves directly and continuously, without the need for pr ofessionals or public officials, professional politicians or public officials, a society based on equal opportunity and individual merit, rather than hierarchy and privileged, a system of welfare and redistribution aim of narrowing social i nequalities. It also involves decision making based on the principle majority ru

les, but do not suppress the minorities. A society of that secure the right and interest of minorities by placing checks upon the power of the majority, a means of filing public offices through a competitive struggle for the popular vote. In a democratic society government serve the interest of the people regardless o f the participation in political life. These boil down to attempt to answer three central questions-who are the people, in what sense should people rule, how far should popular rule extend? Who are the people? One of the core features of democracy is the princip le of political equality. The notion that political power should be distributed as widely and as evenly as possible. However, within what body or group should this power be distributed? In short, who constitutes the people? On the face of it, the answer is simple. The demos or the person surely refers to all the peopl e that is, the entire population of the country. In practice, however every demo cratic society has restricted political participation, sometime severely. How should the people rule? Most conceptions of democracy are base on p rinciple of government by the people; this implies that, in effect, people gover n themselves-in that they participate in making crucial decision that structure their live and determine the state of the people. How far should popular rule extend? Now that we have decided who the peo ple are and how they should rule, it is necessary to consider how far the rule s hould extend. What is the proper realm of democracy? What issues is right for th e people, and what should left to individual citizen?. There is no standard real m of democracy, therefore before choosing a democratic system it must take accou nt of the crises, religion, and culture of the people From this perspective, the purpose of democracy is to establish through some process popular participation a framework of laws within which individuals can conduct their own affair and pursue their private interest. Summary A democracy can either be direct or indirect depending on its size and populatio n. In a democratic society no group should be unduly privilege politically, soci ally, economically and otherwise. These right includes the freedom of speech, pr ess, assemble, petition, and freedom of dissent, to form opposition parties and run to public offices. The accountability of the government to the electorate. T he people must be tolerant among different grouping that makes such democratic s ociety. Democracy is the most difficult form of government in that it requires, for its perfect functioning the participation of all the people in the country. It cannot function very well unless everyone, men and women alike feel their respon sibility to their state and do their own duty and try to choose the men who will do theirs. It is not a matter of party. It is common to all of us because democ racy want constant guarding (by Lord Balding) REFERNCES Andrew Heywood-Politics (Second edition) Palgrave foundation. General principles of government by Edith Herbert. Remi Anifowusu and Frances Enemud-Element of politics John Hoffman and Paul graham-Introduction to political theory (second edition) BY DONASCO CHRIS WORLU