The world's first democracy, the United States, was founded in large part as a reaction against religious oppression. So it's no surprise that the protection of rights to religious and cultural beliefs and practices are cornerstones of democratic societies. And yet, even in our heterogeneous world, protections for ethnic and religious minorities can seem fragile at best. The benefits of democracy can be found in every part of the globe. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and its communist ideology in 1991, democracy has been touted as the only real answer to the world's challenges. At the same time, the true meaning of democracy has rarely been so extensively tested. Foundations of Democracy, will take a global view of the fundamental cornerstones of this form of government that Winston Churchill famously called "the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried."

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