Giessen, Germany

Democracy and Governance

Demokratie und Governance

Master's
Language: GermanStudies in German
Subject area: social
Qualification: Master
Kind of studies: full-time studies
University website: www.uni-giessen.de
Democracy
Democracy (Greek: δημοκρατία dēmokratía, literally "rule of the people"), in modern usage, is a system of government in which the citizens exercise power directly or elect representatives from among themselves to form a governing body, such as a parliament. Democracy is sometimes referred to as "rule of the majority". Democracy is a system of processing conflicts in which outcomes depend on what participants do, but no single force controls what occurs and its outcomes.
Governance
Governance is all of the processes of governing, whether undertaken by a government, a market or a network, over a social system (family, tribe, formal or informal organization, a territory or across territories) and whether through the laws, norms, power or language of an organized society. It relates to "the processes of interaction and decision-making among the actors involved in a collective problem that lead to the creation, reinforcement, or reproduction of social norms and institutions." In lay terms, it could be described as the political processes that exist in between formal institutions.
Democracy
We rightly rejected the divine right of kings, but now too many of us believe in a divine right of majorities and pluralities. We wrongly assume that no empathy is required for minority viewpoints, provided a vote was taken.
But fundamental moral principles, like the Zero Aggression Principle, cannot be voted out of existence.
Perry Willis and Jim Babka, "How do libertarians view democracy?," Zero Aggression Project (cited 20 July 2015)
Democracy
The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of bourgeois stupidity.
Gustave Flaubert, Letter to George Sand (1871)
Democracy
One of the insidious facts about totalitarianism is its seeming "efficiency." …Democracy — with all of its inefficiency — is still the best system we have so far for enhancing the prospects of our mutual survival.
Neil Postman, Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1969)
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