WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 219, 16 September 1939, Page 1 (Supplement)

WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?

There is no doubt that current events have brought the principle and practice of the democratic system to a crisis such as it has QQQQQQQ never faced before. Democracy is defined R as the government of the people by the © people for the people; it is obviously the © perfect system of national and civic control. X From the moment of its inception, which was 8 thousands of years ago, the principle of 0 democracy has been consistently confronted © by the stone wall of dictatorship. A\ e arc apt to believe that the dictator or sole ruler is a modern creation but lie existed long liefore democracy was thought of. Look, back through history — Ghenghis Khan. Alexander the Great, every leader who ever framed fame or notoriety through the centuries, even the kings of our own Britain who ruled as despots, with power of life and death, until the slowly growing democratic spirit of their people curtailed them with the parliamentary system. Ihe monarchic despot was the original dictator. The modern dictator differs in no way except that his powers are not hereditary. Let us look at the growth of democracy. It has been hard-won. and has not yet readied its peak. Kvery step of the way towards the ideal of selfgovernment lias been bitterly fought, and will always be fought, for the democratic spirit is so much part of the fibre of the common people that the blood of heroes will never lie lacking to be spilt in its cause. In practice, it is exemplified through the parliamentary westerns of the world, which dili'cr in constitution here and there, but as'a rule follow the same

... A True Explanation of Democracy in Contrast With Dictatorship.

W lien the Napoleonic era collapsed France was left rudderless. This J.» u.-uall\ the case when a nation has been directed by one man. for, no matter how brilliant, his statesmanship, how far-seeing his ideas, no Murossor can logically be expected to think identically. And when a gieat nation has for some years been directed along the precarious road ot personal policy, a sudden change in administration can result in nothing nit cliaib. J his is the reason why tlie whole world watched when Kemal Ataturk. 1 urkish dictator, died. Kemal Pasha was an egotist, but he wa-s also a j>at licit, and his energies were directed mainly towards the internal impro\ement of lurkey, which for centuries had been struggling in a ipiicksand of religion and tradition. Drastic and revolutionary "though Kemal s policy was. it had the approval of the general Turkish public, and thus, when his hand was removed from the reins, his elected successor was instructed to follow in liis path. Kemal Pasha's personal ideas have become the parliamentary of Turkey, just as did those of tMinon de .Mont tort seven centuries ago. I 11 fort unat el v this is not usually the case, for in dictator-ruled countries civil obedience is not always indicative of a contented peonle. On the other hand, it is often brought about bv nothing less than subjec-