Ethical democracy

Context- The elected must protect all the unelected instruments of democracy- – judiciary, media and civic organizations.

What is check and balance in the democracy?

Checks and balances, principle of government under which separate branches are empowered to prevent actions by other branches and are induced to share power.

• Democracies have developed systems of efficient checks and balances — elected and unelected institutions. Such a balance is critical to their success.
• Democracies can be harmed if the rulers succeed in jeopardizing the other pillars like the judiciary and free press.

What were Aristotle [ancient Greek philosopher] views on different models of government?

According to Aristotle-

• Monarchies were for the benefit of the monarchs.
• Oligarchies for the benefit of men with means.
• And democracies were for the benefit of men without means.

What were Mahatma Gandhi and Ambedkar views on democracy?

1. Gandhi’s View

• He was a firm believer of Ahimsa based stateless ruled based on self-regulation by individual. He considered democracy as a means to achieve his “Ram Rajya”. While this would make the country an ideal state, the notion was utopian.
• He believed in decentralization of power and self sufficiency of villages which shall be brought in by democracy.
• And laid stress on the individualism provided by democracy. Individualism was important encouraging the individual to surrender to society to achieve his selfless society.

2. Amdedkar’s views–

• He belonged to a backward caste and from his early childhood faced various forms of discrimination in the society.
• For him democracy was not limited to only political spheres but extended to social, religious, economic spheres of life as well, that no person should be arbitrarily discriminated against and for this he fought for his entire life.

For Gandhi, democracy meant the weak getting the same chance as the strong and for Ambedkarji, it was about giving voice to voiceless.

3. For successful democracy – Both believed that the parliamentary majorities need to be restrained through constitutional ethics and public morality.

• Constitutional ethics is about leaders respecting constitutional order, conventions and institutions.
• Gandhi’s final message to the congress to convert itself into a lok Sevak Sangh and work at the grassroots for social, economic and moral independence.

Conclusion-

• India’s democracy, as envisaged by the makers of the constitution, thrived essentially because of the respect of the leaders for the ethical constitutionalism and moral activism of the grassroots activists.
• Indian democracy has been immensely benefitted from such diverging viewpoints. The core values which our freedom fighters stood for are still the basic structure on which our constitution proudly stands.