Abstract
Abstract This chapter overlays democratic theory with a cultural perspective for gaining a deeper understanding of the ideational variety and social interplay in the quest for democratic betterment. Taking the broader concept with the longest historical lines—democratic reform—as a point of departure, Chapter 2 reveals how this can be understood on a deeper level when using and expanding a conceptual framework inspired by the anthropologist Mary Douglas. Revisiting her seminal take on culture as anomaly management and pollution reduction—‘dirt is matter out of place’—democratic reform is understood as culturally-informed cleaning—an alternation of polishing up (institutionalizing) and rubbing out (de-institutionalizing) what is assumed to be proper (in place), respectively improper (out of place), in democracy. Chapter 2 illuminates culturally-inspired positive and negative feedback mechanisms, fundamental to democratic reform, and by extension to more recent expressions framed as democratic innovation.
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