What is a consolidated democracy?
A democracy is considered “consolidated” when, as scholar Juan Linz suggests, it is the only game in town. What this means is that a large majority of the countries’ population accepts the democratic institutions as legitimate and thus they exist relatively unchallenged. However, this also means that there must be a strong democratic culture in place as well. This means that, in general, the population believes in the basic tenets of democracy and participates in various aspects of civil society.