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CEV 2ESO - 20 Democracy - Contenido educativo

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Subido el 21 de julio de 2023 por César Pedro P.

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Democracy

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As you probably know, Spain is a democracy. Do you know what the word democracy means? 00:00:00
The word democracy comes from Greek and it means power of the people. 00:00:07
Democracy is a way of government that was first invented in Athens, Greece in the 5th century BC 00:00:12
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. 00:00:20
Nevertheless, there are some differences between ancient democracy in Greece and modern democracy in Spain. 00:00:30
In ancient Greece, actually, not everybody was a citizen. 00:00:36
In order to be a citizen, you had to be free, not a slave. 00:00:40
I remind you that in Greece there were a lot of slaves. 00:00:44
And also you had to be a male, a man. 00:00:47
Women were excluded from democracy, they couldn't participate. 00:00:50
And also you had to be born in Athens, so foreign people who lived there couldn't vote either. 00:00:54
So really, it was a restricted democracy. 00:01:02
Modern democracy in Spain is different because all citizens who are over 18 can participate in politics and vote. 00:01:06
What makes a real democracy? 00:01:16
A real democracy is a way of government in which people have the power so there are elections where everybody can participate 00:01:18
and these elections are free and open with different options, different political parties. 00:01:27
Also, in a real democracy, there is a division of powers. 00:01:33
This means that the three branches of the state are separated. 00:01:38
The different kinds of power are exercised by different people in order to prevent abuse. 00:01:43
In the past, this didn't happen. 00:01:51
When the king had the power, he had the absolute power, he could abuse of his power and nobody could stop him. 00:01:54
What we do today is that we separate the three powers of the state, 00:02:01
so if one of them tries to abuse, the others can stop this abuse. 00:02:06
These three powers are called the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary. 00:02:11
The executive branch is in charge of applying the law, of enforcing the law, 00:02:17
and the executive power is exercised by the government. 00:02:23
The legislative power is in charge of making the law, of passing the laws in the parliament, 00:02:28
and the judiciary power is in charge of punishing people who break the law and is exercised by judges and tribunals. 00:02:35
So we have seen that in a democracy, the people have the power and can vote and there is also division of powers. 00:02:43
There is also an important characteristic of a democracy, which is the rule of law. 00:02:51
In a country, we say that the rule of law is respected when the law tells you what to do. 00:02:56
Have a look at that and think about it carefully. 00:03:02
Who tells you what to do in Spain? It is not the president of the government, it is not the king. 00:03:05
It is the law that tells the citizens what can be done and what cannot be done, 00:03:12
so we live in a state where the rule of law is respected. 00:03:17
The rule of law also means that the law is the same for everybody 00:03:21
and there are no exceptions depending on your race or how much money you have. 00:03:25
Another very important aspect of democracy is the respect of human rights. 00:03:31
A real democracy is a country where rights are respected, 00:03:38
particularly the right to free expression, free thought and participation in voting. 00:03:43
Now, democracy is not an automatic or eternal way of government. 00:03:50
It hasn't always existed and it is fragile, 00:03:58
so we must take care of it and we must all contribute defending democracy 00:04:01
because it can have many problems that can destroy it. 00:04:07
Think about some of the problems that democracy can have. 00:04:12
For example, one big problem of democracy is the tyranny of majorities. 00:04:15
Imagine that in a certain country, the vast amount of the population belongs to a majority. 00:04:21
But there are also people who belong to a small minority. 00:04:27
What would happen if the majority passed laws that discriminated minorities? 00:04:32
Maybe they can win a vote by majority if people decide, but this wouldn't be fair. 00:04:38
So in a real democracy, the majorities must take into account the rights of the minorities 00:04:47
and avoid exercising tyranny because they have the majority of the votes. 00:04:54
This is closely linked with another problem of democracy, which is demagogy. 00:05:00
Demagogy happens when people vote thinking about their own personal interests 00:05:05
and not the general interests of everybody. 00:05:11
So we are practicing demagogy when we are selfish in a democracy. 00:05:14
If a political party, for example, is trying to defend your personal interests, 00:05:20
regardless of all the rest of the people, they are a demagogic political party. 00:05:26
Another big problem of democracy is the lack of interest of some people in participation. 00:05:33
So when people don't have an interest in, for example, voting or participating in associations 00:05:39
or defending human rights, when they just don't participate, they say that they don't care, 00:05:46
that is a danger for democracy. 00:05:52
Because democracy can only be healthy and strong if we all believe in it. 00:05:54
Democracy is more than voting in elections. 00:05:59
It is believing in some basic ethical values, 00:06:03
and one of them is participation and commitment to the common good. 00:06:06
Idioma/s:
en
Autor/es:
César Prestel
Subido por:
César Pedro P.
Licencia:
Reconocimiento - No comercial - Compartir igual
Visualizaciones:
8
Fecha:
21 de julio de 2023 - 12:35
Visibilidad:
Público
Centro:
IES CERVANTES
Duración:
06′ 12″
Relación de aspecto:
1.78:1
Resolución:
1280x720 píxeles
Tamaño:
98.69 MBytes

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