Demokracja a problem woli ludu
Democracy and the problem of will of the people

Summary/Abstract: Democracy is a political system in which power is exercised by the people. In this system, the will of the people is of the greatest importance, however, the concept of the will of the people can be understood very differently. What is more, there are many other issues related to this concept that need to be defined in more detail. The basic issue is to clarify the concept of the people: who is it, who can be a member of the people and under what conditions. Other issues include the possibilities and ways of recognizing its will. What also needs to be clarified are the foundations of the authority of the people’s will and what this will is supposed to be about. Looking for answers to the questions posed here, one can refer to the method of systemic analysis, which recognizes democracy as a certain system, i.e. internally ordered arrangement of elements. Explanation of the meaning of individual elements of this system consists in recognizing their place and their function in the system structure as an integral whole. The basis of this system is the concept of democracy as a mechanism for making the most rational political decisions possible. Since in the realities of democracy exercising power consists in implementing the will of the people, one of the basic conditions determining the quality of democratically made decisions is the appropriate definition of the concept of the people and its will.

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