ABSTRACT
Throughout history, the notion has had too many contradictory meanings to allow for any definitive qualifications. With there being so little grounds for understanding democracy in an unequivocal sense, it is remarkable that the term 'democracy' has been the subject of immense attention in pseudo-academic literature in the last few decades. In this chapter, however, history is the source that is adopted for constructing a view of the relation between democracy and governance. Looking at history with an eye on present day debates, might shed light on issues about the evolution of political paradigms. The focus of this piece is only on the eighteenth century and even then it is limited purely to making one specific suggestion about how one might view the relation between governance and democracy. Moreover, in considering eighteenth-century political thought, the chapter presents a sketchy impression of discussions involving ideas of democracy in that age.
