Democracy only Exists and Strives only when the Rulers follow the Rule of Law - Fame Agidife

Democracy and the Rule of Law

As defined by theOxford English  Dictionary  democracy is (a:) "government by the people; especially : rule of the majority (b:) "a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation ...." In this context it is the people that are governed that have the supreme power of how best they are to be governed and this supreme will of the people are enshrined principle called rule of law where both the subjects and the governors are subjected to. And to this very honest principle democracy only exists and strives only when the rulers follow the Rule of Law! 

The rule of law is the legal principle that law should govern a nation, as opposed to being governed by arbitrary decisions of individual government officials. It primarily refers to the influence and authority of law within society, particularly as a constraint upon behaviour, including behaviour of government officials. The phrase can be traced back to 16th century Britain, and in the following century the Scottish theologian Samuel Rutherfordused the phrase in his argument against the divine right of kings. The rule of law was further popularized in the 19th century by British jurist A. V. Dicey. The concept, if not the phrase, was familiar to ancient philosophers such as Aristotle, who wrote "Law should govern".

Rule of law implies that every citizen is subject to the law, including law makers themselves. In this sense, it stands in contrast to an autocracy, dictatorship, or oligarchy where the rulers are held above the law. Lack of the rule of law can only lay a foundation for a failed state whereby the goverened can no longer have respect and trust for both the institutions and those that govern them through the instruments of the institutions. And often times when rulers lack the right mechanism to applying rule of law in a Democratic oriented minds he governs there we see dictatorship versus anarchy forming a marriage of a failed state. 

Plato in his benevolent monarchy advocacy ruled hoped that the best men would be good at respecting established laws, explaining that "Where the law is subject to some other authority and has none of its own, the collapse of the state, in my view, is not far off; but if law is the master of the government and the government is its slave, then the situation is full of promise and men enjoy all the blessings that the gods shower on a state." More than Plato attempted to do, Aristotle flatly opposed letting the highest officials wield power beyond guarding and serving the laws. In other words, Aristotle advocated the rule of law:

It is more proper that law should govern than any one of the citizens: upon the same principle, if it is advantageous to place the supreme power in some particular persons, they should be appointed to be only guardians, and the servants of the laws.

According to the Roman statesman Cicero, "We are all servants of the laws in order that we may be free."During the Roman Republic, controversial magistrates might be put on trial when their terms of office expired. Under the Roman Empire, the sovereign was personally immune (legibus solutus), but those with grievances could sue the treasury.