Conclusion

To conclude, democracy consists of three defining characteristics that we have attempted to discuss on this blog: freedom of expression, granting political power to its ordinary citizens, and having a law to govern the nation. From our little discussion, we can clearly see that these three criteria that define a democracy can help a democratic nation achieve stability, or instability.

I believe (and i think our whole group does too) this largely depends on the circumstances that the citizens create. All three characteristics are affected solely by the actions of the people. If the citizens decide to be irresponsible (for example, they decide to go against the law, or they make rash decisions during voting), they will just do their nation harm. An example will be Taiwan. Freedom of expression is granted in this country, but the nation does not seem to be in stability at all. I feel this is because some of its people abuse the right to free speech, resulting in many conflicts. Furthermore, as Andy earlier mentioned, if the whole nation decided to vote for the wrong stuff (his example given was racism), there will be instability too. The citizens will have abused their right to vote.

On the contrary, if everyone is cooperative and makes wise decisions, stability can easily be achieved within the country.

We can see from our discussions that in a democracy, the common citizens have a large influence their country. They decide their government and various policies. It is something like "strength in numbers".

Therefore, to conclude, I feel that stability can only be achieved in a democracy if its people want to make it happen. They are most important factor in the moulding of a democratic country.

To achieve this, I think that educating the public will be rather effective in getting the citizens to be responsible when using the rights that a democracy allows them to have. They will then be able to make well-informed decisions during voting, possibly resulting in more stability for the country as a capable government is elected. As Aloysius has mentioned, not everyone will follow the law. Education may help to change that.

I think that effectively sums up our long discussion about democracy and stability.

Thanks guys for the insightful discussion!