Challenges To Democracy - Class 10 Political Science - Extra Questions

'A challenge is not just any problem but an opportunity for progress.' Analyse the statement.

There are serious challenges that democracy faces all over the world. A challenge is not just any problem. We usually call only those difficulties a ‘challenge’ which are significant and which can be overcome. A challenge is a difficulty that carries within it an opportunity for progress. Once we overcome a challenge we go up to a higher level than before.
Legal challenges alone cannot overcome challenges to democracy like inequality, poverty, unemployment illiteracy, regionalism, casteism, communalism, etc. It is the active participation of the citizens that is needed. 


Explain challenges of democracy.

Challenges of Democracy
Some of the challenges of democracy are as follows:

Corruption and Inefficiency
In many democratic countries, the political leaders, officers, tend to be corrupt, dishonest and inefficient. They ask for the bribe. This results in lack of trust of the citizens. This affects the working of democracy in the country very badly.

Role of Anti-Social Elements
The role of anti-social elements arises during the elections. A lot of people are forced or bribed to vote for a particular candidate or party. Rigging also takes place during elections.

 Growing Economic and Social Inequalities Among People
There is a lot of socioeconomic inequalities amongst the people. Although all the citizens have the right to vote and fight elections only rich people have a chance to win the election.

Casteism and Communalism
During elections, a large number of voters give weight to the caste and religion of the candidate. Political parties also keep in mind the caste or religion of a person while distributing tickets for the election. Representatives elected on the basis of caste or religion work for the welfare of the people belonging only to their caste or religion.


What do you understand by the foundational challenge of democracy?

The foundational challenge of democracy is faced by those countries which haven't had any democratic form of government hitherto. This form of challenge involves bringing down the existing non-democratic regime, keeping the military away from capturing power and establishment of a sovereign democratic state.


Discuss three major challenges before Indian Democracy.

Three challenges of Indian democracy are :-
1) Foundational Challenge: - The first challenge of Indian democracy is foundational challenge of making a transition to democracy and their instituting democratic government. This involves bringing down the existing non-democratic regime, keeping military away from controlling government and establishing a sovereign and functional state.
2) Challenge of Expansion: -  The second challenge that most of the democracies face is the challenge of expansion.  This involves applying the basic principle of democratic government across all the regions, different social groups and various institutions. Ensuring greater power to local governments, extension of federal principle to all the units of the federation, inclusion of women and minority groups, etc., falls under this challenge. 
3) Deepening of Democracy:- The third challenge of deepening of democracy is faced by every democracy in one form or another. This involves strengthening of the institutions and practices of democracy. This should happen in such a way that people can realise their expectations of democracy. But ordinary people have different expectations from democracy in different societies. Therefore, this challenge takes different meanings and paths in different parts of the world. In general terms, it usually means strengthening those institutions that help people’s participation and control.


Explain how economic inequality is a challenge before democracy.

Economic inequality in India is a challenge before democracy because it is badly influencing the civic, political and social life of the citizens. The rich class is enjoying luxurious life while the vast majority is perpetually growing under poverty and unemployment. Thus, economic inequality is polluting the whole democratic system in India and therefore democracy has to take responsibility to reduce poverty and make all basic amenities available for the poor.


The Right to Information Act acts as a watchdog of democracy. Explain.

  • The best laws are those which empower people to carry out -democratic reforms.
  • The Right to Information Act empowers the people to find out the role of government and makes its functioning more transparent.
  • The citizens have the right to ask what happened and how it happened.
  • It helps them check corruption, malpractices, etc.


Answer the following question in $$25$$ to $$30$$ words.
Explain the dual nature of the questions before democracy.

In a democracy, issues have to be resolved only democratically. All problems have to be resolved on the basis of law, personal liberty and tolerance. Otherwise, issues may get resolved but democracy would not remain. The other issue facing democracy is about protecting the public interest. Only a legal provision for democracy is not enough, what is needed is to democratically find out and implement policies that ensure public well being and also tackling the issue of inequality.


"It is very difficult to reform politics through legal ways." Evaluate the statement.

It is very difficult to reform politics through legal ways: 
(i) Carefully devised changes in law can help to discourage wrong political practices and encourage good ones. 
(ii) Legal constitutional changes by themselves cannot overcome challenges to democracy. This is like the rules of cricket. A change in rules for LBW decisions helped to reduce negative batting tactics. But no one would ever think that the quality of cricket could be Improved mainly through changes in the rules. This is to be done mainly by the players, coaches and administrators. 
(iii) Any legal change must carefully look at what results it will have on politics. Sometimes the result may be counterproductive. 
(iv) Democratic reforms are to carried out mainly by political activists. parties. movements and politically conscious citizens. 
(v) Laws that give political actors incentives to do good things have more chances of working. 
(vi) The best laws are those which empower people to carry out democratic reforms. 
(vii) Democratic reforms are to be brought through political practices. Therefore the main focus should be on the ways to strengthen democratic practices. 


