The preconditions for democracy

Hamas was appointed the task of forming a Palestinian government on Saturday. In the light of the party's election victory, sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf draws the following conclusions: "First, elections rarely solve fundamental problems. In particular, they do not create a liberal order. To be effective, elections must be preceded by a period of debate and argument. Cases have to be made and attacked or defended... This means, secondly, that first elections, and perhaps elections more generally, are not themselves a sufficient guarantee of liberty. As the German constitutional court judge Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde put it, 'democracies cannot create the conditions of their survival and success'. What are these conditions, and who creates them? The answer to the first question is, the rule of law."

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