11 Imagining Democracy

Abstract

Democracy is driven and organised by social imaginary significations. It is also a social-historical reality consisting of concrete social institutions with real histories. The core idea or meaning represents the social imaginary signification which animates and organises the project of democracy in its various interpretations and institutional forms. The problem with Keane's proposed non (or no)-doctrinaire justification of democracy is that, on the one hand, it admits as positive attributes of democracy some institutional characteristics that go against the aim of self-determination, while on the other hand the signification of self-determination continues to lurk as an unthematized element underlying the idea of democracy. By tying our image of democracy too closely to what has existed and what currently exists, Keane limits our ability to imagine democracy as something other than the merely real and already achieved. Keywords: democracy; institutional characteristics; Keane; self-determination; social imaginary significations; social-historical reality