Democracy

Direct and representative democracies

The first form of democracy was a direct democracy. It came from Ancient Greek, where all citizens came together in one common public space, and discussed problems. Every free man had a say in the matter, and they all voted on the issue. In today's world, it isn't easy to use direct democracy. Because problems grow more complex and they are much more different than before. There's more diversity, everyone thinks differently, and it would take too much time to use direct democracy, although Switzerland still uses that. It is easier for smaller countries, but for bigger and more multicultural countries it's a little bit complicated. We don't have time anymore to discuss all day political issues. So we are free to vote for our favored politicians to represent our political views.

How to make democracy work better for us, the ordinary citizens?

Democracy can´t work unless everyone is equal, we are equal as citizens, we all get equal representation in our system. But right now, some are more equal than others. The democracy system is broken, there's much corruption, we can't call that system a democracy, when only some ideas get represented, funded, and heard. Theoretically removing inequality helps us to crack corruption. Removing corruption helps everyone to change the country for better by representing their ideas, choosing people, who really would listen to what ordinary citizens have to say. People would have influence inside our government. The campaigns should be citizens funded, and money comes from all of us, so we could avoid corruption. People who want to represent us, should be chosen by citizens, not by a small group of people. Socrates wasn't keen on democracy, he thought that not everyone should vote. Because it's a system and needs to be taught systematically to people. Maybe we should listen to every citizen's ideas, but people who have learned about these topics should vote neutrally, not for what they want, but what is the best option, what others need.