Comment Engagement with Science: A Necessary Condition for the Survival of Democracy†

Abstract

Background: assembly, representative and monitory democracy When you enter ‘democracy’ into the search function of Google, the opening result leads to Wikipedia where the first sentence of the Wikipedia article states that: ‘Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible people have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives’.1 The article goes on to inform you that the Greek word Demokratia, from which it is derived, means ‘rule of the people’ and that this word combines two words: Demos or ‘people’ and Kartos or ‘power’. For most people this common description still reflects the essence of what ‘democracy’ should be. There has been little change to this origination myth2 since the days of Athens (5th and 4th century BC) or Aristotle. What has continuously changed over the years is the definition of ‘citizen’ and the criteria for eligibility to partake in democratic systems.