Meanings of democracy

Question 1

This defines democracy as institutional arrangement for arriving at a political decision in which individuals acquire power to decide by means of competitive struggle for people’s vote.

Answer 1

Proceduralist definition (Schumpeter, 1943)

Question 2

The most powerful collective decision makers are selected through fair, honest, and periodic elections in which candidates freely compete for votes and which virtually all the adult population is eligible to vote.

Answer 2

Proceduralist definition (Huntington 1991)

Question 3

This definition of democracy emphasizes on formal institutions and mechanisms.

Answer 3

Proceduralist definition

Question 4

This definition of democracy combine the proceduralist definition with other institutions, mostly human rights, as fundamental to democracy.

Answer 4

Middle-range definition

Question 5

This definition characterizes democracy as a combination of competition, participation, and civil and political liberties of a person.

Answer 5

Middle-range definitions (George Sorensen 1993)

Question 6

This definition characterizes democracy as the existence of participatory decision making mechanisms supported by civil and political liberties.

Answer 6

Middle-range definition (Diamond, Linz, and Lipset, 1989)

Question 7

This defines democracy more broadly by adding more normative and substantive notions of political society.

Answer 7

Long-range definitions

Question 8

Democracy must also include mechanisms that ensure that market forces are not more powerful than social institutions.

Answer 8

Long-range definition (Held, 1996)

Question 9

Defines democracy as the principle that individuals should have the possibility to organize their lives as they wish, to choose their own ends, and mine.

Answer 9

Long range definition (Laclau and Mouffe, 1985)