The Consumers’ Perspective

Abstract

Democracy is derived from the Greek word meaning demos or the mob, the many, and kratos or rule. In North America, and in fact in most of Europe, the British Commonwealth, and Japan, living in a modern democracy means that all citizens can participate in society if they wish and all citizens “must then mutually respect the equal rights of fellow citizens within a regulatory order that defines, protects and limits those rights” (Crick 2002, p. 13), Thus, living in a modern democracy brings together two ideas — power to the people and legally guaranteed individual rights, two often contradictory ideas. Importantly though, democracy is a cultural way of being that means many things at once (West 2004), for example, “regular and fair elections, government transparency, political pluralism, a free press, freedom of association, freedom to complain about the degradation of society” (Dasgupta 2007, p. 142).