• Medientyp: E-Artikel
  • Titel: The Quality of Democracy: Freedom as the Foundation
  • Beteiligte: Beetham, David
  • Erschienen: Project MUSE, 2004
  • Erschienen in: Journal of Democracy
  • Sprache: Englisch
  • DOI: 10.1353/jod.2004.0057
  • ISSN: 1086-3214
  • Entstehung:
  • Anmerkungen:
  • Beschreibung: <jats:p xml:lang="en">Abstract: The paper begins by exploring the conceptual links between freedom, rights and democracy, and the institutional arrangements necessary to guarantee civil and political rights and fundamental freedoms in a democracy. It then sets out a procedure for assessing the quality of a country’s democracy in four successive steps: defining the appropriate democratic ‘goods’; identifying standards of best practice as a benchmark for the attainment of each of these ‘goods’; analyzing the typical modes of subversion which may prevent their attainment; and exploring possible agencies of protection against these subversions. After applying each of these steps to the subject of civil and political rights, the paper concludes with a reservation about the limits of purely institutional indicators.</jats:p>