Essay on Democracy

Firstly, before we examine this question, we must first come up with a definition of stability. Stability can be defined as a country being able to progress in the social, political and economic aspects, and that it is not being affected by any negative events such as war or epidemics. As for democracy, there are many different kinds, such as representative democracy and pure democracy. However, I will only be focussing on two kinds of democracy, which is representative and direct democracy.

For representative democracy, it is where the people elect representatives to represent them in the government, and that these representatives will in turn voice out the people’s feelings and thoughts. As such, the representative must really know what the people want and need, and then voice it out so that the people can have what they want and need. This kind of democracy can ensure stability. However, this is only assuming that the elected representatives do really make sure that the people that they represent are well-taken care of, and that they are not unhappy. If the elected representatives do not do their job, the people will be unhappy as their opinions are not voiced out and things do not go their way, hence this creates instability in a society as the people will turn to more extreme methods like riots and violence to get what they want.

As for direct democracy, it is where the people themselves take part in the decision-making process directly. The people will decide on referendums and initiatives by voting and the most popular vote wins. This kind of democracy will ensure that the majority of the people get what they want, thus there will be no unrest and stability is achieved. However, the people might not know what is best for them, and might opt for a decision that suits their own selfish needs and not for the greater good. If the people make a wrong decision, the country will plunge into chaos as the decisions make are large-scale ones and one wrong decision can ruin the country. Hence whether this form of democracy can create stability in a society is subjective to whether the people make right, informed choices for themselves.

In conclusion, democracy can create stability in a society if it is practiced in the right way. In the case of Singapore, representative democracy is practiced as the people elect their representatives to represent them in the government, and we can see that it is practiced in the right way as Singapore is in a relative state of stability. However, we can also see in the case of Indonesia, where the people’s representatives are changed very often, that democracy can be practiced in a better way as the country has not ye achieved stability. Hence, I conclude that democracy can create stability in a society only when it is practiced in the correct way.