Varieties of Democracy

The normative principles of democracy can be combined in different ways in theory, and in practical implementations. As Kohler-Koch and Rittberger (2007: 3) have pointed out, different strands in democratic theory do not differ with respect to the basic normative assumptions about democracy’s essence, but in their emphasis on different dimensions of democracy. They are all variations on a general theme. Similarly, the different existing democracies constitute various attempts to implement these general underlying normative assumptions. They have implemented these principles through various formal institutional arrangements and informal practices and procedures. In this chapter, we shall conceptualize and empirically measure this variety within established democracies, using the Democracy Barometer¹ — an empirical tool that has been developed in the framework of the National Competence Centre for Research (NCCR) Democracy. Our analysis is mainly exploratory, an attempt to map out largely unexplored terrain. As we shall show, the existing democracies differ considerably in the way they implement the basic principles. Furthermore, there are trade-offs involved in the implementation of the democratic principle: even though normatively desirable, in the real world it is impossible to maximize all its aspects evenly.