Question:3 What do you understand by liberal democracy?

OR

What do you understand by the term democracy? OR

Discuss main features of liberal democracy? OR

What are the merits of liberal democracy?

In Democracy whether it is a direct democracy of the Athenian

Model or a representative govt. of the Anglo –American Model or
even a mixture of the two as in Switzerland the fact remains that
power lies with the people and it is the will of the people that plays a
decisive part in the organization and working of the government.

Certain Assumptions:

1. First: In democracy the authority of govt. is not absolute but

limited by the laws and convention. According to MacIver the govt.
can deal with only those things which are Caesar’s.

2. Second: The liberal democratic model rejects the mystic

notion of the divinity of state as propounded and emphasized by the
thinker of the idealist tradition like Plato, Rousseau and Hegel.

3. Third: The model of a liberal democratic state desires a

pluralistic society which means that the govt. sets out to rule, not
in the interest of any one group but in the common interest of all.

4. Fourth: Its raison d’etre is the maintenance of a social order of

peace and prosperity which by no means entails either to neglect
the minorities or suppress the dissidents.

5. Fifth: Finally the case of a liberal democratic model lays

emphasis on secularism; the state has no official religion or
ideology of its own to impose it upon the people by means of force
and fraud.
 CHARATERISTIC FEATURES:

Apart from these assumptions, the case of liberal democratic states

has certain essential features:

1. Govt. of People: In the first place, it implies a govt. of the

people. As direct democracy of the Athenian Model is impossibility
in modern times, it requires a representative system in which free
and fair elections take place periodically to enable the people to
exercise their franchise through secret ballot:

2. Independent and Impartial Judiciary: There is an

Independent and impartial Judiciary to act as a check on the
arbitrary exercise or power either by the legislators or by the
administrators.

3. Limited and Responsible govt: Here the powers of the

three organs of govt. are not concentrated but separated also inter-
connected by the institutionalization of the system of checks and
balances. The system of a liberal democratic state stands as the
principle that liberty requires ‘power cuts into pieces’

4. Polyarchical democracy: There is the arrangement of

socio-economic checks and balances. As various groups are formed
to protect and promote specific interests, they are allowed to live
and operative to make up the pattern of polyarchical democracy.

5. Political modernization and political acculturation:

Above all, a liberal democratic state desires maximization of
people’s participation in political affairs and thereby encourages bi
and multiparty systems to forge close and strong links between the
masses and their chosen masters.
6. Rule of Law:

7. Reforms: Democratic govt. is the best type of govt. for

introducing reforms in the society. This type of govt. introduces
various reforms in the economic, social and political fields of the life
of the citizens of the state.