We live in times gripped by the conviction that periodic ‘free and fair’ elections at the national level are the heart and soul of democracy. The conviction has deep taproots with a remarkable history. In 1945, there were only a dozen representative democracies left on our planet. Since that time, in nearly 90 countries, national elections have come to be seen widely as the best way of forming good governments, sometimes even as a ‘timeless’ and non-negotiable feature of the good political life. Article 21 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in December 1948, famously set the standard. Leggi tutto »
