DEMOCRACY is not an abstract theory or philosophy. It is about people and the real world in which they live. Its concern is about the human condition: how people live and work. It concerns with these things because its aim is to promote and enhance the dignity and welfare of the masses of the people by creating conditions in which they can enjoy a useful, happy and productive life. To this end, it seeks to ensure that all citizens can enjoy as a right the basic necessities for modern, civilised existence; food, clothing, housing, education, health care and opportunities for leisure, recreation, and cultural pursuits. But more than this it seeks to ensure a constant improvement in their standard of living and quality of life.

Democracy therefore is not about poverty. It is about wealth-about the creation of wealth under humane conditions and the just and equitable distribution of that wealth. Low production is the direct cause of our poverty in Guyana. For us to survive as a nation we have to change this situation by increasing significantly, and continuing to increase, the national output of goods and services. But to be able to do this with any measure of success, we have to first of all have to see ourselves as one people, one nation and one destiny.

The legacy of colonialism was used to divide us in the early fifties. The economic gulf between the developed and developing countries seems to be widening and socio-political instability within the latter is on the increase.

It is therefore possible to look at the emergence of a new institutional order in terms of an interaction between broad structural features of a social system and exigencies produced by a changing environment.