Countries should explore their own paths to democracy in alignment with their national conditions, enhance national governance and improve their people's well-being, according to scholars who attended an international forum on democracy last week.

From Thursday to Friday, more than 100 guests from over 50 countries and regions, including experts, scholars and representatives of international organizations and the media, joined the dialogue on democracy and national governance during the second phase of the International Forum on Democracy: The Shared Human Values.

They voiced their opposition to a zero-sum mentality, the instigation of ideological confrontation and certain countries acting to maintain their own hegemonies under the guise of protecting democracy.

The definition and practice of democracy vary in different countries and depend on their peoples' lifestyle, culture, location, geography, education and many other things, said Kalyan Raj Sharma, president of the Nepal China Friendship Forum in Nepal.

The experts expressed concerns that some countries are stoking confrontation under the pretext of promoting their so-called democracy.

Michael Dunford, a professor at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, said a particular political and legal system in Western capitalist countries is claimed by these countries to be the only form that democracy can assume and a model that these countries have the right to impose selectively on other countries.

The selectivity indicates that what drives this ambition is not certain values, such as democracy and freedom, but certain interests which these values and principles serve to legitimize, Dunford said.

Many people at the forum recognized China's achievements in practicing its own form of democracy.

The third and final part of the forum will be held from Tuesday to Wednesday.

The event is being hosted by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council Information Office and co-organized by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China Media Group and China International Publishing Group.

Xinhua