Saturday, April 30, 2011

Democracy for Canada

I believe that the form of democracy best suited to Canada would be parliamentary democracy. With parliamentary democracy there is no one person or party with absolute power over the country. This form of democracy holds regular elections so that the public has regular opportunities to change their government should the leader abuse his/her power. The fact that there are three branches, each with equal power in the government so that corruption is difficult to achieve, makes parliamentary government a great choice for Canada. A parliamentary democracy supports rule of law, individual rights and freedoms, welfare capitalism, and many other principles of liberalism that citizens in Canada need in their lives.

Any form of an authoritarianism government wouldn't be well suited for Canada for the simple fact that citizens of Canada have been ruled by a democracy for many years and are now dependent on freedom. The other forms of democracy wouldn't be suited as well for Canada for various reasons. Direct democracy only works for small populations which Canada is not. Republican democracy, although it supports many of the same principles of liberalism as parliamentary democracy does, the president (head of government) can have his decisions vetoed by a two-third majority vote. A proportional representation isn't best suited for Canada because although Canada accepts a variety of parties, citizens don't want smaller parties to gain more seats giving a greater possibility of a coalition and therefore the government that the citizens voted for having less power.