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Liberal democracy is a form of representative democracy where the voting rights in order to take decisions are not respected (exception to that rule is a single vote for a representative, that takes place every four or every six years) and in which majority is restricted by constitutional rights that are about to protect several minorities, such as freedom of speech and assembly, freedom of religion, the right to private property and privacy, as well as equality before the law and due process under the rule of law, and many many more.

Such rights are guaranteed through various institutions and statutory laws in order to protect the rights of individuals and minorities from the 'Majoritarianism'.

Contemporary "liberal" representative "democracy", as long as it requires the above constitutional restrictions (also named liberal rights) in order to function, is not as liberal as the original ancien Democracy was. In the original Athenian Democracy definition, no constitutional rights took place. The only restrictions were: The total respect to the vote of every citizen to every and to all polls that took place in otder to decide something, the Graphe Paranomon, the equal respect for all citizens (Isotimia), the equality in front of the law (Isonomia), and the equal right for all citizents to speak the same amount of time in front of the assembly (Isegoria). Obviously original ancien definition of Democracy, due to the absence of constitution and due to those very limited restrictions, is a much more liberal political regime than contemporary "liberal" "Democracy" is.

Thats why the name "liberal" for the contemporary "democracy" is not the appropriate one, as long as the word "democracy" isnt also. It should be named "protective constitutional representative time-limited Oligarchy" or "Republic". "Time-limited Oligarchy" comes from the fact that not all citizens, but only a few ones are about to take the decisions, but their power to decide may be canceled every time a representative election takes place.

Australia, Canada, the member states of the European Union, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway and the United States are all examples of liberal democracy (though of course it is sometimes argued that none is perfect with respect to the above rights).

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See also:

• liberalism

External link

• Definition of word "liberal"

• Elections
• Liberalism