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As you probably know, Spain is a democracy.

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Do you know what the word democracy means?

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The word democracy comes from Greek and it means power of the people.

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Democracy is a way of government that was first invented in Athens, Greece, in the 5th century BC.

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And it is a system of government where people have the power, not the king or not a small group of people, but all the people.

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nevertheless there are some differences between ancient democracy in Greece and modern democracy

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in Spain in ancient Greece actually not everybody was a citizen in order to be a citizen you had to

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be free not a slave I remind you that in Greece there were a lot of slaves and also you had to

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be a male a man women were excluded from democracy they couldn't participate and also you had to be

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born in Athens, so foreign people who lived there couldn't vote either. So, really, it was a

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restricted democracy. Modern democracy in Spain is different, because all citizens who are over 18

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can participate in politics and vote. What makes a real democracy? A real democracy is a way of

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government in which people have the power, so there are elections where everybody can participate,

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and these elections are free and open with different options, different political parties.

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Also, in a real democracy, there is a division of powers. This means that the three branches

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of the state are separated. The different kinds of power are exercised by different people

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in order to prevent abuse. In the past, this didn't happen. When the king had the power,

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he had the absolute power, he could abuse of his power and nobody could stop him.

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What we do today is that we separate the three powers of the state, so if one of them tries to

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abuse, the others can stop this abuse. These three powers are called the legislative, the executive,

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and the judiciary. The executive branch is in charge of applying the law, of enforcing the law,

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and the executive power is exercised by the government. The legislative power is in charge

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of making the law, of passing the laws in the parliament. And the judiciary power is in charge

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of punishing people who break the law and is exercised by judges and tribunals. So we have

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seen that in a democracy, the people have the power and can vote, and there is also division

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of powers. There is also an important characteristic of a democracy, which is the rule of law. In a

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country, we say that the rule of law is respected when the law tells you what to do. Have a look at

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that and think about it carefully. Who tells you what to do in Spain? It is not the president of

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the government. It is not the king. It is the law that tells the citizens what can be done and what

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cannot be done. So we live in a state where the rule of law is respected. The rule of law also

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means that the law is the same for everybody and there are no exceptions depending on your race

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or how much money you have. And another very important aspect of democracy is the respect

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of human rights. A real democracy is a country where rights are respected, particularly the

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right to free expression, free thought and participation in voting. Now, democracy is not

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an automatic or eternal way of government. It hasn't always existed and it is fragile,

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so we must take care of it and we must all contribute defending democracy because it

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can have many problems that can destroy it. Think about some of the problems that democracy can have.

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For example, one big problem of democracy is the tyranny of majorities. Imagine that in a certain

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country, the vast amount of the population belong to a majority, but there are also people who

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belong to a small minority. What would happen if the majority passed laws that discriminated

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minorities. Maybe they can win a vote by majority if people decide, but this wouldn't be fair.

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So in a real democracy, the majorities must take into account the rights of the minorities and

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avoid exercising tyranny because they have the majority of the votes. This is closely linked

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with another problem of democracy, which is demagogy. Demagogy happens when people vote

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thinking about their own personal interests and not the general interests of everybody.

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So we are practicing demagogy when we are selfish in a democracy. If a political party,

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for example, is trying to defend your personal interests, regardless of all the rest of the

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people, they are a demagogic political group. Another big problem of democracy is the lack of

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interest of some people in participation. So when people don't have an interest in, for example,

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voting or participating in associations or defending human rights, when they just don't

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participate, they say that they don't care. That is a danger for democracy because democracy can

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only be healthy and strong if we all believe in it. Democracy is more than voting in elections.

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It is believing in some basic ethical values, and one of them is participation and commitment

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to the common good.