Principles of Democracy

four of them
Regular Free and Fair Elections
RFFE means that elections occur when they are scheduled, which is
most ideally every few years so that the officials are incentivized to be
in the good graces of the people they represent. The “fair” portion just
means that these elections are open for all affected citizens to vote in
them, and that their votes count equally.
The principle in ACTION!

New Zealand is oft praised for its mixed member

proportional election voting system which Pew
Research considers one of the most “fair”. The mascot
for this method is “Orange Guy,” who I have used here
to represent regular free and fair elections being
properly implemented in a democracy.
The principle being IGNORED!

This is a ballot box that was a part of the recount in

the contested 2000 election between George Bush
and Al Gore. This election featured mishandling of
ballots and disagreements over whether recounts
were ethical. Because the supreme court was made to
step in, the election in general did not run smoothly,
and “nearly 3000 votes disappeared during the
machine recount”, this election shows neglect of the
RFFE principle.
Transparency

Transparency means that the citizens are kept in the loop on how the
government functions. Ideally, the aim here is to facilitate trust between citizens
and officials because the former is comforted by having the ability to check up
on their representatives, and the latter is kept in check with the knowledge that
their work can be under review.
The principle in ACTION!

The Freedom of Information Act, the emblem

of which is pictured here, is a great example of
a democracy implementing government
transparency. This law requires the US
government to release, in full or with
redactions, information that they have
previously withheld from citizens.
The principle being
IGNORED!

Nixon’s Watergate
Scandal is an example of
the US government
lacking transparency, as
Nixon and his
administration were
involved in burgling the
DNC headquarters, and
then proceeded to attempt
covering it up.
Independent Judiciary

A separate unit that reviews the laws and actions taken by the other units is
called an Independent Judiciary, and is crucial to a democracy’s function. The
people within this chapter are supposed to be without political party or other
affiliations that may sway how they vote.
The principle in ACTION!
In the US, supreme court judges are elected for life so that the incentive to
party-please is decreased. This helps make the judicial branch independent. This
image highlights how old they can get as a result.
The principle being IGNORED!
When FDR attempted to engage in “court-
packing,” he was not respecting this principle!
Court-packing would have allowed FDR to
increase the number of supreme court justices
significantly, with people sympathetic to his
leanings. This would have impacted their
impartiality, and harmed the character of the
court as a whole.
Competing Political Parties

CPP afford citizens a choice in what policies they want their representatives to
follow. Parties are groupings of beliefs that guide how they want an official to
govern.
The principle in ACTION!
Norway boasts a healthy selection of political parties, as seen
in this diagram of the 2017 parliamentary election results.
The principle being IGNORED!
While China officially has multiple political
parties, only one holds power at the national
level: the Communist Party of China.