Outcome of Democracy Important Questions | Class 10 | Social Science | Unit 3 | Chapter 2 2024

Last updated on July 14th, 2024 at 05:03 pm

Outcome of Democracy Important Questions

Below are some of the very important NCERT Class 10 Social Science Unit 3 Chapter 2 Outcome of Democracy Important Questions. These class 10 outcome of democracy Important questions have been prepared by expert teachers and subject experts based on the latest syllabus and pattern of term 2. Questions with Answers to help students understand the concept.

These Questions for Class 10 Social Science Outcome of Democracy Important Questions with answers are very important for the latest CBSE term 2 pattern. These class 10 notes,  Q and A are very important for students who want to score high in CBSE Board.

We have put together these NCERT  Questions of Class 10 Social Science unit 3 chapter 2 Outcome of Democracy Important Questions for practice on a regular basis to score high in exams. Refer to these Questions with Answers here along with a detailed explanation.

Short Answer (SA) Type Questions

1. “There is an overwhelming support for the idea of democracy all over the world.” Support the statement.

2. “Democracies have had greater success in setting regular free and fair elections.” Analyze the Statement. 

3. How do democratic governments ensure transparency? Explain.

4. “Democratic government is a legitimate  government.” Explain.

5. When is democracy considered successful? Explain. 

6. List the various aspects and qualifications which help in giving a clear definition of democracy.

7. List out some of the merits of democracy.

8. “Non-democratic rulers can be very quick and  efficient in decision-making and implementation”. Do you think this feature of non-democratic government is better than other governments? Explain. 

9. Differentiate between Democratic and Non-Democratic forms of Government.

10. How is poverty a major challenge to Democracy? Explain.

11. “Some people think that democracy produces a less  effective government.” Analyze the statement. 

12. “Democracies accommodate various social divisions.” Support the statement.

13. Explain any four ways in which democracies have  been able to reduce inequality and poverty. 

Short Answer Type Questions Answer

Ans. 1

There is an overwhelming support for the idea  of democracy all over the world because:

• Democracy can address all socio-economic and political problems. 
• In democracy, there are regular and free elections and there is always a scope for open public debate. 
• Democracy is a people’s own government where rulers  are elected by the people. People wish to be ruled by the representatives elected by them.
• Democracy is a legitimate government.

Ans. 2

Democracies have had a greater success in setting regular  free and fair elections in the following ways

• Every democracy holds elections and it has different political parties and guarantees the voting right of its citizens. 
• Every citizen in democracy has the right to elect his leader and has the control over the rulers.
• In democracy whenever possible and necessary citizens participate in decision making that affects them. 
• Democracy should practice regular, free and fair elections. This differentiates democracy from other forms of governments.  

Ans. 3

Democratic Governments ensures transparency through the following ways 

• In a Democracy, people have the right to choose their representaåves and exercise control over them. People have the right to participate in the process of decision making that affects them all.
• A democratic form of governance, thus, produces a government that is accountable and responsive to the needs of its citizens,

• Democracy allows discussion, which rnay delay the process of implementation, but in the long run, it serves as a healthy and productive way of decision making. 

• Democracy also ensures that decision making is based on a set of norms and procedures. Therefore, in case, a  citizen wishes to know if a decision was taken through  correct and unbiased procedures, he/she has the  opportunity to discover and find it out by examining the procedure in detail, thus, ensuring transparency.

Ans. 4

Legitimate government is a government under which   law and action of the government are revealed to the  people and the government function in a transparent manner.

The features of a democratic government that make it a legitimate government are:

• In a democracy, the laws are applicable to all the  citizen whether rich or poor.
• In a democracy, there is political equality i.e. eve1Y  vote counts equally. 
• People have the right to challenge the government   policies and actions. If the people are not satisfied  with the working of the government they have the right to change it. 

Ans. 5

Democracy is considered successful when    

• The rulers are elected by the people and take all major decision in favor of all people.  
• Elections offer a free choice and opportunity to the people.
• Choice available to all the people is based on political equality.

Ans. 6

The various aspects and qualifications which help in giving a clear definition of democracy are:

• The rulers elected by them must take all the  decisions.
• Elections must offer a choice and fhir opportunity to the people to change the existing rulers,
• Choice and opportunity should be available to all on an equal basis.

Ans. 7

Democracy is considered to be the best form of government. The merits of democracy are  It safeguards the social, economic and political  interests of the individuals.

• It assures equality in all social, political and economic  rights of the citizens. 
• It improves the quality of decision making as   decisions are taken by following a procedure.

