The Idea of Democracy

The term democracy originates from the Greek word dēmokratiā which drew itself from the terms dēmos (‘people’) and kratos (‘rule’).

Thus, a democracy draws its strength solely from the people.

The 1789 storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution, the Springtime of the People—1848 Revolutions across Europe, the 1918 women’s Suffrage movement in Britain, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, the 2011 Arab Spring—these are historically some of the biggest struggles that have seen the world mobilize and rise in defense of the idea of the democracy.

What is so powerful about this idea of democracy, why does it resonate so strongly with people’s struggle across time and space?

On the other hand, historically, every few decades the world has also witnessed the rise of authoritarian rule and the backsliding of Democracy. This is one such time, when increasingly we are witnessing more countries moving towards authoritarianism than at any…