Democratic ideals

rdf:langString Democratic ideals

rdf:langString Democratic ideals is an expression used to refer to personal qualities or standards of government behavior that are felt to be essential for the continuation of a democratic policy. Advocates for causes across the political spectrum use this expression in attempting to engage in persuasion, particularly by contrasting some situation which has been allowed to continue for pragmatic or social reasons, but which they believe violates... this needs editing: those advocating an opportunity, and that equality is a democratic ideal. Other times, advocates of one political outlook or another will use the expression to energize support among their constituencies, despite knowing that their political opponents use precisely the same phrase to do precisely the same thing. While democracy was rare before modern times, democratic ideals were originally conceived by ancient philosophers. Early examples of democracies include the Ancient Roman Empire, where they collectively agreed that there was to be annual elections for the Romans magistrates, as well as have them be checked internally by two or more colleagues. Another example of early democracy was in Athens where they implemented a system of direct democracy. At the time, decisions were made by an assembly open to all adult male citizens. However, due to the time period, the levels of democracy were limited; they denied political rights to children, women and immigrants, as well as having slaves. Therefore, there were very few citizens who did have political rights, and so this made up a small proportion of the population of the time. In the 20th century, T. H. Marshall proposed what he believed to be central democratic ideals in his seminal essay on citizenship, citing three different kinds of rights: civil rights that are the basic building blocks of individual freedom; political rights, which include the rights of citizens to participate in order to exercise political power; and finally social rights, which include the right to basic economic welfare and security. Frequently the importance of human rights is listed as a central democratic ideal, as well as instilling in military and civilian governmental personnel the attitudes and methods which will prevent their actions from infringing on those rights. The United States Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the United States is a prime example of the democratic ideal of human rights and liberties being implemented in the foundation of a country's governance. These individual freedoms include freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion and the right to a fair trial. Voter enfranchisement and political participation are two key democratic ideals that ensure the engagement of citizens in the political sphere. Who has the right to suffrage has changed over the centuries and universal suffrage is necessary for a nation to be considered a democracy and not a dictatorship. Democratic ideals are often cited as a reason for patriotism, for example Woodrow Wilson's argument that America needed to enter World War I in order to make the world "safe for democracy".