Consider the following facts about a country and decide if you would call it a democracy. Give reasons to support your decision. I. All the citizens of the country have the right to vote. Elections are held regularly.

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Chapter 1

NCERT

Class 9

Political Science

Solutions

9. Consider the following facts about a country and decide if you would call it a democracy. Give reasons to support your decision. I. All the citizens of the country have the right to vote. Elections are held regularly.

Question:

9. Consider the following facts about a country and decide if you would call it a democracy. Give reasons to support your decision.

I. All the citizens of the country have the right to vote. Elections are held regularly.

II. The country took a loan from international agencies. One of the conditions for giving loans was that the government would reduce its expenses on education and health.

III.People speak more than seven languages but education is available only in one language, the language spoken by 52% of people of that country.

IV.Several organizations have given a call for peaceful demonstrations and nationwide strikes in the country to oppose these policies. The government has arrested these leaders.

V. The government owns the radio and television in the country. All the newspapers have to get permission from the government to publish any news about the government's policies and protests.

Answer:

I. The first statement clearly shows that a country can be called democratic because in a democracy every citizen has the right to vote and elections are held regularly.

II. Democratic countries generally focus on the welfare of society. If a country takes a loan from international agencies and has to reduce its expenses on education and health, it will directly affect the future of the people of the country. Thus, the country will be undemocratic.

III. According to this statement, the country is undemocratic because in a multilinguistic country making only one language the official or national language is complicated. People should have the freedom to get an education in their language.

IV. As per this statement, the country is not democratic because the citizens are not allowed to hold peaceful demonstrations against government policies.

V. If a country puts censorship on both print and electronic media it is undemocratic because freedom of speech and expression is the fundamental right of every citizen in a democratic country.

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(All Q's of this Chapter solved)

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