Democracy: Terms, Key Concepts, and Political Culture
Terms of Democracy
During the fifties and sixties, some authors assumed that democracy was linked to economic development. The richer a nation was, the more likely it was to establish a democratic regime. However, subsequent research has not confirmed this thesis. It appears that literacy, in the absence of extreme inequalities and the emergence of pluralism, leads to democratic systems. These factors are sometimes, but not always, effects of economic development. It seems reasonable that certain minimum economic conditions are necessary to develop a democratic system. This is not a particularly specific or enlightening thesis. The same applies to social conditions.
The argument put forward by Barrington Moore describes background social conditions of the following type:
- An imbalance between monarchy and landowner aristocracy that turns economics into commercial economic forms and leads to industrialization.
- Weakening of the landed gentry.
- Absence of a coalition between aristocracy and bourgeoisie against the peasant classes or industrial workers.
Such conditions could guide a first approach to the subject. Historical and social factors may promote or hinder democratic regimes, depending on whether the outlined conditions occur. We are in a range of variables so diverse that it is difficult to establish a concrete model of the relationship between social conditions and democracy.
All social processes that work together to promote pluralism and the balance of power, while avoiding the concentration of power in one place, favor democracy.
Lately, definitions of democracy have separated from the pursuit of economic and social conditions to focus on political-cultural terms. Policy is closely linked to the values and beliefs of the people and, therefore, culture. To quote Robert Dahl, a group of values and attitudes could be considered as political-cultural conditions of democracy:
- Belief of the population in the legitimacy of the institutions.
- Minimal belief in the efficacy of the system to solve problems.
- Mutual trust among actors in the political system.
- Willingness for cooperation, agreement, and negotiation.
Key Concepts and Thresholds of Democracy
Democracy is a formula to resolve the political fact of human plurality. It encompasses all forms of particularities and differences between humans. Democracy aims to respect that pluralism and provide a shared area for all where those differences can be discussed; it is a particular and specific solution. If we assume plurality and the need for a solution, it revolves around the idea of tolerance, which may be of many types. Without the tolerance of political opposition and without the conviction of all political actors that if one is defeated, they will not thereby be eliminated, democracy cannot exist.
That is why some authors have warned of the risk involved in political disqualifications, which eliminates any dialogue, negotiation, or compromise. Democracy requires a plurality of options and must be based on the existence of certain minimum standards, such as what John Rawls has called an overlapping consensus among pluralistic conceptions.