Democracy in Action

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If these systems and institutions fail to protect the public, then they can choose to protect and defend themselves, which democracies, at its core, allow. According to Locke, the government is established not by contract, contrary to Hobbes, but by fiduciary trust. (“Fiduciary” encompasses the idea of faith and confidence and is generally established only when the confidence given by one person is actually accepted by the other person (Lehman & Phelps, 2008)). The legislature/legislative branch is the “supreme power” over the other organs of government, but the people are still superior to this supreme power even though they are subject to that power. The people have the power to remove or alter any of the three branches of the government, when they feel it is different and or against from the organ they put their trust in, given that their reasons are valid and there is evidence beyond reasonable doubt for the fault (Ebenstein & Ebenstein, 2013).

Against what other political thinkers and theorist think that democracy, what it should be at least, is a competition between the elites, but rather it is a competition of adept elites that know and coordinates with the masses (Ryan, 2012). Although sometimes politicians may put the public into danger due to their selfish ambitions and interests and it may be easier for them to do because of the nature of democracy from which they obtained the power from. But also, because of democracy, that the uncorrupted officials and masses of citizen individuals can defend themselves against these wrongdoings. Officials can legally fight other officials under the legislative and judicial court, and the masses can uphold their right over these corrupted officials, as they are, in fact, the source of the power trusted to these officials. In the end, yes, democracies can in fact protect the public at large – unorganized individuals—against well-organized special interests, but in a way, democracy is the vehicle for these special interest, may it be for the common good or not.

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References:

Cranston, M. (2017). Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Jacques-Rousseau

Ebenstein, W., & Ebenstein, A. O. (2013). Great Political Thinkers: Plato to the Present.

Flathman, R. E. (1992). Willful Liberalism: Voluntarism and Individuality in Political Theory and Practice.

Fukuyama, F. (2014). Political Order and Political Decay from the French Revolution to the Present.

Lehman, J., Phelps, S. (2008). West's Encyclopedia of American Law (2nd Ed)

Miranda, F. B., & Rivera, T. C. (2011). Chasing the Wind: Assessing Philippine Democracy (2nd Ed)

Przeworski, A. (2003). Democracy, Accountability, and Representation.

Relacion, A. F., & Magalzo, G. C. (2014). System of Checks and Balances in the Philippine Presidential Form of Government. Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 3(2)

Ryan, A. (2012). On Politics: A History of Political Thought from Herodotus to the Present.

Schmitter, P. C., & Karl, T. (1991). What Democracy is . . . and is not. Journal of Democracy, 2(3), 75-88.

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