Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:16:36.299Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Does Democracy “Travel”? Some Thoughts on Democracy and Its Cultural Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2012

James Turner Johnson
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The fundamental question is whether the non-Western world is capable of developing our form of liberal democratic self-government, despite our differences in tradition and culture. The author taps on several critical differences of interpretation of what we consider to be integral to our form of government, such as John Locke's concept of “civil society”; the idea of “pluralism”; and the concept of “inherent human rights” counsel, which have distinctly different meanings in the West compared to those of Central and Eastern Europe. Interestingly, the differences are indicative of the profound cultural and historic differences of the societies engaged in the interpretation and adaption of these ideas. The author is optimistic in the regard of democracy “traveling,” provided that individuals recognize their own identity within the democratic society and acquire practice in exercising their freedoms. In this way, not only will democracy flourish under previously dictatorial regimes, but will continue to persist where it is already established.

Type
Articles
Information
Ethics & International Affairs , Volume 6 , March 1992 , pp. 41 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Locke, John, An Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent and End of Civil Government, paragraph 89. (Hereafter Civil Government.)Google Scholar

2 Barker, Ernest, Social Contract (New York: Oxford University Press, 1962), p. xiiGoogle Scholar, emphasis in text.

3 Locke, Civil Government, paragraph 99.Google Scholar

4 Barker, , Social Contract, p. xiii.Google Scholar

5 Michnik, Adam, Letters from Prison and Other Essays (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), p. 124Google Scholar.

6 Ibid., pp. 108, 110.Google Scholar

7 Elshtain, Jean Bethke, “Sovereignty, Identity, Sacrifice,” Social Research 58 (Fall 1991), pp. 560–61Google Scholar.

8 Walzer, Michael, Spheres of Justice (New York: Basic Books, 1983), pp. 31–42Google Scholar.

9 Miroslawa Marody, “Between Authoritarian Past and Democratic Future,” unpublished paper prepared for a conference on “The Development of Local Democracy,” University of Warsaw, Poland, May 23–25, 1991.Google Scholar

10 Peter Huncik, talk to members of the Local Democracy Project, Rutgers University, December 12, 1991.Google Scholar

11 Webster, 's, Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1989), p. 906.Google Scholar

12 Jacek Tarkowski, “Post-Communist Poland: Toward Pluralism or Atomization?” unpublished paper prepared for a conference on “The Development of Local Democracy,” University of Warsaw, Poland, May 23–25, 1991.Google Scholar

13 Cf. Locke, Civil Government, paragraphs 4–6; Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, Book I, sections I-IV.Google Scholar