In What Ways Russia Is a Liberal Democracy?

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In what ways is Russia today a liberal democracy? In what ways is not? As time goes on, is Russia likely to become more or less democratic? Nowadays, countries can be divided into nondemocratic, new democratic and into those with old and well established democratic governments. These countries with old democracies are usually known as Western-style liberal democracies. Liberal democracy can be defined as a political system ‘[m]arked not only by free and fair elections but also by the rule of law, a separation of powers, and the protection of basic liberties of speech, assembly, religion, and property.’ (Zakaria, 2007: 17) In other words, describing a liberal democracy we can say that ‘democracy is not only about deciding who governs but also about how a country is governed.’ (Lynch, 1997:50) Illiberal democracies are usually referred to the countries which after 1990 made a transition to from authoritarian to democratic regimes by establishing multiparty system and elections. This is partly because these countries have established free and usually fair elections which let them be called democracies, however, considering the consolidation of democracy in these countries, it is evident to state that most of them failed to protect citizens of basic rights and freedoms and it mismatches with word’s liberal meaning. To sum up, it can be said that liberal democracies require not only free and fair elections, but also, strong institutions, a separation of powers, protection of human rights and freedoms. However, countries can be not only liberal democratic or illiberal. A good example of this is Russia which has both liberal and illiberal democratic features and thus, it can be said that Russia is an authoritarian and democratic hybrid. Russia today not only holds regular elections and has a multiparty system; furthermore, according to constitution, Russia has separated
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