https://theloop.ecpr.eu/is-chinese-democracy-democracy/ ECPR's Political Science Blog Tue, 11 Jan 2022 21:05:22 +0000 hourly 1 https://theloop.ecpr.eu/is-chinese-democracy-democracy/#comment-18014 Tue, 11 Jan 2022 21:05:22 +0000 https://theloop.ecpr.eu/?p=5620#comment-18014 Thoughtful, intriguing, and clearly stated. However, we may need to take a step back and think about the conditions in early to mid-20th century Europe and US surrounding the gradual adoption of "democracy" as an analytic not a normative concept. In other words, using the concept to denote an existing regime form, rather than a set of normative requirements.
Using "democracy" in this way ultimately opens the door for a seemingly endless litany of legitimatory roles, robbing the concept of its primarily normative dimensions. A "republic" can be presidential, semi-presidential, parliamentary, but it may or may not be a "democracy". An illiberal regime with republican assertions but no tolerance for dissenting views and no space for a demos-centric public sphere certainly does not qualify. It also strikes me as odd that a number of current discussions choose to ignore the fundamental Greek meaning of the word which, after all, requires a demos that governs itself.
In a nutshell, it is worth exploring the strategies and fields of debate with which and through which regimes strive to present themsleves as "democratic". Several historical studies of illiberal regimes utilizing "democracy" as a legitimatory tool in Southern Europe and Latin America have done just that. This, however, does not justify taking their claims at face value.

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