Demcratic Principles:

Rights, Responsibilities, and Involvement

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Democracy is a term that seems to surfaces every four years, when a presidential election looms on the horizon. America is a democratic nation that has, since its inception, taken great pride in the rights expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. . .”

	Explore the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives.

This phrase, taken from the Declaration of Independence, is best remembered as perhaps the cornerstone of democracy in America because it set forth the basic tenets under which America was formed.

We at the School SafetyNet are confident that a substantial part of the solution to creating safe school environments will be found in our ability as humans to create a profound change in our ability to connect with one another. In essence, we as a democratic nation must become more democratic. It is the power of democracy at work which will bring to the issue of creating safe school environments the profound impetus for change. Indeed it is the only thing that can.

“Democracy . . .is the only system that can successfully cope with the changing demands of contemporary civilization. . . .Democracy becomes a functional necessity whenever a social system is competing for survival under conditions of chronic change.” (Slater & Bennis, 1990, p. 168-169).

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