III. The legalization of political participation is an internal requirement of democratic politics

Human rights plus the rule of law equals democracy. Political participation is a human right seen from its essence, and is a quite necessary right for a democratic society. Political participation plus the rule of law equal the legalization of political participation, which is where democracy or the main connotation of democracy lies. Thus, the legalization of political participation is a necessary condition for democratic politics, whose existence and development cannot be separated from the process of legalizing political participation.

Firstly, the legalization of political participation is a consolidation and guarantee for democracy. The realization of democracy can only be consolidated and well guaranteed with the help of certain laws and systems. For example, the practice of representative democracy cannot be separated from the regulation and guarantee of people's right to vote by laws, so generally speaking the western democratic countries are those who need the rule of law. It's also one approach to interpreting democracy from the perspective of the law based on the important function and value of the law for consolidating democracy. For instance, some scholar believes that democracy firstly means its legal conditions, which are the basic conditions for democracy stipulated by the law, including the civil and political rights (like freedom of speech, the press and association) our citizens, social groups and communities are entitled to. Therefore, law or the rule of law should be an important dimension to interpret democracy no matter for its own development or for our understanding, as well as a connotation and important stage for the development of democracy.

Secondly, the legalization of political participation is a major connotation of democracy. Democratic politics mainly refers to political participation and its legalization, which almost mean the same with democracy. Therefore, some scholars point out that public participation is closer in meaning to democracy, believing that democracy is not whether the law allows people to participate in politics, but how much the people do participate in reality. They are two totally different concepts. In many countries, the law allows people to participate in politics and protects their right in this area, but due to various reasons, many people don't involve themselves in the political life in reality.

If a country claims itself to be democratic but most of its people are actually rejected out of the political process, this kind of democracy may be seriously questioned. Democracy means the actual existence of political participation, and to consolidate democracy means to consolidate political participation, or to legalize political participation. Therefore, democracy is not a simple abstract concept, but a combination of concrete actions which should be regulated by laws. This is the theoretical basis for democratic politics. The legalization of political participation is the legalization of various concrete actions, like voting, forming an association, marches, and demonstrations. Democracy can only be achieved when political participation is legalized.

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