Global Meanings of Democracy I: Relation to Democratic Theory

According to Giovanni Sartori the meanings of democracy have typically been obtained in three ways: (1) conventionally, (2) lexicologically and (3) historically. The conventionalists posit the meaning of democracy and justify it on ethical and political or pragmatic grounds. The lexicologists derive their definitions of democracy from reference books or by surveying people. The historians obtain their definitions by examining how the word "democracy" was imbued with meaning over the ages. In this paper I propose a fourth and arguably better approach to understanding democracy's various meanings in the world: the voidist approach. Here the word democracy, or any of its synonyms, is taken to be an empty container. Each polity will, when asked what democracy is or should be, fill that container differently. The paper argues how this is a superior approach to understanding the nature of democracy in a polity and, when scaled up, the variegation of democracy in the world.