Democracy: Its Principles and Achievement

The word democracy is one of the most used terms of the political vocabulary and, while it has given rise to much comment and reflection over the years, no text was ever adopted at the world level by politicians to define its parameters or establish its scope. This was changed when the IPU Council adopted the Universal Declaration on Democracy at its session in Cairo (September 1997). The Declaration was the end result of a process in which leading personalities, representative of the different geopolitical currents, participated with their views and suggestions on the principles and achievement of democracy. The text of the Declaration and the written contributions of the eleven experts are contained in this publication.