We asked Dean Schafer, What is democracy?
[quote style=”default”]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.[/quote]
Dean Schafer is a PhD student in Political Science at the Graduate Center, CUNY. His current research project compares the backsliding democracies of Turkey, Hungary, and Venezuela, focusing on how political parties facilitate the rise of authoritarian leaders.