Conceptualizing Difference. The Normative Core of Democracy.

After a phase in which the normative ideal of liberal democracy was considered a universal model of success, it is currently losing its appeal as a "cultural export". Using the historically developed positive image of democracy, political elites are increasingly claiming the power to define the content of democracy, both in established democracies and in autocracies. A re-adjustment of the frontiers between democracy and autocracy therefore seems necessary. This requires the development of a transcultural concept of democracy that includes notions of democracy beyond the supposedly universal liberal success model. For this reason, the paper is located at the interface between empirical democracy research and transcultural comparative political theory or Comparative Political Theory (CPT) (Dallmayr 1997, Zapf 2011) and aims at the urgently needed dialogue between these two discourses, which have so far operated separately. The starting point of the considerations is the thesis that the actually prevailing meanings of democracy go beyond the hitherto operationalized understanding of democracy. The meanings of democracy differ from the understanding of democracy in that the understanding of democracy individually describes different representations of a still identical subject matter, which enables a continued uniform measurement. Empirical research has already provided the first findings of these multiple meanings of democracy. Instead of agreeing with the liberal-procedural concept of democracy, which has served as a benchmark in empirical democracy research, citizens in some countries want democratically elected elites to be supported by the expertise of religious leaders or even a military takeover in case the government proves incompetent. Still others reject the equality of all social groups. The question arises here whether these ideas are still considered democratic in essence or not. It is about nothing less than the search for the (new) limits of the concept of democracy and a core meaning of democracy that can claim global validity by doing without the so-called Western democracy bias. Taking these strands of discussion into account, the project pursues an alternative approach. By considering democracy as a configuration, a rigid universalistic view can be overcome on the one hand, without exposing oneself to the problem of conceptual stretching by completely opening up the concept. The fundamental aim of the research project is to investigate the genesis of Configurations of Democracy and to compare the concepts of democracy worldwide. This paper is primarily intended for an in-depth debate on the normative core elements (root concept) of democracy. Thus, following the idea of a possible minimal definition of democracy, there is a consensus that a competitive selection process of the politically acting elites is the minimum condition for characterizing a political system as democratic. But even this minimum criterion does not unfold its democratic effectiveness without the fulfilling of some conditions, which are discussed under terms such as freedom, equality and control. The principles behind these keywords will be used here to attempt to outline and to discuss a globally valid normative core of democracy.