Jean-Marc Narbonne, Université Laval
April 1, 2025
It is common to talk about democracy as a certain type of political regime — namely, as a way of organizing the state with specific operating rules, including multiple institutions, commissions and consultation processes. In this way, democracy is considered a system that includes separate bodies of power such as the “legislative,” the “judicial” and the “executive.”
This way of describing democracy is correct and there is no reason to question it. However, speaking about democracy in these terms merely describes its framework or its skeleton. It does not describe the life breath of democracy or the blood that irrigates the system as a whole and sets it in motion.
Just as important, or even more important, is the way of being, or form of life (Lebensform) involved in democratic regimes. The Greeks called this an ethos.
I am a specialist in Greek philosophy and the way in which it has influenced the development of contemporary western democracy and culture. Over the last three decades, I have been constantly revisiting the past and present, the ancients and contemporaries.
Democracy, a shared undertaking
It doesn’t matter how many rules we have if no one follows them. If they are not widely respected, then the structure becomes useless or even inoperative.
Aristotle had already clearly emphasized this requirement in his work Politics:
For no laws, however useful, will be of the slightest benefit […] if the citizens are not accustomed, that is to say, educated in the perspective of the constitution, to live democratically, if the laws are democratic, and oligarchicly if they are oligarchic.
The two key terms here are accustomed and educated in relation to the regime in which one lives. Adhering to the principles of democracy, in theory, is not sufficient. We must also be well versed in its practices, something that requires education and lifestyle habits.
Each of us must contribute to this education, at home and at school, with friends and at work. It is not just the role of the State. There is no master in the field of democracy; it is a shared undertaking.
Here is a very simple example of this requirement, in relation to the exercise of power.
If you democratically obtain power, you rely on the fact that your fellow citizens will not take up arms to take it away from you. Conversely, if I obtain power, I expect that others will not try to take it away from me by force, either.
This is a prior, implicit but fundamental pact. If such a mutual understanding does not prevail, democracy cannot be established, no matter what laws one might want to enact. In its internal functioning, democracy has no defence other than this mutual renunciation of violence, and the search for compromise in one form or another.
Democracy, not easy to establish or export
When we consider the number of countries where this modus vivendi is in place, we immediately get an idea of the places where democracy can actually flourish, and the places where it cannot be established or introduced, at least not easily.
Where to start?
That is the difficulty. If the mutual renunciation of force is not already established, if the habit of resorting to reason and joint deliberation to find compromises is not present, initiating the process can prove difficult, even counterproductive.
This is what the countries that wanted to export democracy all at once — to places with customs far removed from this kind of practice — failed to understand or at least to appreciate. They thought that organizing elections and establishing certain laws would be enough to transform practices. Although the task is difficult, it is not impossible. We have seen several countries gradually become initiated into this way of life and conform to it successfully, such as Japan, South Korea, India and several other countries in South America and elsewhere. There is therefore reason to remain hopeful.
The principle of cumulative wisdom
At the basis of any democracy is the idea that citizens are the centre of gravity of political life. It is therefore necessary to start with them.
The respect owed to citizens implies recognizing their equality before the law, their relative freedom within the group (citizens must not be hostages of the State), their right of access to the various functions (principle of the alternation of offices) and to active participation in the resolution of problems (joint deliberation). The best results will come from a concerted effort by all (cumulative wisdom).
All these elements simultaneously imply a certain way of living and thinking, a global mode of appreciation of things through both the mind and practice. In short, what can be understood as a way of life (Lebensform) in which learning and practice are intertwined, now indistinguishable from each other.
Therein lies, in my view, the beating heart of democracy, and ultimately the true driving force for its survival.
Jean-Marc Narbonne, Professeur de philosophie, philosophie grecque et tradition démocratique, Université Laval
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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.