ABSTRACT

It is broadly held that the most desirable form of political organization is democracy. The normative use of the term across a wide variety of political systems appears to confirm the status of democracy, even if its content varies considerably in application. Like motherhood, almost no-one argues against the positive value of democracy, and those few who do invariably either do not enjoy popular support or, if they have political power, base it upon a capacity for patronage or imposition. Given a free choice, the individual members of a political society will invariably choose a political system in which their voice is heard as an equal participant in the political process. It would seem, then, that there is at least a nominal relationship between democracy and political development. The difficulty arises, however, in that the use and often abuse of the term “democracy” has meant that, for many purposes, it has been rendered almost meaningless. This chapter discusses the meaning of the term “democracy” and tries to locate it in a way that corresponds to the most consistent use of the term, thereby establishing an internal conceptual benchmark.