Spór o kulturowe uwarunkowania demokracji

Abstract

Problems connected with the democratization of societies from outside the circle of European civilization give rise to politically-theoretical doubts and disagreement concerning the socio-cultural conditions of establishing and functioning of democracy. In such dispute, the particularists oppose the universalists, arguing for the strict (in some approaches: indissoluble) connection of democracy, and especially its axiological bases, with the particular cultural context, and, what follows, for the impossibility of its durable correlation with other cultural patterns. A critical analysis of their arguments, however, shows their considerable weakness and limitations, which can be interpreted as supporting the arguments for the universalist attitude. Especially the opinions of theoreticians from outside the Western civilization circle, following this line, are significant in the dispute.