When is democracy considered to be successful?

Democracy considered to be successful when : 
  • The rulers elected by the people must take all major decisions and not the rich and powerful people. 
  • The elections must offer a choice and fair opportunity to the people to change the rulers if they want to. 
  • A choice and opportunity should be available to all the people based on political equality. 


"A challenge is an opportunity for progress." Support the statement with your arguments.

We often relate challenges to problems. But this is not right. A challenge is not just any problem. We usually call only those difficulties a challenge that is significant and which can be overcome. A challenge is a difficulty that carries within it an opportunity for progress. Once we overcome a challenge we go up to a higher level than before. 
When India was under the British rule, many of our fellow Indians accepted the challenges, struggled hard and finally got rid of the foreigners. These fellow Indians became great freedom fighters. If they had not accepted the challenges and overcome them, India would not have become a free nation. 


What are the shortcomings or weaknesses of Indian democracy.

In spite of certain achievements. Indian democracy has not been able to solve the problems in their entirety. There have been certain shortcomings. These include the following: 
(i) Though GDP has increased about 50 percent, children below five years are still malnourished. 
(ii) People are still living in abject poverty, illiteracy and unemployment. 
(iii) More than 60 percent of Indian people do not have access to sanitation. (iv) Economic development has not been accompanied by institutional changes. 
(v) About 35 percent of the Indian population still lives below the poverty line. (vi) Women's representation in governance is not even 6 percent. 
(vii) Socio-economic inequalities continue to exist in our society. 
(viii) Society is divided along casteism. communal, linguistic and regional lines. (ix) Politics has been criminalised. The use of money and muscle power has shaken the faith of people in democracy. 
(x) Society has been divided in the name of caste, religion and creed. 
(xi) Increasing corruption has shaken the faith of people in the political system. Democracy Is considered to be a means of making easy money at the cost of public welfare. 


How is Myanmar facing the foundational challenge of making a transition to democracy? Explain.

Myanmar is a country that is facing the foundational challenge of making a transition to democracy. In 1962, the democratic rule came to an end with a military coup. In 1990, elections were held for the first time after almost 30 years, and the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi won the election, but the military leaders of Myanmar refused to step down and did not recognise the election results. 
Instead, the military put the elected pro-democracy leaders, including Suu Kyi under house arrest. Although she has been freed now, the military is still in power in Myanmar and a democratic government has not been established there so far. Due to the coercive policies of the military-ruled government in the country, lakhs of people there have been dislocated. Yet the people in Myanmar are still struggling to establish a democratic government in their country. 


Define a "good democracy". 

Democracy is a form of government in which the rulers are elected by the people. The supreme power is in the hands of people and exercised directly by them. 
(i) In a good democracy, the citizens and political parties should enjoy freedom in electing the government. 
(ii) The elections should be free from money and muscle power and there should not be any malpractices. 
(iii) Democracy is considered good when the economic growth rate and standard of living are high. 


What role does RTI Act play in strengthening the democracy? Which challenge to democracy it helps to overcome?

The Right to Information Act empowers all Indian Citizens to seek information from public authorities, which includes central, state and local governments. Parliament, judiciary. police. etc Under RTI, a citizen can ask a question, seek information, take copies of official documents, inspect government work and its progress. 
RTI has helped the citizens in the following manner: 
  • It has empowered them. 
  • It has made them aware of the functioning of the government machinery. 
  • RTI has made citizens vigilant and made them more conscious about their rights and duties 
  • It has exposed various scams and has helped citizens in making wise choices. 


Write the measures that can strengthen and deepen democracy.

(i) Decentralisation of authority should take place. Based on separation of powers. power should be decentralised at the local level. It would make the government more responsive to the needs of the people. 
(ii) Political parties using caste. religion. violence and separatism as vote-bank factors should be banned. 
(iii) Right to Information (RTI) Act should be strengthened so that the rule of law should be implemented realistically. 
(iv) It is said that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty It means that people should always be alert to preserve their freedom. For this. it is essential to have an enlightened public opinion. Agencies like mass media. political parties, educational institutions and pressure groups should help in the generation of public opinion. Curbs on any agency would act as a hindrance in the development of sound public opinion which is essential for the smooth functioning of democracy. 
(v) Mass media like TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and journals should play an important role in strengthening the freedom of people by spreading awareness and enlightenment and keeping the government on its toes by pointing out its loopholes. 
(vi) People should be given a right to recall their representatives if they are not working in the public interest. 
(vii) The term of parliamentary institutions should be fixed so that political instability does not hinder development. 


