Golding makes sure that there is no doubt that Ralph is a good-natured fair person. However, his leadership skills are something not to be desired. His apparent lack of leadership skills and his prominent sense of democracy eventually lead to his demise.
From the beginning, Ralph is described as the fair boy. He is unwilling to make decisions by himself and, unlike Jack, doesnt consider totalitarian governing. His nature is one of sharing and fairness. This is evident when he tells Jack, "The choir belongs to you, of course." Even at the young age of 12, he has a firm grasp of democracy, using the conch to give everyone a fair go saying, "I'll give the conch to the next person to speak." We does not discriminate on age or size, but has the view that all are equal and should be treated the same. Ralph has an abundant amount of good qualities and a pure, civilised heart.
Ralph is not the ideal leader as he is simply too nice and too much of a good person. The main contributing factor to his downfall would be the decision to give Jack the choir. Ralph is giving all of the biguns to his greatest threat, Jack. This is a huge strategical error, which annihilates his power and control. His democratic nature means that he must vote on everything. In some cases, this is a good thing, but as a leader this is one thing he probably shouldve avoided. He let fear grow by taking a vote on the beast. Because he is not a natural leader, he doesnt instinctively use the fear to his advantage as Jack does. Instead, the fear worked against him, and the littluns flocked to Jack who offered protection from it. His sense of sharing and fairness mean that Ralph is a bad leader.
Another shortcoming of Ralph is the fact that he doesnt protect his authority symbol the conch. The conch is what draws everyone to Ralph. He is known as the boy with the conch. As the novel progresses, it is clear that Ralph represents civilisation whereas Jack represents savagery.