Ans. 8

Non-democratic rulers can be very quick and efficient in decision making and implementation. But it is not a better government than other governments. For example, 

• A democratic government can take more time to make  a decision as compared to other forms of government. The non-democratic governments can make decisions quickly. But there is a possibility that it is not  accepted by all, as no procedure has been followed here.
• In democracy ‘transparency’ is very necessary. Here, the citizens has the right to know the process of decision-making. This factor would often be missing from a non-democratic government. Thus,  non-democratic government is not regarded as a   better government than others. 

Ans. 9

Ans. 10

Poverty is a major challenge to democracy as the  democracies could not produce expected development. The inability of democracy to achieve higher economic development is one of the major challenges. 

If we consider all democracies and dictatorships for the fifty years between 1950 and 2000, dictatorships have a slightly higher rate of economic growth.     

Within democracies, there is a very high degree of inequalities. A small number of ultra-rich enjoy a highly  disproportionate share of wealth and incomes.

Those at the bottom of the society have very little to depend upon. Yet, democratically elected governments do not appear to address the question of poverty. 

Ans. 11

Some people think that democracy produces a less effective government because  – –

• Democracies often frustrate the needs of the people and  often ignore the demands of the majority of a population.

• Most democracies fall short of elections that provide a fair  chance to everyone and are subjecting every decision to  public debate. 
• Democratic governments do not have a very good record when it comes to sharing information with citizens.   Democracy is unable to achieve higher economic  development.  
• Democratically elected governments do not appear to address the question of poverty as expected by the citizens.

Ans. 12

Democracies accommodate various social divisions in the following ways

• Various disadvantaged and marginal social groups can express their grievances by which the government knows  about the injustice faced by these groups and can initiate some necessary steps to rectify it.

• Expressing various kinds of social division in politics can reduce the intensity of the differences. This leads  to strengthening democracy.

• Marginalized people can express their demands in a peaceful and constitutional way. In this way, they seek a fair position through elections. Thus, democracy becomes the best way to fight for recognition and accommodate diversity. 

Ans. 13

The ways in which democracies have been able to  reduce inequality and poverty are  

(i) Women have been given equal rights as those of men in most of the democratic countries like India.

(ii) Special efforts have been made to uplift the weaker sections of the society (like the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes), so that they could live with dignity and honour.

(iii) Democracies everywhere try to provide a fair share to every citizen in the natural resources of the country.

(iv) In almost all democratic countries of the world, poor people are given many concessions but richer classes are made to pay Inore income tax. 

Long Answer (LA) Type Questions 

1. “Democratic system is better than any other form of government.” Support the statement with examples. 

2. How does democracy produce an accountable, responsive and legitimate government?
Or
“Democracies produce an accountable, responsive and legitimate governments.” Support the statement with suitable examples.

3. Why is democracy not considered simply a rule of majority? 

4. What are the demerits of democracy? Explain in detail. 

5. “Democracies lead to peaceful and harmonious life  among citizens.” Justify this statement.

6. ”In actual life, democracies do not appear to be very successful in reducing economic inequalities.” Explain the statement giving an example.

7. “Democracy stands much superior to any other form of government in promoting dignity and freedom of the individual.” Justify this statement.

8. Should democracy be judged by its outcome? 

Long Answer Type Questions Answer

Ans. 1

Democracy or democratic system is a better form of  government when compared with any other form of government because

• Democracy promotes equality among citizens. Every citizen of the country has equal rights before the law.  All individuals have equal rights in electing their representatives.

• Democracy enhances the dignity of the individual. By giving its citizens equal rights, it enhances dignity and freedom of the individual. Democracy gives equal treatment and respect to women, disadvantaged and discriminated castes in our society.

• Democracy improves the quality of decision making. As there is open debate on major issues in democracy, the quality of decisions is improved.

• Democracy provides a method to resolve conflicts. Democracy reduces the possibility of social tension which leads to peaceful social life. It allows room to correct mistakes.

• Democracy is a legitimate government. Democracy gets the popular support of the people by regular, free and fair elections.

Ans. 2

Democracies produce an accountable, responsive and legitimate government in the following ways 

Accountable Government Democracy produces an accountable government as the people have the right to choose their representatives through the electoral process. 

These elected representatives form the government and participate in the decision-making process on behalf of the people. This is known as transparency. If these elected representatives do not work in a proper way, people have a chance to not elect them in the next election.

