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others? Why do some individuals have a better chance of becoming a president or a
parliament member than others do?
The purpose of this study is to formulate a new theory of democracy. The new theory
will take into account the merits of current democratic theories; it will also attempt to
remedy their shortcomings. Thus, I assume that the procedural definition of democracy,
that political rights and civil liberties are essential, is fundamental. Any system that calls
itself a democracy needs to fulfill these two basic requirements of democracy in order to
prevent arbitrary barriers that would impede the socioeconomic and political activities of
citizens. The new theory will, however, go beyond the procedural definition of
democracy and will argue that democratic development is an open-ended process;
citizens will likely continue to possess a greater equality of power or influence over time.
I assume that the open-ended nature of democratic development is mainly a function of
economic development, the political process, and external factors. On the other hand,
while the classical Greek democracy model may not be implemented in modern nation
states, current democratic countries could treat its ideal of political equality as an ultimate
political goal. While democratic development may not reach the ideal goal because of
the presence of some inherent tension between individual liberty and equality, it may,
however, likely achieve a system that I will call normal democracy. In a normal
democracy, the distribution of power or the level of democracy among citizens of a given
society would, as it will become clear later on, be normally distributed.
This study is organized as follows: first, I will provide a new definition of democracy.
Second, I will discuss the conditions that are mainly responsible for transition to
democratic rule. Third, I will analyze the process of democratic development after
Convention