This chapter moves from citizen participation into the question of how public power is organized, justified, divided, limited, and made accountable. Democracy is treated not only as an idea, but as a system of rules, institutions, values, and constitutional limits that shape how government works in practice.
By the end of this chapter, learners will develop the following advanced competencies:
Conceptual competence: the ability to define democracy, explain its historical roots, and distinguish direct democracy from representative democracy.
Constitutional application competence: the ability to connect democratic principles with FDRE constitutional principles such as popular sovereignty, constitutional supremacy, human rights, secularism, accountability, rule of law, and equality.
Institutional analysis competence: the ability to explain the judiciary, legislature, and executive, and to analyze how separation of powers and checks and balances prevent misuse of authority.
Comparative competence: the ability to compare types of government, systems of government, and state structures, including democratic, authoritarian, totalitarian, oligarchic, parliamentary, presidential, hybrid, unitary, and federal arrangements.
Governance competence: the ability to explain legitimacy, authority, power, constitutionalism, and why accountable government requires both effective institutions and legal limits.
