Social Science (087) — CBSE Class 10 board question

Assessing Democracy's Outcomes

To assess democracy's outcomes, we must first recognise that democracy is just a form of government — it can only create conditions for achieving goals; citizens must take advantage of those conditions.

We assess democracy on the following expected outcomes:

1. Accountable & Legitimate Government: Democracy should produce a government accountable to citizens, ensuring transparency, free and fair elections, and open public debate. Democratic government is people's own government, making it legitimate.

1. Economic Well-being: Evidence shows dictatorial regimes have a slightly better growth rate (4.42%) than democracies (3.95%), but in poor countries the difference is negligible. Democracies often struggle with income inequality.

1. Social Diversity: Democracy best handles social differences by developing procedures to reduce conflict and preventing majority rule from becoming oppression of minorities.

1. Freedom & Dignity: Democracy promotes equality, enhances individual dignity, and allows correction of mistakes — outcomes non-democratic regimes cannot guarantee.

Source: Chapter 5, Outcomes of Democracy

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• Examiners expect you to cover multiple dimensions of assessment: government accountability, economic outcomes, social diversity, and legitimacy.
• Mention the data/evidence briefly (growth rates) — it shows analytical thinking.
• The key CBSE point: democracy is a form of government, not a magic solution — state this clearly.
• Use bold headings or numbered points for a 5-mark answer to make it easy to award marks.