Democracy and minority rights : the European experience

Abstract

Since people are rarely unanimous in their decisions, democracy as a translation of the Greek word demokratio is synonymous with 'rule by the people' or 'majority rule'. However, the direct democracy of the Ancient Greeks has evolved into our modern representative democratic system, in which all adult citizens have the right to vote for the political parties or candidates of their choice whenever elections are due under the provisions of constitutional law. Subsequently, the elected representatives whose party or parties obtain an absolute or relative majority have the task of forming the legislature. The legislature is, in turn, empowered to propose bills in parliament, which become laws if the absolute majority of deputies sitting in parliament vote in favour of the proposed bills.