controlled democracy

I always wonder if there is any thing which is called controlled democracy. But I happen to use it many times these days. I see lot of orderliness and best infrastructure in the countries I visit . I feel there is certain level of descipline, and work culuture which is needed for this, in day to day life. This comes only by compulsion or fear of authority which is what I like to call controlled democracy.

In India we feel democracy means the right of every individual to do what he/she wants to do. We feel it is all about the rights of citizens without a care for the duties of citizens. We just are not bothered about the community as an entity and are bothered as individuals and our immediate family and friends.
This can be explained by simple examples which I have seen.

In America one has to keep his lawn mowed and kept properly otherwise any body living in the community in which he lives can complain and action will be taken. This intially made me feel that it is absurd and an intrusion of individual rights and I wondered if it is a democratic country or is it a communist country where you are all the time afraid of the authority for every small thing you do.(that is how I visualize communist country after reading about common people of China and Russia). But when I started thinking about it I understood that our front yard is part of community in which we live and it is the duty to keep it proper.

Similarly, I see people who take their dogs for walks always carryng a plastic bag and a showel with them. This is to clean after their dog and put it in a dust bin. You have guessed it right. If they don't do it and get caught they have to pay a fine of 50 dollars. So you don't have to bother about your neighbour's pet spoiling your courtyard every morning and making you livid.

Any individual can complain about the neighbour being loud with music or simply noise. This is taken care of at basic level. when one is living in apartments the complaints are left with the managing office and they immediately send a note to the concerned people. By and large the problem is solved at this level itself.
This may not be practical in India, but at least we can put a stop to the loud speaker music and loud public addresses.

The houses and apartments can not be painted in some jarring color and has to stick to the basic colors decided by the community. so that is why it appears rather drab for people like me who are used to the variety of color and structure back home.

This point I understood in a place called Sedona in the state of Arizona. It is a tourist spot where they are very particular about being green. (what ever it means) The Mcdonalds chain of fast food joint, was not allowed in that place until they agreed to change their colour in their logo of MCdonalds from yellow to green. They intially resisted and then had to bow to the community pressure and the Mcdonalds is green there and the guide pointed this proudly to us.
The traffic police is quite powerful here. When ever driving, if a car flashing with a blue light is following, then they have to stop in the side of the road. It might be for speeding, or not stopping at signal or any other violation of traffic rule. He will issue what is called a ticket and if it is a first timer he will be let off after he agrees to attend a correction class where they teach about traffic rules. Others have to pay a fine and apart from it the individual's annual insurance fee also goes up considerably with every ticket. I understand after x many tickets the individual's licence can also be revoked.
Compare this with our great Salman khan who killed people without a licence and going scot free and continues to commit greater crimes and is gaining publicity for all this and getting more film offers.

This I see in singapore also that even if you just pluck a flower in a public place you are liable to a fine. and you can imagine what will happen if you violate traffic rules and other basic stuff.
In Malaysia I see lot of private buildings making way for public transport system, seemingly smoothly taking alternate sites. There may be some legal tiffs which is not publicized but it is solved quite fast in favour of public interest unlike our country where a stay order from any court can stop any public work.
This fact keeps emphasised in my mind when ever I travel in the east coast road from chennai to pondicherry where the road has to take a bend as there is a huge property of some influential person who refused his land to be taken away for the road to be straight . That place is accident prone because of the sudden narrowness.
when are we going to learn to give importance to public interest over and above personal interest.
This can happen only by controlled democracy when we are afraid to commit day to day small offences like not following road rules, and not follwing basic community rules and there is an authority to question it.