following characteristics are often associated with democracies sustained and recurring national elections competitive politi
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
a) Sustained and recurring national elections contribute to democracy because this is the way the voters select their representatives. By having elections, the leaders of the nation are chosen by the people. Democracies are governments that rule with the "consent of the governed," and elections provide that consent. Also, the elections must be recurring so that the leaders know that they will not be in office forever and if "the governed" are unhappy with the way their government is working, the voters have to ability to vote their leaders out of office in the next election.
Competitive political parties also contribute to democracy because there
must be competition in order for the voters to have an actual choice. If there is a single party that dominates the system, the voters are no choosing their representatives and therefore it is not really a democracy because there is no "consent of the governed." When parties are competitive they must work for the votes of the people and will try to give them what they want. If the major party has no competition, it has greater liberty in making decisions that the governed will not agree with because that party knows that it does not have to worry about reelection.
b) Sustained and recurring national elections did not really contribute to Mexico's democracy until within the past fifteen years. Elections were rigged by the major party, the PRI, up until and including the presidential election of 1988 and therefore the votes of the people were not meaningful...