Democracy Theories

Democracy is a concept that has its roots in ancient Greece. Since that time, political philosophers have derived a variety of understandings of democracy theories and their normative assessments. It is possible, however, to identify a democratic nucleus that is inherent to all democratic theories. Identifying a core concept of democracy allows us not only to clarify our understanding of democracy but also to locate political communication—its importance and functions—more precisely inside democratic thinking.

The family of democracy theories can be structured along three categories: (1) normative foundation, (2) institutional design, and (3) quality of functioning. The first category refers to certain ideal conceptions and finds its expression in versions such as liberal democracy or social democracy (often discussed as procedural versus substantial forms of democracy), strong (participative) democracy, feminist and gender democracy, or deliberative democracy. The second category allows us to differentiate democracies according to their institutional setting, such as parliamentarian and presidential democracies or majoritarian and consensus democracies. The third category distinguishes democracies with respect to their gradual democratic quality, which is assessed by certain standards (such as polyarchy, liberal democracy). Political regimes with lower democratic quality are regarded as defective democracies (e.g., illiberal, delegative, or electoral democracy).

Another common approach differentiates between normative and empirical democracy theories. This divide has its value in two main scientific traditions, which for a long time widely ignored each other. On the one hand political philosophers discussed what democracy should be, and on the other hand empirical researchers looked at existing political systems and analyzed what democracies are. This differentiation has lost most of its tension, because political philosophy is more closely linked to empirical research, and the latter has noticed that the building of democratic standards necessary for the assessment of democracy needs normative reflections, too. Nevertheless it is obvious that we are confronted with different ways of using, building, and testing democracy theories. Besides the different ways to conceptualize the term democracy, democratic theories are trying to answer the following questions:

• 1
  What is the appropriate institutional form of democracy, or how is it possible to improve the quality of democracy? This question marks the search for an ideal concept of democracy and its inherent elements. It affects all three categories (normative foundation, institutional design, and standard of quality).
• 2
  What are the necessary and/or sufficient conditions for the development and consolidation of democracy? [Page 170]This question is mainly the focus of transformation research as well as of theories of modernization and political culture.
• 3
  What are the consequences of democratic rule? What are its effects for the economic and social development, for the integration of societies, and for the generation and resolution of (international) conflicts? This question is treated in different fields of research which include policy research, analysis of societal development, and international relations (democratic peace).

All three questions underline the importance of democratic theories in contemporary social science research. It is impossible to discuss all the aspects mentioned above in just a few pages; therefore, the following discussion picks up the first question and concentrates on an explication of democracy and its relation to political communication.

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