Question 1.
How does democracy? Producing accountable, responsive and legitimate
government.
Answer:
(a) (i) In a democracy, free and fair elections
are held regularly.
(ii) open public debates are held on major issues and
legislation are made.
(iii) people have the right to information about
the government and its functioning. Thus Democracy produces an accountable
government.
(b) A Democratic government is formed by the elected representatives of the people, such as government, tries its best to solve the problem of the public. So policies and programs are made accordingly.
(c) Democracy is legitimate government because it is the government of the people, by the people and for the people. The citizens form and run the government through the representatives.
Question 2.
What arc the conditions under which democracies accommodate
social diversities?
Answer:
(i) It is necessary to understand that
democracy is not simply ruled by majority opinion. The majority always needs
to work. With the minority. So that government function to represent the
general view. Majority and minority opinion are not permanent.
(ii) It is also necessary that rule by majority does not become rule by majority community in terms of religion or race or linguistic group, etc. Rule by majority means that in case of every decision or in case of every election, different persons and groups may and can form a majority. Democracy remain democracy only as long as every citizen has a chance of being in majority at some point of time. If someone is barred from being in majority on birth, then the democratic rule ceases to be accommodative that person or group.
Question 3.
Give arguments to support or oppose following assertions:
•
Industrialized countries can afford democracy but poor need dictatorship to
become rich.
• Democracy can’t reduce inequality of incomes between
different citizens
• Government in poor countries should spend less on
poverty reduction, health, education and spend more on industries and
infrastructure.
• In democracy all citizen have one vote. This means that
there is absence of any domination andconnict.
Answer:
If we compare
democracy and dictatorship regimes between 1950 and 2000, we find countries
under dictatorship to be more- economically advanced. But if we compare them
only in poor countries, there is virtually no difference.
This leads us the conclusion that any set-up of the government, democratic or non-democratic, is not a guarantee the economic development of a nation. Several other factors also needed the economic advancement of a country. So dictatorship cannot be supported at cost of other positive aspect such as Freedom, dignity etc. that can be provided by democracy only.
Democracy aims to provide a fair share to every citizen in .the natural resources of country. It aims for almost , equitable distribution of product and income. So, it becomes reasonable for us to expect that countries under democracy will have very low income inequality.
However in reality find growing income inequalities in democracies. There is a wide gap between the rich and the poor. A small proportion of population enjoys a high share in income and a large proportion of population has to live on a very small share .in income. In South Africa, the top 20% people have more than 60% share in income and the bottom 20% people have less than 3% share in total income. In Bangladesh, more than half of the population lives in poverty. People in several poor countries are now dependent on the rich countries even for food supplies.
Industry and infrastructure are vital inputs for the economic development of a nation. But they are not the only inputs needed for the economic development of a country’. Human resource is the most important resource for any country. The human resource .decides the use of any other material resource of a country. A population with high literacy and wide knowledge and skills is an asset for the country. On the other hand, a population with low literacy rate and widespread unawareness is a burden for the country.
We cannot say that conflicts are totally absent in a democracy. They can happen if the demands of one social group are against the demands of the other social group. Democracy only avoids the possibility of such conflicts by giving everyone equal rights and freedom in the society. There is a conflict of interest and domination of one group over the other, but democracy has ways and means to negotiate and resolve them.
Question 4.
Identify the challenges to democracy in following
descriptions. Also suggest policy / institutional mechanism to deepen
democracy in the given situations:
• Following a High Court directive a
temple in Orissa that had separate entry door for dalits and non-dalits
allowed entry for all from the same door.
• A large number of farmers are
committing suicide in different states of india.
• Following allegation
of killing of three civilians in Gandwara in a fake encounter by Jammu and
Kashmir police, an enquiry has been ordered.
Answer:
- It was a case of discrimination on the basis of birth in a particular caste. In this case, people were denied the democratic principle of equality.
- This is a case of failure on the part of democratic government as far as policies and- programmes are concerned. In a democracy, the government is duty bound to safeguard the interests of every citizen.
- It shows the failure of democracy to ensure the security; safety, dignity and freedom of the citizens of the country.
-
Following policies/institutional mechanism can deepen democracy:
(a) Disputes should be resolved through peaceful negotiations.
(b) People should be tolerant and show respects to others tradition, culture and faith etc.
(c) People must pay taxes honestly to help in the development of nation.
(d) Local self governments should be given more powers and allocated of disadvantaged classes.
(e) The progammes and policies should be implemented in the right earnest and must be evaluated time to time.
Question 5.
In the context of democracies, which of the following idea is
correct-democracies have successfully eliminated
(a) conflicts among
people
(b) economic inequalities among people
(c) differences of
opinion about how marginalized sections are to be treated
(d) the idea of
political inequality.
Answer:
(c) differences of opinion about how
marginalised sections are to be treated.
Question 6.
In the context of assessing democracy which among the
following is odd one out. Democracies need to ensure:
(a) free arid fair
elections
(b) dignity of the individual
(c) majority rule
(d)
equal treatment before law.
Answer:
(c) Majority rule
Question 7.
Studies on political and social inequalities in democracy
show that
(a) democracy and development go together
(b) inequalities
exist in democracies
(c) inequalities do not exist under dictatorship
(d)
dictatorship is better than democracy
Answer:
(b) Inequalities exist
in democracies
Question 8.
Read the passage below
Nannu is a daily wage earner. He
lives in Welcome Mazdoor Colony, a slum habitation in East Delhi. He lost his
ration card and applied for a duplicate one in January 2004. He made several
rounds of the local Food & Civil Supplies office for the next three
months. But the clerks and officials would not even look at him, leave alone
do his job or bother to tell him the status of his application. Ultimately, he
filed an application under the Right to Information Act asking for the daily
progress made on his application, name of the officials who were supposed to
act on his application and what action would be taken against these officials
for their actions. Within a week of filing application under Right to
Information Act, he was visited by an inspector from the Food Department, who
informed him that the card had been made and he could collect it from the
office. When Nannu went to collect his card next day, he was given a very warm
treatment by the Food & Supply Officer (FSO), who is the head of a Circle.
The FSO offered him tea and requested him to withdraw his application under
Right to Information, since his work had already been done.
What does Nanu’s example show? What impact did Nanu’s action have on
officials? Ask your parents their experiences when they approached government
officials to attend to their problems?
Answer:
In this case Nanu
used his right of information and created pressure on government officials to
address his concern. After that the officials swang into action and did their
job. Now, they are requesting Nanu to withdraw his application so that they
can save their skin.