Democratism
The term democracy is derived from democracy and usually describes a widespread democratic conviction or democratic ethics.
Due to the changing meanings of the term democracy and the associated, different interpretations of democracy, the term was used differently: Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk called democracy a "world and life view" that, with its democratic view of things, the ethical basis of the political system of Democracy forms, Max Scheler called democracy the "philosophical conviction that it is the masses [...] who are the moving and shaping forces as well as the ideological and norm-setting forces in the creation of all possible group forms ".
Today rather seldom, democracy in the Anglo-American area is used in a positive, in German-speaking sometimes in a derogatory meaning. In the Brockhaus it is defined as "an exaggerated application of democratic principles which, however, in reality contradicts the principles of democracy". The Duden describes democracy as a “formalistic exaggeration of democratic procedures”.
Friedrich Nietzsche judged: "Democracy has always been the form of decline of the organizing force: I already described modern democracy and its half-measures, such as the" German Reich ", as a form of decline of the state in 'Menschliches, Allzumenschliches' 1, 318 Friedrich Schlegel , on the other hand, finds the term in positive terms.
Recently, democracy has been increasingly used to characterize a democratic worldview and is understood as a complement to the institutional system of democracy in order to make its ideal principles visible. Gregor Husi & Marcel Meier Kressig, for example, relate the term to the values of freedom , equality and security and understand modernization as the realization of this triad of values . Here is Max Weber's theoretical idea taken up by values achievement and supplemented. According to the historical thesis, since the great European revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries, security has been the third central value that has shaped society, in addition to the values of freedom and equality, which have always been an issue in political philosophy in particular, and has remained to this day. The public discourse after September 11, 2001 only reinforced the correctness of this assessment. Nowadays all areas of life are permeated by these originally political values. It is then “proposed that the modernization theory from now on (and modernization projects still) should be geared towards freedom, equality and security, even if this value triad ... represents a difficult trinity. Modernization then appears as an attempt at liberation, approximation and (insurance) security. Liberation leads to a life in (more) self-determination and self-realization; Alignment ensures the approximation of the living conditions of different people, their life chances and life risks ; and security promises people as far as possible an existence free from fundamental life risks and dangers. ... Modernization always brings forth other modernities, which in turn call for other modernization ”. The focus is less on the difference between modern and post-modern than the conflict between a powerless “rusty modern” and a “self-enlightened, reflective modernity”.
An express lack of democracy, for example, is still found in Germany after the Second World War: “The war and pre-war generation, whose tertiary socialization fell completely into the time of National Socialism or who had been actively committed to National Socialism as early as 1933, blocked themselves mostly violently against the ideas of egalitarian freedom and political autonomy penetrating from the west. The contempt for Western liberalism and democracy was unbroken ”.
literature
- Dalibor Truhlar: Democracy - Philosophy of the democratic worldview. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, 2006, ISBN 3-631-55818-X
- Gregor Husi / Marcel Meier Kressig: The spirit of democracy. Modernization as the realization of freedom, equality and security. Westphalian steam boat, Münster, 1998, ISBN 3-89691-440-5
Individual evidence
- ↑ See “The Oxford English Dictionary, Volume IV” Clarendon Press Oxford 1989, Second Edition, where “democratism” is referred to as “Democracy as a principle or system”. Also: "Webster's Third New International Dictionary" Volume I, G. & C. Merriam Co. 1981, which sees "the theory, system, or principles of democracy" in "democratism".
- ↑ Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk: Russian intellectual and religious history . Volume II, Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 1992, for the first time Jena 1913, XXV "Democracy contra Theocracy"
- ↑ Max Scheler: The spirit and the ideal bases of the democracies of the great nations . (1916) In: Max Scheler: Writings on Sociology and Weltanschauungslehre . Francke Verlag, Bern 1963, 2nd edition, page 158/59
- ↑ Brockhaus Wahrig German dictionary in 6 volumes . Volume 2, Stuttgart 1981
- ↑ Duden, The large dictionary of the German language in 8 volumes . Volume 2, Mannheim 1993, 2nd edition.
- ^ Friedrich Nietzsche: Götzendämmerung
- ^ Friedrich Schlegel: Attempt on the concept of republicanism . (1796) In: Critical writings and fragments . (1794-1797) Volume 1, Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 1988, page 55
- ^ Gregor Husi / Marcel Meier Kressig: The spirit of democracy. Modernization as the realization of freedom, equality and security. Westphalian steam boat, Münster, 1998, p. 433
- ↑ : Hauke Brunkhorst / Stefan Müller-Doohm: Intellectual Biography. In: Hauke Brunkhorst / Regina Kreide / Cristina Lafont (eds.): Habermas manual. Metzler, Munich, 2009, p. 2
