Democracy as the overall normative concept for society

All democratic countries or societies stand for the basic normative question of how the division of labour between men and women should develop in the (near) future. To answer this, an adequate normative approach has to be formulated for the new model of future society. Figure 3.1 presents a new general normative approach, for which different variants can be formulated, according to the ideological views in society. It is an instrument for the reformulation of the normative basis of society, in line with the development of a new conceptual approach. So, the instrument can always be discussed and adjusted.

The new normative approach differs from the traditional approach, not regarding the choice of basic values as such, but in particular regarding the concrete meaning and relative weight of these values in the overall normative concept. Democracy was a basic value in the traditional model, standing at the same level as other values such as freedom, equality and economic efficiency. As such, democracy strongly referred to the western parliamentary system in politics. During the past few decades, the concept of democracy has been systematically broadened, especially by the increasing application to the daily life of men and women within families, clubs, companies and institutions.

Together with the conceptual approach, the basic normative view has also been changing during the past few decades. To the extent that the conceptual distinction of the activities and the societal sectors became less explicit, the hierarchy of the values has also been questioned. The concept of ‘democracy’ (and ‘democratisation’) has been broadened and has been increasingly used for the daily life of men and women in the different social organisations.

In the new basic model, democracy is seen as the overall normative concept for (the daily life or division of labour within) society, from the micro to the macro level (Kruithof, 1980; Van Dongen, 1993, 1997, 2004a, 2005c; Van Dongen et al, 2001; Van Dongen and Danau, 2003; Gratton, 2004). Democracy is defined as the basic multidimensional normative concept for society that combines a number of basic values to be applied at all levels of society: ‘democracy of daily life’. Democratisation, then, is the realisation of a higher level of democracy in society, that is, a higher level of at least one of the basic values, without diminishing the level of the other basic values.