What is Democracy? Different approaches to the concept. Democracy as a Political Regime

Abstract

this paper is the second result (and final) of a more extensive work intended to perform a critical analysis of the concept of Democracy as it is applied in legal and social sciences. As political, legal and philosophical contents developed in many doctrinal studies –and also in concrete political practices– assume a common understanding of the scope of the term, this paper attempts to decode and separate the ideological axiom underlying this concept. It also shows the influence that a deeper and more complex characterisation may have on our idea of political regime, theory of representation, republic, electoral systems, collective decision-making, material equality, political freedom, division of powers, and system of checks and balances.