We shall call a political system democratic when it allows the free formulatiaon of political preferences, through the use of basic freedoms of association, information and commonication, for the purpose of freecompetition. Between leanders to validate at regular interval by non-violent means their claim to rule, a democratic system does this without excluding any effetive political office from that competition of prohibiting any members of the political community from expressing ther preference by norms reguiring the use of force to enforce them.
