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Enlivening the Concept of Democratization: The Biological Metaphor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2011

Laurence Whitehead
Laurence Whitehead
Affiliation:
Nuffield College, Oxford. E-mail: Laurence.whitehead@nuffield.ox.ac.uk
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Abstract

Mechanical metaphors have colonized the social sciences, including the study of democratization processes. But they may provide a misleading framework for monitoring ongoing “self-equilibrating” social processes with no natural “end state” such as democratization. I propose that modern biology can be consulted as an alternative source of analogical reasoning, offering a more flexible and appropriate stock of metaphors that can enliven analogical accounts of processes of democratization. The shift towards modeling democracy as a living practice permanently directed towards self-preservation and propagation provides a clearer rationale for comparative studies, focussing on the relative “quality” of democracy in different contexts. I begin with a brief sketch of the historical instability and current contestability of most democratization processes; I then examine the morphology of complex political concepts and propose alternative biological analogies to replace the currently prevalent physicalist imagery.

Type
Reflections
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , June 2011 , pp. 291 - 299
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2011

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