Democracy is considered to be one of the most important notions when discussing the future of

human civilisation. Democracy, traditionally, is defined as the government of the people, by the

people and for the people. It is carried out through election of representatives after a certain period

of time. The elected representatives then form the legislative body of the state. It seems like a

perfect scenario where the people get to make their choice regarding who should take important

decisions on their behalf. However, a brief analysis of world politics depicts that democratic form of

government has seldom been implemented in its true essence by any country. Some prominent

researchers raise critical questions regarding the process of election, while others term democracy

as elected dictatorship. On top of these arguments, it is a fact that democratic form of government

across the globe is vulnerable to corruption, manipulation, political and social divide and other

menaces. It is a system that is utilised to create and exploit divides in a country. Thus, democratic

governments across the world are a derivation of basic concept of democracy but none comply

completely to the true essence of this notion. Even established democracies like the United

Kingdom and the United States of America are heavily influenced by aristocrats, bureaucrats,

monarchs and businessmen.

Even the countries classified as developing nations have their own models for democracy. The

powerful elite in these countries have complete control over the will of the people and they use this

control to manipulate the democratic process as per their own interests. As a result, democracy

never gets to bear fruit in the developing world. Whether it be the developing world or the

developed world, a fully functioning democracy is not just the election of representatives by the

common people. For democracy to be implemented in its true spirit, the elected representative has

to act in a way that is for the benefit of his/her people. Furthermore, the entire democratic process

is is people-centric. This means that not only does a democracy takes its strength from common

people but it also uses that strength to work for and benefit the common man. Unfortunately, the

democratic systems that exist across the globe today completely undermine the importance of the

latter. Democracies in the developing world are run as cartels while the developed world has a

much complicated model where the will of the people is manipulated using advanced techniques to
benefit large corporations. In either case, the common man is of little significance.

Furthermore, a brief analysis of democratic system depicts that it has a strong negative correlation

with peace; both internal and external. Democracy, in its true essence, is meant to bring people

closer to form a national consensus on various issue. Current democratic system does the exact

opposite by exposing vulnerabilities that cause harm to national unity. We have seen a rise in

polarisation in the world. Technology has played an important role in bringing people together by

connecting them in innovative ways yet the world today stands more divided than it ever was.

These divides have been created by democratic systems that breed hatred and disparities.

Democratic parties across the world dwell on divides, whether it be religious, social, regional,

linguistic or any other. the recent political campaign of Donald Trump is an example of how

democracy is an ideal tool to exploit weaknesses in the system and how it can be used to

manipulate the minds of millions. Even the most developed democracies fall prey to cleverly

executed political campaigns that target internal divides to gain popularity. Political parties are no

longer run by vision and ideologies but they are bred on creating divides and marking territories

based on those divides. This trend is obvious across the globe. However, it is important to analyse

whether democracy is being used as a tool or is it the essence of democracy that it eventually

creates a divide in the nation. After all, voting itself is process that highlights a difference of opinion

in the general population. The election process divides the nation at large every few years.

The fruits of democracy across the globe are limited. While many European societies believe

democracy to be the sole reason for social development and equality, most of these countries still

have the monarchy in place. Also, the economic developments in these countries are a result of

deviation from war and ignorance. The system of governments have changed only recently after

the population had achieved a certain level of mental and social development. Thus, the claims

that democracy contributed towards economic development is not supported by the history of

developed nations.
In the light of historical events and analysis of human civilisation, it is important to validate the

capacity of democracy as a system for the future of human civilisation, most importantly, whether it

is an obsolete form of government or not

One of the major assumptions of democratic system is that the common people know what they

want and they deserve to get it. This assumption is weak considering the fact that it ignores

socioeconomic factors as well as the demographics of a society. In a democratic system, a highly

educated person with a broader understanding of politics, economics, philosophy and long-term

planning is equivalent to a person who has never seen a school, is easily influenced by false hopes

and political elite, and has limited capacity to think on a broader horizon. This assumption that

common people are enlightened and think on a larger horizon is what makes democracy easily

exploitable. The fact that poverty-stricken low income level people can not think beyond meeting

daily meal requirements for their family influences their voting decisions. Politicians have exploited

this in the developed as well as the developing nation. Make America great again is a slogan for

the less fortunate while Roti Kapra aur Makaan was also meant to target the least well off strata of

the society. In such circumstances where democracy encourages discrimination and exploitation of

needs and wants, it is obvious that common people are not aware of what they want, rather they

are are not even aware of how they will get what they want. Bhutto never delivered on his slogan

and there is even lesser probability that Trump will deliver on his.

Even if it is assumed that common people can think best for themselves, the fact that every vote

does not count makes another dent in the reputation of democracy as a system for every one. The

nave view of democracy has long held that "every vote counts," and that close elections can be

decided by "counting every vote" and by inferring the "will of the people" from an election result

where the winner's vote tally beats the loser's vote tally by as few as a single vote. In practice,

however, no large-scale election has ever involved counting every vote. In real life, there are

numerous obstacles to counting every vote including spoiled ballots, questionable ballots, human

error, provisional ballots, and a myriad of other votes that exist in a grey area.

Another important shortcoming of the democratic system is the fact that it is limited to electing

representatives. The principle of winner-takes-all is applied across the board, as a result all votes
casted against the winning candidate are not accounted for or in other words are wasted. In other

words, your political beliefs and place of residence play an important role in determining whether

your vote will count or not. If you hold the wrong political views and are located in wrong area, your

vote means nothing. In such a system, most voters feel pressured to vote against the party they

actually support or they do not vote at all. This is obvious from the fact that voter turnout for even

the most developed economies is, on average, around 60 percent. Another important fact is to

analyse that most democratic governments formed in the world are seldom majority governments

i.e. most governments do not have majority vote in the country.

Democratic governments, unlike dictatorships, have a fixed tenure. However, most democracies

are structured in a fashion that gives these governments maximum liberty to exercise their will

without any intervention for the entire tenure. This is a major shortcoming of the system and it

stems form the structure of the legislative body as well as the constitutions of democracies across

the world. Democracies are structured in a fashion that accountability is close to impossible. Also,

in most developing countries, democracies are run by a cartel comprising of major political parties.

these parties take turns running the government and safeguarding their own interests.

Democracy is supposed to be a system for the people, however it has emerged as a system that in

practice takes control away from the people. Modern democracies across the globe are focused on

only the election procedures while other components of a democratic system like delivering what

the people want, need and desire are being completely ignored. The world is moving into an era

which shall be dominated by technological advancements. This will be crucial