Democracy: A Word to Be Liberated

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay takes a stand against the ideological abuse of “democracy” enabled by the substitution of the original meaning of the word with a far more reductive one. After outlining a brief overview of the word’s history starting with ancient Greece, then the struggle for universal suffrage and the democratic constitutions after WWII, sometimes embedded with significant elements of social democracy, it examines the attack on democracy from the post-war period to the present day, which took place through the practical demolition of universal suffrage, various forms of theoretical attack on democracy, the attack on state sovereignty through globalization and an increased use of “state of exception” after 9/11. The conclusions emphasize the worth of democracy as a value, as a dynamic concept that cannot be reduced to a specific form of government.