In brief, democracy is both an ideal and a set of institutions and practices.
In the Interaction Dictionary, democracy refers to institutional interactions that comply with the principles of democracy.
As an ideal, democracy expresses two very simple principles: first, that the members of any group or association should have the determining influence and control over its rules and policies, through their participation in deliberations about the common interest; second, that in doing so they should treat each other, and be treated, as equals.
These principles are applicable from the smallest group up to the largest state; how effectively they are realised in practice is the touchstone of how democratic any association can claim to be.
Democracy may exist in a small group up to the largest state.
In the context of the state the dynamic context is covered by the ISIC sector ISIC Section O - Public administration and defence; compulsory social security and the Gov. Function 01 General Public Services.
Description
| Name1 | Democracy | ||||||||||||
| Domain | |||||||||||||
| Target Outcome | The members of any group or association have a determining influence and control over its rules and policies, through their participation in deliberations about the common interest; In matters of influence and control over rules and policies, members treat each other as equals. | ||||||||||||
| Social actors and roles | Parliament, Citizen, Parliamentary Monitoring Organization, Member of Parliament, and other roles listed at Gov. Function 01 General Public Services and ISIC Section O - Public administration and defence; compulsory social security. | ||||||||||||
| Trigger or preceding interaction | Constitution | ||||||||||||
| Interfaces and services | (for states) parliamentary website, analysis tools | ||||||||||||
| Inputs and outputs | Input: problem situations, evidence on the performance (of institutions in) society, commitments that are implied by agreements; Output: oversight, legislation and other decisions that solve problems | ||||||||||||
| Stores and tools | |||||||||||||
| Other characteristics |
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| Further reading | The book Parliament and Democracy in the twenty-first Century: A Guide to Good Practice (2006, by David Beetham) (PDF versions in English (1'835 Kb), French (1'984 Kb), Spanish (1'504 Kb) and Arabic (2'500 Kb)), published by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). |
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