election of large numbers of citizens to Soviets (Councils), electoral
commissions, factory and collective farm councils and the like.
Choosing rulers
In modern liberal democracies, however, democracy is often thought
of primarily in terms of the opportunity for citizens to freely choose
their rulers at periodic intervals, rather than to make governmental
decisions for themselves.
There seems little doubt that forcing rival groups of potential
rulers to compete for popular votes is an important element in
ensuring that modern democracies maintain some responsiveness to
the interests and desires of their electorates. For lack of this simple
device many Third World and communist regimes appear to have lost
contact with their citizens and consequently have collapsed.
Free elections seem to be something which cannot be dispensed
with in a democracy – and an institution which is more difficult
to implement than those who take it for granted might suspect
(Mckenzie, 1958). A secret ballot, freedom from blatant election
bribery and corruption, parties free to campaign anywhere in the
country and a reasonably unbiased electoral system seem simple and
obvious devices in those countries which have achieved them.
However, experience in Eastern Europe and Africa, Asia and Latin
America in recent years has shown how difficult such conditions are
to achieve.
More subtle factors, however, can be seen to affect the effec-
tiveness and responsiveness of democracies; in particular the extent
to which the political parties and constitutional arrangements offer a
real choice to the electorate. In this respect the USA might be thought
to be less ‘democratic’ than Britain. We should also consider the
extent to which the educational and economic condition of the mass
of the electorate makes effective political participation by them a real
possibility.
Electoral systems
Many discussions of liberal democracy place great emphasis on the
range of electoral systems used and the assessment of the merits of
each. In particular the merits of ‘proportional representation’ versus
DEMOCRACY 173