1)
Neil J. Mitchell, of the University of New Mexico, defines and illiberal democracy by comparing it to what makes a democracy. According to Mitchell, "Democracy is a bundle of institutional and behavioral components, including regular competitive elections, full enfranchisement, free speech, an accessible and critical media, and freedom of association. Proponents of the concept of illiberal democracy strip basic liberties from the bundle. Democracy is conceived more minimally as the occurrence of competitive elections." Fareed Zakaria further expands on this idea, mentioning how democracy has been able to spread around different parts of the world, but liberty has not.
According to worldiq.com, an illiberal democracy is "a country in which the leaders and lawmakers are elected by the people, but individual freedoms such as those protected in the United States Bill of Rights or the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen do not exist."
Russia is considered an illiberal democracy because of it's structure. The President of Russia is decided on whoever receives a majority of the votes. In this sense, Russia is acting as a democracy as far as choosing a leader goes. However, Russia is considered by many extremely corrupt thus limiting individual freedom and rights. While democratic elections take place, citizens are generally misinformed or not informed at all about their countries issues, and are left in the dark. This creates a system where, while leaders are chosen democratically, the citizens tend to have very little actual power in society.
http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/courses/teachers_corner/32074.html
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Illiberal_democracy
2)News Article:
http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20674&Itemid=132
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