Page 159 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol Two

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Nehru, J. (1991). The discovery of India (3rd ed.). New Delhi, India: conclusion, a majority of those people assembled in a
ICCR. meeting can reverse long-held traditions or, in extreme
Qamaruddin, M. (1985). Society and culture in early medieval India
(712–1526). New Delhi, India: Adam Publishers. cases, arrest and even kill those people who oppose the
Thapar, R. (1977). A history of India (Reprint ed.). Aylesbury, UK: will of the preponderance of participants.Therefore, the
Penguin.
shared interest of free people, especially in entrepreneur-
ial and peaceful settlements, dictates the establishment, in
a document, of a set of fundamental principles that legit-
imizes and secures the continuity of liberty and civil,
Democracy, political, social, economic, and cultural rights and serves

as the foundation of a viable state. Such a document artic-
Constitutional ulates the standards and goals of a defined community
with a publicly expressed affinity to certain human values
s an organizing principle, constitutional democracy and philosophical norms.
Adesignates a large political community and defines The viability of constitutional democracy is dependent
it as inclusive, open, and free. Nations governed by such on a deliberative body, for example, a congress or a par-
a democracy are bound by widely accepted guidelines liament. In such a body the citizens of a country have
through a written public consensus.The shared core val- representatives—in at least one legislative branch for each
ues include civil liberties, pluralism, tolerance, and wide level of government within federal or unitary states—who
access to expression in all forms of the media. Sometimes are elected in free, fair and periodic elections and vested
entrepreneurial markets and social rights are also em- with the essence of sovereignty. This deliberative body
braced. Constitutional democracy is the most sensible engages in debates that routinely decide the level of taxa-
countermeasure to authoritarian and dictatorial regimes, tion, allocation of budgets, domestic measures, security
which owe their legitimacy to dynastic tradition, affir- concerns, foreign relations, and all other matters of pub-
mation by religious establishments, or sheer coercion. lic policy. Constitutional democracy also endorses lobby-
How best to conduct the public affairs of human soci- ing and petitioning of those people who hold elected
eties has been a challenge throughout history. Whether positions.
such affairs are conducted through providential inspira- Constitutional democracy is an antidote to both the
tion, dictatorial rule, or a social contract, no system has oppressive, nondemocratic nature of rule by decree
been perfect. Any system that has emerged has needed apparent in authoritarianism and the unlimited control
reform to cultivate the goodwill of those governed in a inherent in unchecked forms of democracy such as major-
dynamic world in which challenges and needs always itarianism (the practice according to which decisions of
change. The most effective way of quantifying public a group should be made by a numerical majority of its
opinion is through popular elections held periodically in members). Constitutional democracy is a tolerant and
a free and fair manner.These elections sanction delegates pluralistic framework that prevents laws from depriving
through a widespread mandate to discuss and resolve minorities or individual citizens or circumventing moral
important contemporary political, social, and economic norms through positive law—statutes and ordinances
issues of power and authority. that govern a state. Fundamental rights—such as free-
Democracy is rule by the people who reside in a par- doms of opinion, association, expression, religion and
ticular political unit (such as the city-state, the Greek worship, due process in trial, and the ability to pursue
polis, especially during the eighth through fourth cen- personal choices—are guaranteed. This guarantee is
turies BCE). However, if democracy is taken to its logical made without discrimination on the basis of gender,