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Originally posted by vmpaul: Question: If a 'democratic' state votes in a Fundamentalist authoritarian government (i.e. Iran, pre-war Afghanistan), is it still going to be considered 'democratic'? I would think that a real democracy would involve more than one single trip to the ballot box. Wouldn't it require a succession of elections, some progressive representation including the peaceful transition of power? |
Correct. That's why people in the field (like the National Endowment for Democracy and the German Stiftungen (e.g. the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung) talk about democratization as a process that takes years to complete (if it can ever be said to be complete). It takes more than just holding an election, it takes building a pluralistic civil society.
It's a difficult, and often painful process. Democratizing regimes can often be pretty brutal. Nevertheless, in the long run it is worth the effort.