This paper investigates a) the impact of linguistic identities on demos formation in democratic political systems and b) the normative implications of these impacts from a political theory perspective. Democracy is understood as a political system that both constrains and encourages competition between conflicting interests and value-identities for the purposes of social integration. Multilingualism, however, is often seen as a source of especially divisive conflict that some view as beyond the integrative power of democratic process. I argue that multilingualism is a reason for more democracy rather than an excuse for less. The central institutions of democracy, when adequately arranged to accommodate the particularities of multilingualism, are up to the task of constituting a sustainable and stable demos. Belgium and Switzerland are taken as case studies and compared under the following thematic groupings: non-linguistic cleavages; representative institutions; party systems; and uses of direct democracy.
