GOVERNMENT:  is a specialized activity of those individuals and institutions that make and enforce public decisions that are binding upon the whole community. Government provides security from external attack, enforce the law, and maintain peace and order in society. Government may also provide services to the members of the society.

POLITICS: "The word comes from the Greek polis, usually translated as 'city-state.' The polis was the typical Greek form of political community at the time of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, the founders of political science. The polis consisted of a city, such as Athens or Sparta, plus some surrounding hinterland, including smaller towns and villages. It has given us a number of related words having to do with the idea of common good, such as politics and police."

Politics is the activity of gathering and maintaining support for common human desires and projects. It involves identification and reconciliation of disagreements and conflicts; distribution of the good things of life like wealth, comfort, safety, prestige or recognition; and the allocation of value to the things people prize the most.

Two things are thus needed for politics to function: the mobilization of support for a common project and the resolution of conflicts in which that support is mobilized. Thus, government can only carry out its functions when it has popular support.

Politics must satisfy all groups in society by compromise, and it can do this by resolving disagreements among people with different opinions and desires. Politics recognizes that society is a conglomerate of different interests, and as such power must be accorded to different groups in proportion to those groups’ importance to the welfare and survival of the whole community. Politics therefore seeks to harmonize groups’ interests for peaceful and cooperative co-existence.

POLITICAL FACTS

• The U.S is the oldest democracy on earth
• India has the largest democracy on earth
• The Canadian constitution is not contained in one document
• Canada follows a Parliamentary Democracy
• The U.S has a written constitution while Great Britain has an unwritten constitution
• Plato did not think democracy was perfect
• Winston Churchill believe democracy was not perfect, but it was the best form of government
• African Indaba is a form of democracy
• Franchise or the right to vote is the greatest accomplishment of liberal democracy
• John Locke propounded on a Social Contract
• Freedom or liberty, consent of the governed, and free-market economics are desirable in liberal democracy
• Democracy is from "demos" which means people

Liberal Democracy

LIBERAL DEMOCRACY is both a form of government and a political system. Democracies come in two ways; there is pure democracy and representative democracy. Liberal democracy falls under representative democracy. It is democracy in which the ability of the elected representatives (also known as Members of Parliament, Members of Provincial Parliament, Senators, etcetera) to exercise decision-making power is subject to the rule of law, and not the rule of a few people. The entire liberal democratic machine is moderated by the constitution (written or unwritten) which assigns and defines political power and protects the rights and freedoms of individuals.

Four Pillars of Liberal Democracy

Liberal democracies are built on four pillars, namely: the rule of law, the constitution, elections, and freedom (or the protection of people’s rights and liberties). These four pillars constrain political leaders on the extent to which they can exercise their political power. They also safeguard the will of the majority against the rights of minorities. Elections in liberal democracies are conducted in order to grant the people an occasion to elect leaders of their choice. This is usually conducted through a variety of political parties. In order to balance the will of the majority against that of the minority, and to limit the powers governments can exercise at any given time, liberal democracies assign powers or The Separation of Powers, to different branches of government. Thus, political decisions are made through an independent legislature. An independent judiciary interprets the law. An executive or the state has monopoly on law enforcement

Seven Elements of Liberal Democracy