Certificate of Advanced English B- Citizenship Today
The Ugly Truths
Martínez, Ma. del Carmen
Is sovereignty in the hands of the people?
We all agree about the benefits democracy brings to civilization; having the chance to choose our representatives instead of having an arbitrary and tyranical governor as a monarchy proposes, at least in theory, enables us to take an active part in the decision making process defending our civil rights, our civil liberties and our political freedom. But it is worth asking ourselves if we are really taking part in that ‘whole’ known as “State” or we are just passing down our sovereignty to our so called “representatives”.
In ancient Greece, democracy was conceived as a form of government in which all elligible citizens were meant to participate equally in opposition to oligarchy in which the power is held by a small number of individuals. Is that not the case nowadays with the lack of civic engagement from the people? Or worse, is not the State, which is meant to protect us by granting our liberties, taking those liberties