It would be easy to accept the popular notion that only representative democratic regimes can be legitimate, after all, that is what is familiar to citizens of the modern Western world and humans, being creatures of habit, will often accept the status quo as that which is right. ... This conferral of legitimacy on totalitarian regimes (provided that the population is genuinely supportive of them) simply cannot be right to a Western mind. However, it is quite difficult to conjure up a normative sense of legitimacy that regimes can be judged by, and therefore one in which authoritarian regimes c...

• Word Count: 2466
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: Graduate

(Dahl (1971) page 1) Dahl defines "Democracy " as a political system which has the characteristics of being completely or almost completely responsive to all its citizens. (Dahl (1971) Page 2) Since it is almost impossible for a government to be responsive to all of its citizens, Dahl calls our everyday conception of democracy Polyarchy. ... In spite of China's economic liberalization, its Communist party-state retains the essential organization structure that the Chinese communist party adopted from the Soviet Union. ... Each of these parties once again reflected its regional base in one...

• Word Count: 2103
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Graduate

Indeed, the previous decade had seen the nation's masses call for a 'constitutional government' and, by the beginning of the 1920's, elected politicians had come in from the peripheries to wield considerable, actual power. ... Why then, by the end of the decade, had the tide of democratic process receded, and how had Japan's conservative and authoritarian elements reined back power from the hands of the people? ... The ambiguity surrounding the role of the emperor and the military in the structure of Japanese government is commented on by Kato Shuichi, saying that...

• Word Count: 2458
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: Graduate