Class 10 Civics NCERT

In a democracy, all power does not rest with any one organ of the government. An intelligent sharing of power among legislature, executive and judiciary is very important to the design of a democracy.

Vertical division of power among different levels of government is one of the major forms of power-sharing in modern democracies. It is most commonly referred to as federalism.

The existence of social diversity does not threaten democracy. Political expression of social differences is possible and sometimes quite desirable in a democratic system. Three kinds of social differences that can take the form of social divisions and inequalities are social differences based on gender, religion and caste.

A political party is a group of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government. They agree on some policies and programmes for the society with a view to promote the collective good. Parties reflect fundamental political divisions in a society.

We face a dilemma: democracy is seen to be good in principle, but felt to be not so good in its practice. This dilemma invites us to think hard about the outcomes of democracy.