to the extent for instance that a political system denies voting participation to part of its society as the south african system did to the 50 percent of its population that was female or as the united states did to the 10 percent of its population that were southern blacks it is undermocratic similarly a system is undermocratic to the extent that no opposition is permitted in elections or that the opposition is curbed or harassed in what it can do or that oppositions newspaper are censored or closed down or that votes are