DEMOCRACY, QUALITY OF DEMOCRACY AND DEMOCRATIZATION

Abstract

Researches about democracy carried out during the last three decades have gone hand in hand with the changing contexts and conditions that shook the region. The problems with the transition and consolidation of the democracy dominated the agenda during the 80’s and something similar is happening nowadays with researches on the quality of democracy. There are hundreds of studies carried out about this topic as well as experiences that try to evaluate the results. This article suggests that the raising attention on the quality of democracy is also shown in studies that deal with the issue of democratization, topics which are discussed in many texts as tethered and mutually connected with one another. While the former addresses the issue of knowing and assessing which democracy we have, the latter considers the democratic view as a unit that does not have an end and incorporates new tasks and challenges that express the changing sensibility of our societies and values.