GOVT2117 Final: GOVT 1107 - Week 4 - Key Terms
17 Jan 2019
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Democracy = a regime in which governments are chosen in free and fair elections, and citizens possess all the civil liberties necessary to criticise and oppose those governments. Should not equate elections with democracy (shuts down newspapers, kills opposition) -essential but not enough eg: north korea. Must meet 4 criteria: free and fair elections, full adult suffrage, broad protection of civil liberties, no tutelary bodies (e. g. , military, king, religious leaders) If any of these missing, regime is authoritarian. Today, 89 democracies in the world (a bit less than 50%) Where: all of western europe,n. america,australia/nz, most of latin america and eastern europe, parts of asia(e. g. ,india,japan,taiwan,s. korea, handful of sub-saharan african countries(e. g. ,s. africa, ghana, Benin: 2 countries in middle east and n. africa (israel,tunisia) -between 1974 and 1990 a least 30 countries made transitions to democracy, just about doubling the number of democratic governments in the world. history of democracy. First and second waves followed by reverse waves .