How democracy has been redefined? What positive points about democracy can highlight the definition?

Democracy has been redefined as a democratic government where the changes have taken place. The positive points about democracy can be added to its definition. 
(i) The rulers elected by the people must take all the major decisions. 
(ii) Elections must offer a choice and fair opportunity to the people to change the current rulers. 
(iii) This choice and opportunity should be available to all people on an equal basis. 
(iv) The exercise of this choice must lead to a government limited by basic rules of the Constitution and citizens' rights. 


Explain any five major challenges being faced by Indian democracy.

Five major challenges faced by Indian democracy are : 
(i) Over-population: India is the second most populated country in the world after China. The population has increased rapidly during the last century. It is estimated that at this rate of growth in population, the country will double its population in the next few decades. The government is very concerned about the size of India’s population and has focused tremendous amounts of energy on combating the country's growth.

(ii) Illiteracy: Illiteracy is one of the biggest challenges that Indian democracy faces. It is a country with a huge population but only one-third of them are able to read. This problem is more prominent in rural areas. Many children living in these areas receive a level of education that is too poor. This is also a fact that the education of females is easily ignored in our country.

(iii) Poverty: Poverty in India is widespread. Despite great GDP growth, the effect of poverty remains extreme and reveals a history of exclusion and injustice that affects half of the population. It is a fact that the population of people living below the poverty line in India is the highest in the world. Thus, it is a great challenge to the successful working of democracy.

(iv) Communalism: Communalism was and continues to be one of the major challenges to democracy in our country. Sometimes it takes its most ugly form of communal violence, riots and massacre. The incidents that occurred at Godhra, Muzaffarnagar and Dadri can be mentioned in this regard.

(v) Casteism: This is also a major problem of Indian democracy. Ours is a caste-ridden society. Caste is an important source of economic inequality because it regulates access to resources of various kinds. The upper castes are best off, the Dalits and Adivasis are worst off, and the backward classes are in between. Politics too influence the caste system and caste identities by bringing them into the political arena.


Explain with examples how some countries face foundational challenge of democracy. 

The foundational challenge of democracy consists of making the transition to democracy and then instituting a democratic government. This challenge involves three main areas of change. 
$$\bullet$$ It brings down the existing non-democratic regime. 
$$\bullet$$ It keeps the military away from controlling the government.
$$\bullet$$ It establishes a sovereign and functional state. The example of the struggle for democracy in Nepal justifies the foundational challenge. People demanded the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of democratic institutions. 


What remedial steps can be taken to remove the drawbacks of democracy?

 The rulers elected by the people must take all the major decisions; Elections must offer a choice and fair opportunity to the people to change the current rulers; This choice and opportunity should be available to all the people on an equal basis; and the exercise of this choice must lead to a government limited by basic rules of the constitution and citizens’ rights. 


Write the challenges related to personal liberty.

(i) Liberty of every individual is treated as very important in a democracy. There are three challenges to personal liberty.
(a) Social pressure : Democracy grants rights to everyone through constitution but such rights remain only one paper. E.g., There is a lot of opposition to inter-cast marriages or women taking up specific jobs. Social pressure can limit personal liberty.
(b) Intolerance : Tolerance means accepting that opinion of others can be different from one's own opinion and so allowing other opinions to be expressed.. Intolerant society becomes a challenge for democracy.
(c) Security and Personal liberty : There should be restrictions on arms holding. But supporters of individual freedom oppose such restrictions.


'Holding elections of any kind is not sufficient'. Explain.

Elections in Mexico went against the policy that a democracy must be based on a free and fair election where those currently in power have a fair chance of losing. Since its independence in 1930, Mexico holds elections after every six years to elect its President. Until 2000, the election was won by a party called Institutional Revolutionary Party. Opposition parties did contest elections, but never managed to win. Media largely ignored the activities of opposition political parties except to criticise them. The polling booths were shifted from one place to another in the last minute, which made it difficult for people to cast their votes. From the above example, it is clear, that holding elections in not sufficient. The elections must offer a real choice between political alternatives. And it should be possible for people to use this choice to remove the existing rulers if they wish so.


Class 10 Political Science Extra Questions