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Civil Rights
The first two partial regimes of embedded democracy, democratic electoral regime and political rights, need to be supplemented by civil rights  Civil rights are central to the rule of law in an embedded democracy. Merkel defines the rule of law as “the principle that the state is bound to uphold its laws effectively and to act according to clearly defined prerogatives.” The rule of law contains and limits state power.

The core of liberal rule of law lies in constitutional rights. These rights protect individuals against executive and legislative actions that infringe on an individual’s freedom. Independent courts are also an important aspect of the rule of law. Courts need the authority to review the behaviors of the executive and legislative branches. Merkel calls the courts “constitutional custodians of the legislature and supervisors of executive conformity to law.”

Civil rights are negative rights of freedom against the state. Decisions about these rights need to be put out of the reach of any majority of citizens or parliament to prevent a tyranny of the majority. To avoid this, the executive and legislative branches need barriers in place that prevent individuals, groups, or the political opposition from being oppressed by majority decisions. Civil rights are a basic condition of the existence of the concept of citizenship. Individual rights to protection grant the rights of life, liberty, and property- Locke’s description of natural rights.

In an embedded democracy, rights are also established that protect against illegitimate arrest, exile, terror, torture or unjustifiable intervention into personal life. Other basic civil rights include equal access to the law and equal treatment by the law. According to Merkel, “These civil rights tame majoritarian democratic cycles and thereby support-seemingly paradoxically-the democratization of democracy” Securing civil rights creates a barrier against the state infringing on individual freedoms. The guarantee of civil rights alone cannot sufficiently makeup or support a constitutional democracy, because there has to be support from the other partial regimes.

Socio-Economic
If a nation is more socio-economically developed, there is a greater chance that it will sustain a democracy. The evidence supports the link between the economy and democratic sustainability. Arguments against this idea are that economic prosperity is not the only necessary requirement for a successful democracy, nor can economic development be used to predict the permanence of democratization. Merkel gives the example that the United States cannot claim to have a higher quality democracy than Finland’s democracy, even though the United States has a higher GDP per capita.

There is also a connection between inequality and democratic government. When unequal distributions of economic resources lead to wider wealth and income gaps, which in turn lead to more poverty, there is a negative impact on democracy. Hermann Heller stresses a sufficiently homogeneous economic basis among citizens in order to provide for equal participation in the democratic process. Once citizens have reached an adequate social and economic standing, they can form their own independent opinions and participate equally in the democratic process. Scholars agree that real political equality cannot be produced if there is severe socio-economic inequality.

Illiberal Democracy
''See also main article on illiberal democracy

Illiberal democracy is one of the four subtypes of defective democracy. Differentiating illiberal democracies from other types of democracy is difficult. One method used to differentiate is by using numerical thresholds provided by the ‘‘civil rights scale,’’ which is one of two measurement scales used by Freedom House. Every regime with a score of 3.5-5.5 (on a scale of 1-7, with 7 being a completely totalitarian regime) on this scale counts as an illiberal democracy. However, Freedom House does not justify these thresholds, and the scales used are often outdated.

Illiberal democracies are in a weak, incomplete, and damaged constitutional state. The executive and legislative control of the state are only weakly limited by the judiciary. Additionally, constitutional norms have little impact on government actions, and individual civil rights are either partially repressed or not yet established. The principle of the rule of law is damaged, as well, in illiberal democracies. Illiberal democracies are the most common type of defective democracy, constituting 22 of 29 defective democracies as defined by Merkel. Examples of illiberal democracies include many Latin American countries, as well as some countries in Eastern Europe and Asia. The following are illiberal democracies (according to Merkel): Brazil, Bolivia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Thailand, Philippines, Bangladesh, and Nepal.