THE CULTURAL PRE-REQUISITES OF DEMOCRACY

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This chapter discusses the mentality structures that must be encultured in a population to allow it to sustain stable democracy. Contrary to the mainstream in the literature, I argue that mass support for democracy, as expressed in surveys, is a rather deceptive indicator of a population’s cultural affinity to democracy. The reason is that support for democracy obscures firmly encultured differences in how people understand democracy. These differences in understanding render numerically similar support ratings incomparable across different populations. By contrast, emancipative values—which emphasize freedom of choice and equality of opportunities—base people’s notion of democracy on a similarly liberal understanding of the term. Hence, overt support for democracy is conducive to actual democracy only in conjunction with emancipative values, but not in dissociation from them. In conclusion, emancipative values represent the most important mentality element of a democratic culture.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Oxford Handbook of Political Representation in Liberal Democracies
EditorsRobert Rohrschneider, Jaques Thomassen
Number of pages19
Place of PublicationOxford
PublisherOxford University Press
Publication date06.08.2020
Pages76-94
ISBN (print)9780198825081
ISBN (electronic)9780191863769
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 06.08.2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Oxford University Press.

    Research areas

  • Culture, Democracy, Legitimacy, Values
  • Politics