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The Foundations of "Democracy": Its Origins and Essential Ingredients

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Authors

Ryu, Paul K.; Silving, Helen

Issue Date
1992
Publisher
서울대학교 법학연구소
Citation
법학, Vol.33 No.1, pp. 79-107
Keywords
peoples democracyNorth Koreacitizens
Abstract
President Woodrow Wilson maintained that the United States fought the First World War in order "to make the world safe for democracy." He would hardly have intended to comprise within his notion of "democracy" the communist countries' self-styling as "Peoples' democracies." North Korea is proudly displaying a distinctly North Korean "democratic centralism." Obviously, the meaning of the term "democracy" in the understanding of those who use it is not the same.

Why, then, we may inquire, is there in social reality competition for the use of what would seem to be an arbitrary construct that might well be replaced by a less controversial symbol? We are reminded that Hitler described his political party as "socialist," clearly to invoke a similarity with the organizations representing workers' interests that he was anxious to solicit. There was benefit in tn the simile; there is more "in a name" than a sound. To be honest, scholars must begin by defining the topic of their inquiry.

Beyond misuse of the term "democracy" there is also a variety of meanings that might be traditionally attributed to the term "democracy." Throughout history, the symbol "democracy" has been used to designate diverse forms of government, such as "direct democracy," where political decisions are reached by the majority of all "citizens"; "representative democracy," where laws are made by representatives of, chosen by, the people; forms of government that combine elements of direct and representative democracy, as is the case in Switzerland and in several states of the United States; "constitutional democracy," combining ingredients of representative (or direct) democracy

with constitutional safegards protecting the minority and individuals against abuses of the majority.
ISSN
1598-222X
Language
English
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/10371/4589
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