The vexed issue of the meaning of ’ democracy‘

Abstract There are now more ‘really existing’ democracies than ever before, and accordingly more alternative claimants jostling over the real ‘meaning’ of the term. History, culture, and language can all contribute to differences of emphasis over its boundaries, and so contribute to a degree of ‘essential contestability’. But the idea also contains indispensable elements, which provides it with a cutting edge. So how is ‘democracy’ both anchored and floating? A procedural minimum definition is both too imprecise and yet, at the same time, incomplete. A morphological analysis helps explain why, and allows a version of contestability that can be defended against changes of relativism. In addition, at least in the case of ‘democracy’, we can invoke a court of adjudication that polices the boundaries of the concept without ever delivering an irrevocable verdict—the deliberative filter of citizen opinion.