Responsive Government Democracy produces a responsive government. As democratic government is elected by the people, it is the people’s own government. It promotes the formation of public opinion and takes care of the needs and expectations of the people.

Legitimate Government Further, democratic government is a legitimate government because regular election after a fixed time is its key feature. It may be slow, less efficient but it is the people’s own legitimate government.

Ans. 3

Democracy is not considered simply a rule of majority because 

• In democratic set-up, the majority always needs to work with the minority, so that governments represent the general view.
• Majority and minority opinions are not permanent in democracy.
• The rule by majority does not become rule by majority community in terms of religion, race, linguistic groups, etc.
• Democracy remains democracy only when every citizen of a country has a chance of being majority at some point of time.
• If someone is barred from being in majority on the basis of birth, i.e. on the basis of caste and religion then the democratic rules are not applicable for that persons or groups.

Ans. 4

The demerits of democracy are: 

Unstable Government Lots of political parties are allowed to criticize the government and its policies, sometimes it leads to the downfall of the ruling party and elections in the country give stability to the government.

Slow and Inefficient Government. The most common demerit of democracy is that it is slow in its functioning. The decision-making process involves long debates and deliberations in the Parliament. This takes a lot of time before the decisions are actually taken.

Incompetence. Democracy gives every individual the right to voice his concern. As a result, everybody focusses on his personal interests and not the collective interests. This sometimes leads to incompetent and wrong selections of the candidates in the government.

Role of Money in a Democracy. Money plays an important  role at the time of the elections. A lot of money is needed to organize demonstrations, public meetings and speeches. Those candidates are chosen in the elections, who can raise a lot of money for the party.

Ans. 5

Democracies lead to peaceful and harmonious life among  citizens in the following ways 

• It is expected from democracy that it should produce a harmonious social life. Countries like Belgium successfully negotiated differences among its ethnic populations.
• Democracy develops a procedure to conduct the competition which reduces the possibility of  tensions becoming violent. 

• Democracy tries to handle social differences, divisions   and conflicts. Non-democratic regimes often neglect  these problems and tries to suppress internal social  differences. 

• Democracy is not simply rule by majority opinion. Majority and minority opinions are not permanent things. The majority needs to work with the minority  which is performed in democracy. 

• In democracy every citizen has the freedom in terms of religion, race or linguistic group etc. Here rule by the majority does not denote rule by the majority community.     

• In democracy every citizen has a chance of being in  majority at some point of time. Nobody can be barred from being in the majority on the basis of birth in democracy.

Ans. 6

In actual life, democracies do not appear to be very successful in reducing economic inequalities because democracy does not guarantee economic development. In most of the democracy a small number of ultra rich enjoy a high disproportionate share of wealth and income. For example

• In countries like South Africa and Brazil the top 20% people take away more than 60% of the national income, unfortunately those who are at the bottom of the society have a very little share (less than 3%) to depend upon.

•  In India, the elected government looks reluctant to take necessary steps for the upliftment of the large section of  poor in our society. 

• In Bangladesh, more than half of its population lives in poverty. People in several poor countries are now dependent on the rich countries even for food supplies.

Ans. 7

A democratic form of government stands much superior to any other form of government in promoting dignity and freedom of the individual in the following ways

(i) Often conflict arises among individuals because some feel that they are not treated with equal respect in comparison to others. It is very common in non-democratic countries. However, in democratic countries such conflicts are recognized and resolved   at least in principle. 

(ii) Most societies were historically male dominated. The status of women was not satisfactory. After long  struggles by women, democracy throughout the  world has recognised equal treatment and respect to women at least in principle.

Thus, in democracy, it becomes easier for women to wage a struggle against  what is now unacceptable legally and morally for       them. 

(iii) Democracy in India strengthened the claims of the  disadvantaged and discriminated castes for equal  status and opportunity, which is not possible in any non-democratic country. 

Thus, it can be concluded that democracy stands much  superior to any other form of government in promoting dignity and freedom of the individual. 

Ans. 8

Democracy should be judged by its outcome because it opens the path of expectations, which is one of the criteria  for judging any democratic country. 

The examination procedure of democracy is eternal, as it passes one test, it  produces another test. It automatically gives rise to  expectations as well as complaints by the people when they want to know about the functioning of democracy. 

The fact that people also complain about democracy indicates the   awareness and the ability of people to expect and to look   critically at power holders and the high and the mighty. 

It transforms people from the status of a subject into that of a  citizen. Most individuals today believe that their vote makes   a difference to the way the government is run and to their own self-interest.

