In the terms of Schaffer (2016), the ‘elucidation’ of concepts requires the intellectual tasks of grounding, locating and exposing. I have devoted the previous three chapters to describing contrasting storylines of democracy drawn on by activists, democratic leaders and aid workers – the liberal, benevolence and equality narratives. These chapters have firstly focussed on the task of grounding the concept of democracy by examining how key political actors themselves understand democracy and democratisation in Myanmar. The previous three chapters have also focussed on locating these meanings of democracy – tracing out the historical and cultural embeddedness of the narratives and how they have been produced by political actors. It is clear from this grounding and locating of the meaning of democracy that democratic leaders and activists in Myanmar, and their supporters, were not all running toward the same finishing line. Tracing out different narratives, with their origins, overlaps and distinctions, can make the actions and beliefs of Burmese and international political actors more comprehensible.

Having laid these foundations in the previous chapters, this chapter turns to the task of exposing the ways that meanings of democracy are wielded politically by networks of aid workers, activists and democratic leaders in Myanmar. Rather than narratives being neutral or objective, I describe how understandings and communication about democracy are embedded within unequal relations of power.