Civic Participation Key To Democracy

Of late the word ‘democracy’ has been a modern political lingua franca across the world. Democracy, in Abraham Lincoln’s words, is the political system ‘of the people, for the people and by the people’. In other words, democracy is the people’s polity in which representatives govern in the name of people and for the larger interest of the people. In democracy, multiple ideas and views have equal role to play wherein dissenting voice is duly heard and well respected. Rulers and leaders alike in every country try to legitimise their rule in the name of people and claim that their regimes are democratic, irrespective of the form of government and political system they inherit or practice. Even those who rule with iron fist claim to have done so in the name of the people. Democracy is, thus, the most used and abused political terminology in the world.