Demokratie – zwischen Kampfbegriff und Nebelkerze. Was können Sprach-, Medien- und Kulturwissenschaften zur Demokratisierung von Gesellschaft beitragen?

Abstract

Everybody speaks about democracy. In current media discourses, 'democracy' means every-thing and nothing. You can explain war as "democratization" (of Iraq, Afghanistan etc.) just as well as you can call a referendum about fundamental political decisions "terrorism" (like in Greece 2015). Is democracy no more than a buzzword? This contribution explores the rela-tionship between language and democracy both in a descriptive and a normative perspective. What can linguistics, media and communication science contribute to this topic? How does the public spectacle of democracy work? And what is the notion of "democratic speech"?