Liberal Democracy

LIBERAL DEMOCRACY

Liberal democracy is the form of governance that is mostly related with the modern nation state. However, it cannot be said that all nation states have liberal democracy, like Fascist Italy which was an authoritarian regime. Democratization is the transformation of political, economic and social structures from authoritarian or totalitarian rule to liberal democracy. After the transition stage of democratization is completed, consolidation stage begins. The consolidation stage includes the inspiration of democratic values, the legitimization and full institutionalization of a new democracy. Liberal democracy has many characteristics that give many rights to people and protect those rights.

In liberal democracy; the people who are elected by the community govern the country in behalf of the community. The elections are made according to the rule of law. Every citizen of full legal age have right to vote in elections. There is no discrimination between men and women in this aspect. They are equal. Elections have to be fair and free. OSI controls the elections by sending over teams to the country where the elections take place. Its aim is to learn if the elections are going right or not.

Liberal democracy is different from other regimes, in the sense that it has a group of rules and institutions. These institutions could be defined as the whole mechanism in order to protect or implement the aspects of liberal democracy. The constitutional fortification of control over government policy in elected representatives is one of them. This means that there are some mechanisms that control the government’s actions. Thus, the government is not free to do whatever it wants.

In liberal democracy, every citizen has the right to freedom of expression. This freedom can be in all areas, including criticism of government and its actions.

Accessible sources of information and an established right to form and join independent associations are two of the important features of liberal democracy. The information is mostly gained through the media in these years, especially from the newspapers, internet and television. Information from the world including government documents is