Bayaua, Julianne Celine P.

One of the best aspects of democracy as the best form of government is that rule

of law prevails. Democracy is founded on the primacy of the law and the exercise of the

human rights (Bassiouni, 2005). In a democratic state, no one is above the law and all

are equal before the law. Equality of citizenship entails that all persons are protected

against discrimination of any ground such as color, race, language, sex, religion or other

status (Beetham, 2006). It further requires the progressive elimination of the obstacles

which hinder any groups or categories of citizens from exercising a voice or participating

in government on terms of equality with others. Special measures taken to correct

existing inequalities or not constitute discrimination.

Equal citizenship is unattainable in the absence of guaranteed economic and

social rights, such as access to education and basic income. It is understood as a form

of government and way of life in which nobody rules dispense with such fetishes.

Although, leaders are not thought to be similar with the roles they portray. Furthermore,

the rule of law as a basis for democratic governance includes not only the supremacy

of the law, but a democratic basis for law that makes the law legitimate. The basis is

that laws represent the collective will. In societies where the rule if law is observed,

virtually all citizens obey laws, even when doing so contravenes their personal interests.

This willingness is not based solely on the threat of sanctions; it also arises from the

citizens' recognition that laws are arrived at in a manner set out in a constitutional order

and subject to social input. Therefore, the laws represent the collective will. In that

sense, they are "fair" and approximate the common good. Hence, citizens generally

respect the authority of law. Legitimacy can be achieved through other means.
 On the contrary, lack of legitimacy can occur for a variety of reasons. At the most

fundamental level, when people have not reached a consensus on the basic boundaries

or structure of the state, there is no legitimate and the resulting laws have no legitimacy

(USAID, 2010). Lack of legitimacy may also result when the process of proposing,

reviewing, and enacting laws is deeply flawed. A legislature may be controlled by an

elite faction, or its members may be so patently corrupt that there is no effective social

input, and laws serve the interests of only a few rather than expressing the collective will

(Beevi, 2007). Besides, in emerging democracies, there are often questions about the

legitimacy of laws imposed by colonial or foreign powers or inherited from non-

democratic regimes.

In addition, It is the right of citizens to have a say in the decisions that affect their

lives, on a basis of equality with others, then it requires a framework of other rights to

make this basic political right effective. These are the familiar rights and freedoms of

expression, association and assembly. The right to unimpeded expression of opinion

requires the existence of independent media of legislation preventing undue

concentrations of media ownership. The right of free association includes the right to

found new associations for economic, social and cultural purposes, including political

properties. The right of peaceful assembly entails the right of free movement within and

between countries. None of these rights can be exercised effectively without liberty and

security of the citizen, and the guarantee of due legal process. Democracy is thus

inseparable from fundamental human rights and freedoms, and form the responsibility

to respect the same rights and freedoms for others (Basskhm, 2008).

As many recent writers have stressed, the principle of equal citizenship has to
allow room for difference - of belief, of life-style, of identity. Societies today are

everywhere characterized by pluralisms of language, religion, culture or ethnicity. It is

now acknowledged democratic principle that such diversity should be welcomed, and

where necessary given protection, on the basis of equal respect and on the condition

that equal respect is shown to others. And where diversity gives rise to disagreement or

conflict, the democratic method for its resolution is through discussion and dialogue,

rather than imposition or coercion. Equal citizenship thus entails a complex form of

equality, rather than simple uniformity.

Securing equal rights of citizenship, to enable people to influence the decisions

that affect their lives, thus constitutes the foundation of democracy. To give such rights

special legal or constitutional protection cannot therefore be regarded as any

infringement of democratic principle, even though they may run counter to the

expressed will of the majority on a particular occasion. Majoritarianism is at best a

necessary procedural device for resolving disagreement when other methods have

been exhausted, rather than the acme of democratic perfection. Moreover, since its

justification as a procedural device derives from the principle of political equality.

Therefore, Democracy is not a right in itself but rather an integral system comprising

certain norms, the core of which lies in the concepts of free debate and informed choice.

It also generates rights and freedoms, all of which aim to secure conditions and promote

channels which enable all individuals to exert their influence and control over their

government on an ongoing basis.

ANALYSIS

In a democratic government, the government is supreme and it uses the law of

people, but it is not itself subject to any body of legal principles that are supreme even

over the governments own wishes. The law is merely a tool of the powerful to control

others. As the rule of law is a set of enduring legal principles that are typically embodied

in a constitution and that constrain government action.