ABSTRACT
I am sure that for most of you this seems to be a crazy question – of course democracy is a good idea! Democracy stands for freedom, equality, fairness and holding political leaders to account, doesn’t it? Well, you’re right, it does, and these ideals are upheld as central aspirations by ordinary people right across the world who struggle against authoritarianism or dictatorships, violence and powerlessness. My aim in this chapter is not to argue against democracy either, but rather to invite you to think a little more deeply and critically about what lies behind the idea ‘democracy’. What kind of political system do we see in our mind’s eye when we say ‘democracy’? Who do we imagine to be a citizen? Which countries do we think can teach the world about democracy and which ones need to learn? As you can tell already, there are a lot of questions to ask and I can’t provide answers for them all. However, learning to ask deeper or different questions of the world is the purpose of studying in the university and elsewhere, and of this book. In this spirit, I hope by the end of this chapter to convince you not to be an anti-democrat but to be a critical democrat.
