A Semantic Analysis of Some Translations Of “Democracy” In Africa and Asia

Abstract

Not all languages have a term for “democracy”. For this reason, they resort to translations (Min Zhu in China, Eddembe ery’obuntu in Uganda) or transliterations (Demokaraasi in Senegal, Demokrasya in Philippines). The analysis of linguistic transpositions shows that the meanings attributed to the word “democracy” vary greatly between cultures and, within the same society, between different groups. In this way it is possible to reveal which elements or values have prominence into the community considered. The differences in the way of thinking about democracy are so great that they make it impossible to attribute univocal meaning to the word “democracy”. The aim of this article is to show some cultural reasons for an open conception of democracy, which cannot coincide only with the liberal democratic model - which is a cultural product itself.