ABSTRACT
The Arab Spring generated a lot of hope for universalisation of democracy, particularly in West Asia. In the 21st century, citizens in several democratic countries have denounced the shabby working of key democratic institutions such as National Parliaments, State Assemblies, Civil Service and Local Self-Government bodies. ‘Participatory democracy’ proved difficult to implement because communities grew too big and got replaced by ‘representative democracy’, a clearly superior form of governance. Athenian democracy contributed significantly both to the form and the understanding of some essential features of democracy. A great historic tale of democracy is taking shape in India as more than one billion people are engaged in one way or the other in the functioning of democratic governance. Political parties are sine qua non to representative democracy. The health of democracy is directly related to quality of leadership that a political party provides in running affairs of a nation state.