Case-Study Based Questions 

1. Read the cases/sources given and answer the following  questions. 

Source A Democracy is Accountable

There are some things that democracy must provide. In a democracy, we are most concerned with ensuring that people will have the right to choose their rulers and people will have control over the rulers. 

Whenever possible and necessary, citizens should be able to participate in decision making, that affects them all. 

Therefore, the most basic outcome of  democracy should be that it produces a government that is accountable to the citizens, and responsive to the needs and expectations of the citizens.

(i) Evaluate the effectiveness of accountability of democracy.

Source B Transparency in Democracy

Let us think in terms of costs. Imagine a government that may take decisions very fast. But it may take decisions that are not accepted by the people and may therefore face problems. 

In contrast, the democratic government will take more time to follow procedures before arriving at a decision. But because it has followed procedures, its decisions may be both more acceptable to the people and more effective.

So, a citizen who wants to know if a decision was taken through the correct procedures can find this  out. She has the right and the means 10 examine the process of decision making. This is known as transparency. This factor is often missing from a  non-democratic government. 

Therefore, when we are trying to find out the outcomes of democracy, it is right to expect democracy to  produce a government that follows procedures and is accountable to the people, 

(ii) What extent is democracy transparent? Give reasons.

Source C Democracy is Better than Non-Democracy

Democracies have had greater success in setting up regular and free elections and in setting up conditions for open public debate. But most democracies fall short of elections that provide a fair chance to everyone and in subjecting every decision to public debate.

Democratic governments do not have a very good record when it comes to sharing information with citizens. All one can say in favor of democratic regimes is that they are much better than any non-democratic regime in these respects.

(iii) To what extent democracy is better than non-democracy?

2. Read the case/source given and answer the following questions.

Perhaps more than development, it is reasonable to expect democracies to reduce economic  disparities. Even when a country achieves economic growth, will wealth be distributed in such a way that all citizens of the country will  have a share and lead a better life?

Is economic growth in democracies accompanied by  increased inequalities among the people? Or do democracies lead to a just distribution of goods and opportunities?

Democracies are based on political equality. All individuals have equal weight in electing  representatives. Parallel to the process of bringing individuals into the political arena on an equal footing, we find growing economic inequalities.

A small number of ultra-rich enjoy a highly disproportionate share of wealth and incomes. Not only that, their share in the total income of the country has been increasing. 

Those at the bottom of the society have very little, to depend upon. Their incomes have been declining.  Sometimes they find it difficult to meet their basic needs of life, such as food, clothing, house, education and health. 

In actual life, democracies do not appear to be very successful in reducing economic inequalities, they institute a large proportion of voters and no party will like to lose their votes.

Yet democratically elected governments do not appear to have come to address the questions of poverty as you would expect them to. 

The situation is much worse in some other countries. In Bangladesh more than half of its population lives in poverty. People in several poor countries are now dependent on the rich countries even for food supplies.

(i) Why is it expected that democracy will reduce  the economic disparities? 

(ii) Infer the reason for the inability of democracy to achieve higher economic development. 

(iii) Why do some poor countries depend on the rich countries?

Case-Study Type Questions Answer

Ans.1

Ans. (i)

Democracy produces a government that is accountable to its citizens as in democracy people have the right to choose their rulers and have control over them. In this way, citizens are able to participate in decision making procedures.

Ans. (ii)

Democracy is transparent as it provides citizen rights and means to examine the process of decision making. This is not available in non-democratic states. 

In democracy, the government develops mechanisms for citizens to take part in decision making when it is possible. 

Ans. (iii)

Democracy is better than the non-democratic government as in democracy people get free and fair elections through which they apply their rights to choose their leaders. 

Ans.2

Ans. (i)

It is expected that democracy will reduce the  economic disparity among its citizens as it is a rule of majority and is based on political equality. 

Ans. (ii)

Democracy is unable to achieve higher economic development as economic development of a country depends on several factors like country’s population size, global situation, economic priorities, cooperation from other countries etc and democracy can not  control all these factors.

Ans. (iii)

People in poor countries depend on the grants of  will like to lose their votes. Yet democratically elected governments are not interested in removing the disparity between the rich and poor in society. Sometimes the poor find it difficult to beat their basic needs like food, clothing, house, etc. Poor people in some countries are even depend on the rich countries for food supplies.   

Final Words

From the above article, you have practiced Class 10 Social Science unit 3 chapter 2 Outcome of Democracy Important Questions. We hope that the above-mentioned notes, Q & A for term 2 will surely help you in your exam. 

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