ABSTRACT
Democracy is a system of collective decision-making in which adults have the right to participate as equals in some essential stage of the decision-making. In a modern representative democracy, people participate as equals in voting for representatives in the legislature and the executive and sometimes in the judiciary. The most basic framework of rights under which people participate as equals in a democracy consists of the right to vote, the right to run for office, the rights to associate with others in political parties and other political associations, the rights to express one's opinions freely in support of candidates, parties, policies, or the basic aims of policy. The right to vote is subject to an egalitarian principle; the principle is one person one vote. This implies that persons have equal votes in each election they may participate in, it requires that the decision rule is majoritarian, and in many circumstances, it requires that legislative districts are of equal size so that each person's vote counts for the same in terms of its effect on the legislature.
