Ce este... şi ce nu este democraţia

Free elections and majority rule are not enough for a modern democracy to deserve its name. These are just minimal procedural conditions that are necessary but not sufficient. Instead, more substantial operative principles must be observed by the political actors, such as the tacit consensus of politicians to defend the rules of the game while in office, or the limitation of the political uncertainty by keeping “unacceptable” items out of the political agenda. This is a minimal definition of democracy that allows for a lot of local variation in institutional setting and administrative performance.