Embedded democracy is a form of government in which democratic governance is secured by democratic partial regimes.[1][2][3] The term "embedded democracy" was coined by political scientists Wolfgang Merkel, Hans-Jürgen Puhle, and Aurel Croissant, who identified "five interdependent partial regimes" necessary for an embedded democracy: electoral regime, political participation, civil rights, horizontal accountability, and the power of the elected representatives to govern.[4] The five internal regimes work together to check the power of the government, while external regimes also help to secure and stabilize embedded democracies.[5] Together, all the regimes ensure that an embedded democracy is guided by the three fundamental principles of freedom, equality, and control.[6][7]