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. The American democracy is one of the most peaceful kinds of government in the world. The democracy in which we live has many strengths and weaknesses. Neither strengths nor weaknesses out weigh one another, but it is necessary to have both due to the varying definitions. In the dictionary definition, democracy is government by the people in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system." In the phrase of Abraham Lincoln, democracy is a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people." is a government that is run by the people. Despite its widespread use, democracy is what might be called "an essentially contested concept" (pg.1) Crick makes the point that numerous dictatorial regimes, such as Franco's Spain and Nasser's Egypt have claimed to be democracies in some sense. Democracy can be conceptualized as a principle of government, set of institutional arrangements or a type of behavior (pg. 5); the three do not need to go together, and advocates of democracy may have different concepts. Many people mistake using the word "democracy" when they really just mean a good government constitutionalism, respect for rights or liberty, but Crick points out the contingencies of these relationships and different understandings of democracy that may operate.
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