In which country is the parliament called the “Knesset”?
A) Syria
B) Egypt
C) Iran
D) Israël

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While I was playing a game, that’s one of the questions we were asked. Not knowing the answer, I immediately thought “D” because in my mind, that’s the only country that has a parliament. It's a parliamentary system so Israel has a parliament for sure. By the way, a parliament is a group of chambers that holds legislative power, or the power to make laws that will impact your rights, your duties, and your daily life.

Anyway, I was actually wrong in my reasoning. Egypt and Iran are both republics with parliaments (not named “Knesset” like in Israel). The first one is a democratic republic and its parliament is named Majlis Al-Nuwab (House of Representatives) and the other one is a theologic republic where the parliament is called Majles Shoraye Eslami (Islamic Parliament of Iran).

However, another thought hit me; I learned in school that when the word "democratic" is in a country's name, it usually means the opposite, making the government be more like an authoritarian regime.

I have some critical thinking as well and I know that everything we learn in school is not the one and only one beautiful truth... but I also learned recently in history class about the definition of democracy in Antic Grece. According to Periclès, the leader of the democratic party who dominated Athenian political life for more than 30 years, “our Constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority, but of the entire people.” (translation from Le Monde diplomatique).

My teacher led us to the following conclusion: what if there are different definitions of democracy? After spending some time learning about Ancient Greece, I'm finally able to share some insights. "Demo" is actually a term that refers to people, and "cracy" is used to talk about power. I continued to think and realized that my native language - French - has two unalike meanings for the word pouvoir, or power.

It might seem excessive, but here is a chart to help keep track of these two meanings.

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                             Meaning 1                                                                                          Meaning 2

          Pouvoir - the French noun                                                               Pouvoir - the French verb

          Power - English translation                                                              Being able to - English translation

          Definition: the ability to make someone do something               Definition: The ability to do something, to be free 

          for you; has an influence on someone’s behavior.                         enough to make things happen the way you want.

          Influence                                                                                            Freedom​​​​​​​​

          Example: In France, people vote for the deputies to                    Example: In Athens, even if things are a bit more

          establish laws in their interest. Here's another example:              elaborate, , there was a sortition. The citizens were 

          in Egypt, the president makes most of the decisions by               randomly chosen to make the laws at the Boule

          himself. But he has to make things somewhat better for              (the name of that Assemblee).

          the people, at least make it seem that way, to avoid a

          revolution. In both examples, people have an influence.

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Nonetheless, none of these systems are perfect, here is why...

          ● One person taking the decisions for the people can assure stability. And whether you like it or not, having everyone decide each decision or having an important part in the decisions can easily lead to chaos. Sometimes it’s impossible to make everyone or even a majority agree.

          ● If only one person is leading then that person might not listen to your voice. If that person has everyone's attention, they can easily manipulate people. They have the power. To sum that up, it's called demagogy.

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There are two sides to democracy. On one side, the people influence the decisions. On the other, the people make the decisions. Even so, there's more than one way, one side, to look at things: not everything is black and white (I ’m guessing you've already heard that line before).

I just wanted to share this with you in the hope that you might ask yourself, what does democracy mean to me? Even if you don't know the answer, I believe it's important to take two minutes to think for yourself; engaging in reflection can stray from the prescribed perspective.