The singlemost important requirement for a democracy (of any sort) to be successful is a presumption that reasonable people can disagree. That is, because somebody disagrees does not mean he is stupid or malevolent. Sometimes two or more perspectives may have reasonable validity for a given point of contention.

The second most important characteristic is the ability to reach a reasonable compromise -- accepting that one may not get everything is not a defeat. It is an opportunity to oput-off for another day those thing which one cannot presently achieve in order to gain the good that one CAN achieve.

That is all.