What Does Democracy Mean For You?

In comments to an earlier post on democratic values, Jean Rogers made a good point that discussions on reform must be conducted in terms that are used and understood locally.  CIPE had experienced the limitations that arise in some countries on many occasions – one example is corporate governance: when CIPE started working on corporate governance in the Middle East and North Africa region, there was no official term in Arabic, and much of the discussions focused on saying “corporate governance” properly in Arabic rather than true governance reforms.  More information on developing a term in Arabic for “corporate governance” is available here.

This Moscow Times article (subscription required), picks up on the same point and talks about the meaning of the word democracy in Russian.  For example,  there is sovereign democracy, which means:

the political and economic system made by Russians for the benefit of Russians without any foreign interference.

Now, there are different meanings of “democratic” discussed in the article.  In some cases, it means available to everyone, as the author notes, but in others:

From democratic in the sense of “open to everyone,” it’s just a hop to “affordable for everyone.” В нашем ресторане самые демократичные цены! (Our restaurant has prices everyone can afford, literally “the most democratic prices.”) And then a skip to a synonym for “inexpensive”: Самая демократичная машина! Производители вывели на российский рынок свою самую недорогую модель. (The car for everyone, literally “the most democratic car!” The manufacturers have introduced their most inexpensive model to the Russian market.) And then a final jump to a euphemism for “people with modest incomes”: Мини-отели претендуют на демократичный сегмент рынка. (Mini-hotels are going after the lower-income market segment.)

So, next time you talk to a Russian about a democratic system, keep in mind that the word might be associated with something that is quite different from what you mean by it.  Same goes for other countries.