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The word demokratia comes from δῆμος dêmos "people" and κράτος krátos "power": "the people hold power." Demos, including the lower classes, had political equality and not while respecting laws and institutions, was given full and absolute control of power and government." [2]
Socialism was the word predominantly used by Marxists up until World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution, at which time Vladimir Lenin made the conscious decision to replace the term socialism with communism, renaming the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party to the All-Russian Communist Party. [124] [120]
Modern uses of the term socialism are wide in meaning and interpretation. Because a sovereign state is a different entity from the political party that governs that state at any given time, a country may be ruled by a socialist party without the country itself claiming to be socialist or the socialist party being written into the constitution.
Communism derives from the French word communisme, a combination of the Latin word communis (which literally means common) and the suffix isme (an act, practice, or process of doing something). [ 70 ] [ 71 ] Semantically, communis can be translated to "of or for the community", while isme is a suffix that indicates the abstraction into a state ...
Several socialist (or socialist-leaning) leaders have followed Allende's example in winning election to office in Latin American countries." [ 183 ] Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez , Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega , Bolivian President Evo Morales and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa refer to their political programmes as socialist and ...
A democracy is a political system, or a system of decision-making within an institution, organization, or state, in which members have a share of power. [2] Modern democracies are characterized by two capabilities of their citizens that differentiate them fundamentally from earlier forms of government: to intervene in society and have their sovereign (e.g., their representatives) held ...
A republic (Latin: res publica) is a form of government in which the country is considered a "public matter", not the private concern or property of the rulers. The primary positions of power within a republic are not inherited, but are attained through elections expressing the consent of the governed .
The term democracy first appeared in ancient Greek political and philosophical thought in the city-state of Athens during classical antiquity. [43] [44] The word comes from dêmos '(common) people' and krátos 'force/might'. [45] Under Cleisthenes, what is generally held as the first example of a type of democracy in 508–507 BC was ...