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Democracy
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A form of government in which the people freely govern themselves; where the executive (or administrative) and law-making (or legislative) power is given to persons chosen by the population; the free people.
In the result, the government is said to be 'representative', as in representative of the people.
As John Adams (1735-1826) said in his 1774 proclamation address:
“As the happiness of the people is the sole end of democracy, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it.”
In Qu v Canada, the Federal Court wrote:
“(D)emocracy is a political system by which the citizens of a country govern themselves.... where their elected representatives make laws; the executive branch administers those laws and is responsible for the way it does so.
“(D)emocratic government, institutions or processes (are) institutions or processes engaged in political governance or the system by which citizens organize and govern themselves in the State; … public authorities elected by and responsible to the constituency; … institutions exercising political (governmental) authority incorporating democratic values as to how citizens operate in organized society.”
In Vriend v Alberta, Canada’s Supreme Court justice Iacobucci wrote:
“(T)he concept of democracy means more than majority rule…. In my view, a democracy requires that legislators take into account the interests of majorities and minorities alike, all of whom will be affected by the decisions they make.”
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