Glossary for Democracy

Glossary:

Anarchy is a state without rule; anarchy is often referred pejoratively to suggest instability or even chaos.

Aristocracy is a form of government that is ruled by or placed in the hands of some privileged class.

Authority is the right to exercise the power and influence of a particular position that comes from having been placed in that position according to regular, known and widely accepted procedure.

Capitalism is an ideology and also an economic system involving private ownership over the means of production, distribution of goods and the overall structure of business is based on profit motive.

Casteism: The social system constructed by hierarchical structure with graded inequality which determines the social status of the individual playing a vital role in every sphere of Indian citizen.

Civil society is the realm of autonomous groups and associations; a private sphere independent from public authority

Civil-Military relationship: It is the discipline that has emerged to study and understand the relationship between the civil society as a whole and the military and its organizations to protect it.

Communalism as a political ideology that has come to be associated with conflicts, tensions and resulting it in violence between different religious, ethnic and caste groups.

Corruption is generally known as favouring one through illegal means. But on the other hand it is a failure to carry out ‘proper’ responsibilities as a result of the pursuit of private gain.

Deliberative democracy: A form of democracy that emphasises the need for discourse and debate to help define the public interest.

Dictatorship: A rule by single individual; the arbitrary and unchecked exercise of power.

Justice is the morally justifiable apportionment of rewards or punishments, each person being given what he or she is ‘due’.

Elite means that a minority in whose hands power, wealth or prestige is concentrated.

Gender discrimination: A practice of discrimination between females and males based on their different social roles and positions.

Grass-root democracy is participating in the process and practice of local self-governance to design their political process and decision-making for fulfilling the needs of the people from lower strata of the socio-economic category.

Judiciary: The branch of government that is empowered to decide legal disputes and adjudicate on the meaning of the law.

Monarchy an institution in which the post of head of state is filled through inheritance or by dynastic succession; monarchy may be absolute or constitutional

Panchayati Raj is the institution functions at the grass root level with constitutional safe guards making the people to participating in the process and practice of local self-governance to design their political process and decision-making for fulfilling the needs.

Political violence is one of the behaviours against the conflicts resulting in violence perpetrated by the persons from political organizations to achieve their political goals. And also there is a perception that a group of people who have never believe that the state would not respond to their demands resort in to violence to achieve the political mileage.

Polyarchy means the rule by the many. A series of minorities, some self-interested and other disinterested within the boundaries stipulated by consensus with not being able to dominate but all having space for the manoeuvre and bargaining.

Religious fundamentalism: A movement or a style of thought that holds certain principles to be essential and unchallengeable truth.

Republic: The principle that political authority stems ultimately from the consent of the people; the rejection of monarchical and dynastic principles.

Right: The concept of right is the acceptance of ideas of personal autonomy, individuality, liberty and human equality and any denial and discrimination has to have sufficient reasons.

Freedom is 1) The ability to think or act as one wishes; freedom implies either non-interference or personal self-development. 2) Liberty from the arbitrary power of the tyrants along with the right of citizens to manage their common affairs by participating in government.

Liberty refers to authoritative permission to act in some particular way.

Equality: The principle of uniform apportionment, rather than ‘sameness’; equality may be applied to rights, opportunities or outcomes.

Fraternity means as brotherhood, bonds of sympathy and comradeship between and amongst human beings

Sovereignty: Absolute and ultimate power; sovereignty can imply either supreme legal authority or unchallengeable political power.

Socialism: The concept of Socialism is an ideology and it is applied in terms of achieving equality in the economic system in which property is held in common and not individually, and relationships between the state and society are governed by a political hierarchy.

Secularism: The concept of secularism is that the state should not patronize any religion and also treat all the equally.

The state is defined as a political entity that possesses people, territory, a government and sovereignty.