Democracy and Importance of People s Participation: Highlighting the Role of Media

People’s participation is the cornerstone of democracy, and it inevitably influences the goals of public policy. Democratization is a process which transmits a democratic government to a more democratic political regime through the active participation of the people. This paper aims at analyzing the importance of people’s participation in the process of democratization and the hindrances towards the process. The role of civil society, NGOs and different modes of communication in enhancing people’s participation is also described. Women continue to be under-represented in the political and economic decision-making process. To strengthen women’s participation in improved functioning of democracy, a series of positive measures have been mentioned. The mass media constitutes the backbone of democracy. This paper interrogates these two concepts- democracy and people’s participation and attempts to clarify the relationship between them by highlighting the role of media.

Keywords:
: People s Participation, Democracy, Democratization, Civil Society, Mass Media, Citizens etc