Our Revision Notes for GSEB Class 9 Social Science Notes Chapter 12 Indian Democracy summarises the key points of a chapter and useful resource to prepare effectively for the upcoming board exams.

Indian Democracy Class 9 GSEB Notes Social Science Chapter 10

Indian Democracy Class 9 GSEB Notes

→ India has the highest number of voters in the world.

→ Population wise India is the largest democratic country of the world.

→ Our country has a Parliamentary System.

→ In our country all the governing bodies are elected through voting. Thus democracy is realised by elections.

→ A voter is very important in a democracy.

→ Our country has Universal Adult Suffrage.

→ The system of Universal Adult Suffrage is based on the principle of ‘One Person One Vote.’

→ Every voter should exercise the right to vote.

→ The people can evaluate their representatives during elections.

→ Candidates belonging to the political parties as well as the independent candidates who do not belong to any political party can contest election.

→ In an election the winning candidate of any party or belonging to a election is the foundation of democracy.

→ Election is the life line of a nation’s democracy.

→ Indian democracy elections are very important for the political parties as well as the candidates.

→ Election is the barometer of democracy.

→ Election provides an opportunity to a voter to evaluate the contesting candidates. Election gives a picture of a country’s social and economic environment.

→ Election decides the future of the Government.

→ Elections are contested by political parties, independent candidates, as well as a coalition of political parties.

→ Election being soul of a democracy it is essential that it is transparent.

→ The candidate who wins the election represents the people.

→ In representative system the ruling party would like to regain and retain its power.

→ To regain and retain its power it becomes essential for the political parties to connect with the people.

→ Public opinion is highly essential for political parties, representatives and organisations. Collective public opinion is extremely important in democracy.

→ Strong and organised public opinion is very important in democracy.

→ Public opinion helps in creating such a condition where the Government cannot afford to misrule or neglect the country.

→ Alert and intelligent public that keeps itself informed cannot be misled by the Government.

→ Various mediums in the modem times have proved to be very important in creating public opinion

→ To cultivate the human psyche and to create a strong public opinion the various information and
broadcasting agencies are very useful.

→ These mediums contributing to build strong and effective public opinion are :

→ Print Media – Newspapers, periodicals and journals are print media.

→ Electronic Media : Audio visual media like the radio, television, cinema etc. are important electronic media.

→ Electronic media are very important in today’s time.

Types of Democracy : There are two types of democracies i.e. Parliamentary Democracy and Presidential Democracy.

Parliamentary Democracy

→ Our country has accepted the Parliamentary Democracy.

→ The Parliamentary Government is completely accountable to the Lok Sabha, the Lower House of the Parliament.

→ Government remains in power as long as it enjoys the confidence of the majority of the members of the parliament.

→ Presidential Democracy : Presidential democracy is the second important type of democracy. In such a type of democracy the President is directly elected by the people, eg; USA.

→ The Election Commission maintains the administration, control and monitoring of the entire process of election.

→ It is essential for any democracy that its Election Commission is independent, impartial and autonomous.

→ The responsibility and authority to hold elections for the Parliament, State Assembly, Legislative Council, President and the Vice President rest with the Election Commission.

→ The election of our country is carried out by secret ballot.

→ When an election takes place to choose a new Member of Parliament for a particular constituency is known as By-election. It is held when the former member has died or left suddenly or resigned.

→ In our country elections are conducted in a complete independent and secret manner.

→ It is expected that the voters vote without any benefit, greed or fear. “Secret Ballot’ is given utmost importance in a democracy.

→ Two processes are used for voting.

• Voting by a ballot paper
• Voting through an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM).

→ If a voter decides to exercise his right to vote but not to cast his vote in favor of any of the contesting candidates, he can use the option of NOTA.

→ India is multi party democracy and hence we have various political parties.

→ Political parties are classified either into National party or Regional party based on certain specific policies and criteria decided by the Election Commission.

→ As per the information given by the Election Commission there are seven national parties registered. They are; BJP, INC, CPI, CPI(M), NCP, BSP and AITC.

→ The party forming the Government is known as the ruling party. The party which forms the opposition is called the opposition party.

→ The opposition party helps form public opinion by democratically opposing the objectionable plans and policies of the Government.

→ The success of democracy depends on a balanced relationship between the ruling and opposing party.

→ Effective and strong opposition party is a pre-requisite of a good democracy. Democracy is like a chariot. Ruling party and the opposing party are the two wheels of the chariot.