Related Papers
The Original Meaning of "Democracy": Capacity to Do Things, not Majority Rule
any fern
LOST IN TRANSLATION: THE ORIGINAL MEANING OF DEMOCRACY
2017 •
Ziga Vodovnik
The article critically reflects on the main theories of democracy in 'the short 20 th century', ascertaining that the seemingly different and mutually exclusive discussions share a similar sentiment – political agora-phobia and a simultaneous 'privatisation' of the democratic idea, which strengthens the belief that democracy is not universally applicable because it is a matter of a very specific civilisational environment. The author continues by identifying the dissonance between the etymological origin or original meaning of democracy and its understanding today. He concludes that democracy actually never meant the rule (archos) of the people , but was born as an idea foregrounding the power or the capacity (krátos) of the people (dēmos). VODOVNIK, Žiga. Lost in translation : the original meaning of democracy. Teorija in praksa, ISSN 0040-3598, 2017, vol. 54, n. 1, pp. 38-54.
1-The-Contested-and-Expanding-Meaning-of-Democracy.pdf
2018 •
Asafa Jalata
The meaning of democracy has been contested, limited or expanded because it has been culturally situated and changed with changing historical and politico-economic conditions. Historically speaking, democracy can be hierarchical, exploitative and exclusive or egalitarian and inclusive depending on a specific social system. In most cases, the privileges of democracy were not equally shared within a population group or among different peoples, and what was democracy for one group could be slavery, stratification of class and gender, exclusion, oppression, colonialism and dictatorship for others. Starting from ancient times, certain peoples such as Athenians, which were culturally and geographical connected in a limited geographical space began to practice forms of democracy. Such people had the challenge of working with culturally, economically and geographically diverse populations on the principles of democracy, equality, and equity. However, people like the Oromo of Northeast Afric...
DEMOCRACY. A Historical Perspective . words have their own history. For example, in my youth 'gay' meant something quite different from today and 'mouse' had a more restricted meaning. According to a Professor of Philosophy
Michael Levin
, the theory and practice of democracy began with the ancient Greeks. This is also the view of the Greek Tourist Board. The word is theirs, so what did they mean by it? Greek meaning: dēmos 'people' and kratos 'rule'.
PHILOSOPHY AND PUBLIC ISSUES/FILOSOPHIA E QUESTIONI PUBBLICHE
What Did ‘Democracy’ Mean to Greek Democrats?
2019 •
Josiah Ober
What did ordinary Athenians think that demokratia meant? First and foremost, "celebration of joint action."
The Contested and Expanding Meaning of Democracy
2018 •
Journal of Interdisciplinary Sciences JIS
The meaning of democracy has been contested, limited or expanded because it has been culturally situated and changed with changing historical and politico-economic conditions. Historically speaking, democracy can be hierarchical, exploitative and exclusive or egalitarian and inclusive depending on a specific social system. In most cases, the privileges of democracy were not equally shared within a population group or among different peoples, and what was democracy for one group could be slavery, stratification of class and gender, exclusion, oppression, colonialism and dictatorship for others. Starting from ancient times, certain peoples such as Athenians, which were culturally and geographical connected in a limited geographical space began to practice forms of democracy. Such people had the challenge of working with culturally, economically and geographically diverse populations on the principles of democracy, equality, and equity. However, people like the Oromo of Northeast Africa had democracy known as the gadaa system and its subset female institution known as siiqqee and overcame most of these problems through horizontal organization and specific social democratic policies. Some scholars recognize that the meaning of democracy expands when a people within and without a given political community struggle for further expansion of political, economic, and social rights and freedoms. The historical experiences of various democratic societies show that democratic conditions emerged because of internal or/and external political pressures. The paper addresses three major issues: First, it examines the cases of Athenian and Oromo democracies and explains their historical and cultural roots, essence, characteristics and principles. Second, the piece explains why the issue of democracy is open and contested. Third, it illustrates how the meaning of democracy can be limited based on certain sociocultural conditions or how it can expand through struggles, theoretical and practical knowledge, ideological innovations, and institutional and organizational transformations.
The Principles of Democracy
Maseeh Shafi
T he word democracy comes from two Greek words: demos = people and kratos = rule. Therefore. the word means "rule by the people," sometimes called "popular sovereigny." and can refer to direct, participatory. and representative forms ofrule bp the people. Today the word has a positive meaning throughout most of the world-so much so that. to connect themselves with t h s positive image, even some political systems with little or n o rule by the people are called democratic. The following analysis uses a simple model of the key elements of democracy as it exists today:
DEMOCRACY AND ITS PRACTICE: A GENERAL THEORY OF DEMOCRATIC RELATIVITY
Mir Nasim Alli
DEFINING DEMOCRACY Democracy has been defined in various ways by different people including government of the people, by the people and for the people, government with the consent of the governed, and a form of regime that derives from popular sovereignty in which ordinary citizens are endowed with the right and ability to govern themselves. It is my contention that concepts may have real, nominal and operational definitions and democracy is no exception. The real definition is concerned with the true, essential or philosophical nature of the concept. The nominal definition is concerned with what has been agreed upon by society, a particular community or by a researcher that helps to imagine and describe what the concept is. Although the nominal definition can lead to the description of the concept, it may not necessarily lead to its measurement. The operational definition specifies the indicators of the concept to enable its measurement directly or indirectly. Democracy has only one real or essential definition. Other definitions of it arise precisely because there is a difference between the real or essential meaning of democracy and the actual practice of democracy that leads to nominal and operational definitions. While the real, philosophical, ideal or essential meaning of democracy remains the same, the actual practice of democracy may be said to be in the eye of the beholder. The essential or real meaning of democracy derives from two Greek words demos and kratos. Demos means the common people and kratos means rule. Thus, democracy essentially means the rule of the common people. As explained above, any attempt to define it otherwise is a matter of convenience and may have its roots in the difference between what democracy essentially is and how it is practiced. Defining what constitutes the common people and what constitutes rule have both been the subject of much debate. Calling the common people simply, the people, Robert Dahl questioned how the people are designated (Dahl, 1989, p.3) For Rustow democracy has to be preceded by national feeling or a feeling of national unity for "The people cannot decide until somebody decides who are the people."(Rustow, 1970, pp.337-367) At the time of the ancient Greeks, the common people who could take part in political decision making was defined to comprise only a subset of the people as a whole, for children, prisoners, women and slaves were excluded. For the Greeks, the exclusion of certain sections of society from the definition of the common people was reasonable and did not render democratic practice null and void. In modern democratic practice, exclusion of certain sections of
Redescriptions: Political Thought, Conceptual History and Feminist Theory
After Athens - The Genealogy of Modern Democracy
2006 •
Hubertus Buchstein
International Political Science Review
Democracy before Democracy
2000 •
Yves Schemeil
