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Liberal democracy is a form of representative democracy in which majority rule is qualified by respect for liberal rights 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 else. Such rights are guaranteed through various institutions and statutory laws in order to protect the rights of individuals and minorities from the 'Majoritarianism'.

In that sense, contemporaty liberal democracy is not such a liberal one, as long as it requires the above constitutional restrictions in order to function. In the original Atheninan Democracy definition, no constitution took place. The only (obvious) restrictions were the respect to the vote of all citizens, the respect to the result of all polls and the Graph Paranomon. Original ancien definition of Democracy is much more liberal than contemporaty "liberal" Democracy.

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

• Elections
• Liberalism