Defensive democracy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. This article has been tagged since January 2007. |
Defensive Democracy is a term popularized by Israel Supreme Court chief justice Aharon Barak [1] to explain a situation in which a democratic society has to limit some rights and freedoms in order to protect the institutions of the democracy.
[edit] Examples
[edit] Israel
After the extreme right wing Kach Party won representation to the Israeli parliament in 1984, Israel's Supreme Court outlawed the party and did not allow it to run again in the 1988 elections on the basis that the party advocates racism.
[edit] Europe
Ten countries in Europe have outlawed Holocaust denials: France (Loi Gayssot), Belgium (Belgian Negationism Law), Switzerland (article 261bis of the Penal Code), Germany (§ 130 (3) of the penal code), Austria (article 3h Verbotsgesetz 1947), Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, and Poland (article 55 of the law creating the Institute of National Remembrance 1998).
