"Democracy means holding political leaders accountable. It is a collection of norms and institutional mechanisms that, the better they function, facilitate a broader degree of political participation, and, guarantee a greater level of social and economic equality."
"Democracy is connection; it’s honouring and celebrating the fact that we all live and breath under the same sky."
We asked Guillermo Yrizar Barbosa, What is democracy? [quote style="default"]"Democracy Is... the inclusion of diversity and heterogeneity on public affairs, a process in which power is shared by people with multiple socio-cultural and ethno-racial backgrounds in order to promote well-being across any type of borders and frontiers harming [...]
"Democracy is a way of life we should always strive for."
"In a democracy, citizens elect their leaders in open and transparent elections, and hold leaders accountable for their policies as well as their conduct in office. Ideally, leaders are willing to build consensus and reach compromise to develop policies that benefit the common good."
"Democracy is imperfect but it is one of the most just ways to govern. It gives voice to the voiceless and privileges compromise over absolutes."
"Democracy produces history, and is produced by it. If we have a sense that time flows forward from a past filled with events through a present filled with a possibility to a future defined in part by our choices, democracy is possible. This is why enemies of democracy seek to kill both the past and the future, and keep us trapped in a relentless present. Democracy involves us in a succession principle, reminding us that both continuity (of the state) and change (of its rulers) is possible. This is why enemies of democracy feed us a mythical past in which we were always innocent, and instruct us not to worry about what comes next."
"Democracy is, when the opinion of the other counts, when the majority decision is upheld but takes the minority point of view into consideration and when there is willingness to compromise for the common good."
"Democracy is, by definition, 'rule by the people.' This does not require a perfect correspondence between some impossible to define 'will of the people' and political outcomes, but it does require that the divergence between the two not be too great. In addition, political equality is the heart of democracy: some citizens cannot be systematically and permanently more powerful or impactful than others."
"Democracy is a system of governance in which ordinary citizens get to have an informed and meaningful say about decisions that affect their lives."