Democracies: the Creation and Preservation

Creation

To create a democracy isn't as easy as some may make it sound like.  For one, you have to have a good system of work, such as currency.  In old times, there was no such thing, and people would trade things in return for labor.  However, this didn't always prove correct, because some people would trade many hours of hard work for a necklace or gem.  Not only is this limiting to what a person can have, but it makes it harder to measure the worth what you trade for.  With a good form of currency, one can measure how much the labor the worker did, and pay him that much.  Money is, in a way, just a unit of measurement, designed to measure the value of goods and services.  Also, a good form of currency shouldn't be made of anything particularly rare, such as pure gold, silver, platinum or precious metals and gems.  The major currencies in the world are made of paper, which saves valuable metals.  One example of a problem with the solid forms of currency is in the United States.  The penny is made out of copper, which might seem common, since the penny has the least value of all coins.  However, copper has become more scarce in recent years, and now it is less likely to come across things made of copper, because when copper is found in the US, it is sent to factories that produce money, so that more pennies may be made in the future when needed.  This is very bad because copper can be used for many things.  One of them is building, for the statue of liberty is made of copper (although it has been worn down due to waves crashing on it).  Another is electricity, because if the penny is taken out of the US currency, the price of wiring and electric circuits may go down.  This is because copper is used to make wires, which, of course, is used for all electric goods.  However, fixing this problem might lead to different issues, because some smart people with excess amounts of money can trade in money, for pennies.  If course, this isn't expensive at all, because pennies are worth one cent, so if pennies are taken out of currency, these people can melt down their pennies (because doing so with national currency is illegal) and sell the copper from them.  This makes the rich richer, but it can also make the poor richer, if they think it's worth it to trade in money to use later, when it's not money any more.  If the USA hadn't used the copper for the penny, they wouldn't have this issue.

To create a democracy, the people have to agree with the creator's viewpoints.  After all, a democracy is a rule of the people.  If someone tries to create a democracy, they have to have the people's support, because if they don't, it's just them with no other people in his country.  Also, democracies usually rise up from big issues, like the first democracy in Athens, where the laborers wouldn't work until the democracy was formed, or the United States, where they were being mistreated by the mother-country and revolted against it.  When someone has an idea, it usually needs support from others to become reality.  This is true for almost anything, from buildings, transportation systems, companies, and even democracies.  Buildings start off as an idea in the architect's head, and then when it is written out on a blueprint, there have to be workers to build it.  When the settlers of the Western World had the greatest advancement in transportation ever, they needed laborers to create the railroads and tunnels for the trains to use.  When a company (for example, one that makes/sells medicine) is thought up, the creator needs people to develop the medicine, people to manufacture the drug, people to transport the drug, people to sell the drug, and people to oversee all this happening.  The same principle is applied for a democracy, they need the people to work and contribute to society (in many different ways), and people to oversee this happening.  If the people in a democracy vote on leaders for specific areas in the democracy's land, that is their job: to oversee what is going on.  They do this by hiring or having the people elect special people to work under him and oversee those who are working.  But, who watches the watchers?  The democracy must decide, because if a government overseer mistreats those who he is observing, the government who he works for might have an uprising on their hands.

Preservation

After creating a good democracy, the challenges aren't over.  After the creation, there are many struggles to maintain and preserve it.  I won't talk about civil wars, rights movements, just the basic things that will be expected by any good democratic government.  One is maintaining the people's positive opinion of their government, but I have explained that already while talking about the creation.  The first priority of a democracy that wishes to stay there is defense, inside and out.  With democracies started by uprisings, this will be an immediate concern, the first priority during and after the establishment of government.  If the United States hadn't taken care of defense right away, they would have been destroyed or defeated right at the beginning.  But because the United States took care of what they needed for driving out the enemy, they were able to stay an independent nation and to develop into one of the most innovative and successful nations.  To accomplish this successful defense, they needed multiple things for their army.  The most important was weapons, for they couldn't have defeated the British with their fists, and if they could have and did, the casualties would be so great, that victory would feel like defeat.  Another thing the army needed was uniforms, which might not seem important.  However, if no one could distinguish one army from another, they would just keep fighting each other blindly, or trust someone from the other side.  If only one side had uniforms, if would also would be bad not to have uniforms, because when your allies have uniforms, it is more prominent that they are your allies and that you need them.  To defend a nation, you also have to defend the borders, by cameras, or stationed soldiers.  If a government doesn't do this, armies could get in to their country and get to civilized areas.  In the past, when all soldiers had were spears and swords, and cities all had walls, this wouldn't be as big an issue.  But now, all soldiers carry ranged weapons, and hits are fatal more often than not.  These modern ranged weapons, (guns), can hit people--civilians--from far greater distances than primitive ranged weapons like the bow, crossbow and spear.  Also, those armies could drive in tanks, which can explode entire building if they felt like it.  Maintaining a border control can prevent a large number of invasions.  However, not all attacks come from outside.  A police force must be made to prevent crime such as thievery, murder, or large scale attacks on civilians.  If the police are doing their job correctly, the majority of people residing in a country will feel supportive of their government, and will be happy living there.