What is Democracy?

Summary

Democracy consists of four basic elements:

I want to begin with an overview of what democracy is.  We can think of democracy as a system of government with four key elements:

A political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections.

2.  The active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life.

3.  Protection of the human rights of all citizens.

4.  A rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens.

I want to talk about each of these four elements of what democracy is.  Then I will talk about the obligations and requirements of citizens in a democracy.

Then I will conclude by talking about the obligations that we, the international community, have to the people of Iraq as you seek to build the first true democracy in the Arab world.