Orion, Not necesasrily. Independent judicial, executive and legislative bodies and freedom are not necessarily the components of democarcy. Democracy in its pure form is electing your leaders. To check what your leaders do, to protect your rights (property and political) you need to supllement your democracy with the RULE OF LAW. The Rule of LAW is an IMPORTANT SUPPLEMENT but not a COMPONENT of democracy, and the recent examples have shown that the RULE OF LAW can be achieved without having a democractically elected governmnet. The institutions of democracy are built by the regimes which may not bedemocratic.. and those are the regimes who make a successful transitions to democracy. here's some books/articles.. If you are interested: Brumberg, Daniel: Beyond Liberalization? Wilson Quarterly. Spring 2004. Carothers, Thomas: Messy Democracy. Washington Post. April 8, 2003. Chua, Amy: The World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability. London: Arrow (2003). Gunson Phil: Venezuela : A latin Enigma. Newsweek. Aug. 16 2004. Kaplan, Robert D.: Was Democracy Just a Moment. The Atlantic Monthly. December, 1997. Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos. USA: Vintage (2003). McFaul, Michael A.: Shine the Light of Liberty in Russia as Well. Hoover Institution Weekly Essays. November 24, 2003. Mahubani, Kishore : Can Asian Think? Understanding the Divide Between East and West. Vermont: Steerforth (2002). Olcott, Martha B.: Kazakhstan 'Democracy' is Spelled 'Dynasty'. Newsday, July 14, 2002. Ottaway, Marina: African Priorities, Democracy isn?t The Place to Start. International Herald Tribune. May 23, 2003. Pei, Minxin: Is China Democratizing. Foreign Affairs. Jan/Feb, 1998. Implementing the Institutions of Democracy. International journal on World Peace. December, 2002. Weingast, Barry: The Political Foundations of Democracy and the Rule of Law. American Political Science Review. June `1997. Yew, Lee K.: From Third World to First: The Singapore Story: 1965- 2000. Singapore: Times Media House (2000). Zakaria, Fareed: The Rise of Illiberal Democracies. Foreign Affairs. November, 1997. The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad. USA: W.W. Norton & Company (2003). and Micheal Mandelbaum's The Ideas That Conquered the World (2003).