Explain what is meant by a Liberal Democracy

Free and fair elections- Rousseau, social contractchecks and balances/ separation of powers- jeffersonpotential to talk about constitutionalism - could use Madison as a thinker/-Beetham- argued that for a nation state to had legitimacy it had to exercise power according to conventions, codes and rules that represent the nation.Choice -elitist may criticise- schumpeterprotection of rights-Locke- natural rightsuniversal suffrage-millrule of law- av dicey/ Aristotle -The rule of law is a constitutional principle respected with almost devotional intensity in liberal democratic states. The law should ‘rule’.The lack of external constraints on parliamentary sovereignty arguably questions how far it can be considered that the law rules