“Democratic elections are not merely symbolic. …… They are competitive, periodic, inclusive, definitive elections in which the chief decision-makers in a government are selected by citizens who enjoy broad freedom to criticize government, to publish their criticism, and to present alternatives.”[1]
The above is the definition of democratic elections from Jeane Kirkpatrick, who is a political scholar and the former US representative to the United Nations. She is also the first female US representative to the United Nations. She suggests that democratic elections should be highly competitive and fair. In addition, everyone should be available to enjoy the freedom of speech and freedom of assembly while the oppositions have the rights to have public movement to criticize the government. It is not a kind of violence.
Jeane Kirkpatrick was born in Oklahoma in 1926. She got degree from Stephens College in Columbia in 1948. In 1968, she had earned a PhD in political science from the same college. She had been Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy adviser and became the first woman to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. In 2006, she died at home in Bethesda because of her heart disease which had been diagnosed for several years.
[1] 「民主選舉」真的代表人民的意志嗎？ – http://usmgtcgov.tw/forum/topics/6473745:Topic:50083
Written by Mok Ka Wing