This is the revised draft of the opening lecture given by the author at the 2004 Conference of Italian Society of Political Science in Padua. In the first section the main definitions of democracy and democratic qualities rule of law, electoral accountability, inter-institutional accountability, responsiveness, freedom and equality/solidarity are discussed. In the second a key question is addressed: if we would like to explain the qualities of a democracy how much are the previous political traditions of the country relevant? Other explanatory factors, which complement the role of an authoritarian legacy, are also suggested and a few key hypotheses are proposed. The final section does not provide any comprehensive explanation, but analyses of the impact of authoritarian legacy in a few countries of Southern Europe, such as Portugal, Spain, and Italy (but not Greece where it is not relevant) and in the Southern Cone as Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, where the quality of contemporary democracies is questioned.