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Abstract
The concept closest to democracy is freedom. However, in contrast to freedom, democracy is a non-personal concept and totally belongs to the socio-political system. This is what emerges from the use of the word democracy (and related words) in all discourse types.
Citizens of the United States generally value democracy highly as a political. Americans are proud of the level of democracy in their country, although this assessment may vary. In the linguistic worldview of US residents, the concept of democracy is represented through oppositions: 1) positive/negative attitude towards democracy as a type of political system; 2) “good”/”bad” (“insufficient” or “excessive”) democracy; 3) ideal/real democracy. Currently, American society is highly polarized along party lines, and any contradiction “fits” into the conceptual grid of its two-party system associated with democratic (liberal) vs. republican (conservative) views.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/et.2023.35.261
Date of publication: 2023-08-31 13:19:53
Date of submission: 2023-02-18 12:50:22
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