Configurations of Democracy ꟷ Genesis of a Transcultural Theory of Democracy to Measure the Meaning of Democracy

With the increasing interest in the question of the meaning of democracy, the methodological approaches of how to investigate the meaning of democracy appropriate have become more differentiated. This differentiation has to be seen in the context of methodological criticism of the use of top-down strategies in intercultural comparison, which are often of Western origin. Construct bias, method bias and item bias are discussed as particularly problematic in the results. This is especially true if it cannot be ensured that the indicators and survey scales, that are used for an intercultural comparison are equivalent in meaning in the respective regional contexts (van Deth 2013, Harkness et al. 2010, Rippl und Seipel 2008, van de Vijver 2003). In deductive research logic (top-down), different meanings of democracy can be assumed a priori and their existence and dissemination can in turn be measured by different methodological approaches. (Ferrín and Kriesi 2016). Standardized surveys are the established method here. This enables the analysis of the support of different democracy models (e.g. liberal democracy, social democracy) in different spatial and/or temporal contexts. In the inductive approach (bottom-up), the meaning of democracy should be researched as openly as possible and without narrowly defined democracy models. The methodological approaches range from focus groups (King and Wand 2007) and repertory grid (Osterberg-Kaufmann 2016) to content-analytical methods and openly designed measuring instruments in surveys. It allows a deeper understanding of the meaning of democracy and an analysis of its homogeneity and heterogeneity. The combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches should lead to a core concept of democracy that views democracy as a configuration of concepts (e.g. freedom, equality, participation, representation, etc.) and thus overcomes a rigid universalist view without exposing itself to the problem of conceptual stretching at the same time with a complete opening. Thus, following the minimal definition of democracy, there is a consensus that free and fair elections are the minimum condition to describe a political system as democratic. From the perspective of perceiving democracy as a configuration of concepts, the core category of democracy could instead be located on a superordinate level and called participation. These include elections from the liberal-procedural understanding of democracy as well as non-Western forms of participation, such as Therisyano in Botswana or democratic innovations such as consulting. The project focusses on measuring the understanding of democracy, but must be preceded by a theoretical discussion. The aim is to meet the challenge of a mutual dialogue between theory and empiricism and to provide a forum for an open discussion between normative-theoretical and empirical-methodological principles. Therefore we identify overlaps between theory and empiricism and taking into account recent research results. These different principles should give us the broadest and most differentiated access possible to our object of research and lead to the genesis of a global transcultural concept of democracy and a new core concept of democracy.